ocably acquired. The documents are yours."

The ambassador then dismissed his friends, who hoped soon to see him
again in Ravenna with the imperial army, and went to his chamber, where
he at once despatched a messenger to Belisarius, ordering him to invade
the country. Then he wrote a detailed report to the Emperor, which
concluded in the following words:

"And so, my Emperor, you seem to have just reason to be contented with
the services of your most faithful messenger, and the situation of
affairs. The barbarian nation split into parties; a hated Prince,
incapable and faithless, upon the throne; the enemy surprised,
unprepared and unarmed; the Italian population everywhere in your
favour. We cannot fail! If no miracle occur, the barbarians must
succumb almost without resistance; and, as often before, my great
Emperor appears as the protector of the weak and the avenger of wrongs.
It is a witty coincidence that the trireme which brought me here bears
the name of _Nemesis_. Only one thing afflicts me much, that, with all
my efforts, I have not succeeded in saving the unhappy daughter of
Theodoric. I beg you, at least, to assure my mistress, the Empress, who
was never very graciously disposed to me, that I tried most faithfully
to obey all her injunctions concerning the Princess, whose fate she
entrusted to me as her principal anxiety during our last interview. As
to the question about Theodahad and Gothelindis, by whose assistance
the Gothic Kingdom has been delivered into our hands, I will venture to
recall to the Empress's memory the first rule of prudence: it is too
dangerous to have the sharers of our profoundest secrets at court."

This letter Petros sent on in advance with the two bishops, Hypatius
and Demetrius, who were to go immediately to Brundusium, and thence
through Epidamnos by land to Byzantium.

He himself intended to follow in a few days, sailing slowly along the
Gothic coasts of the Ionian Gulf, in order to prove the temper and
excite the rebellion of the inhabitants of the harbour towns.

He would afterwards sail round the Peloponnesus and Eub[oe]a to
Byzantium, for the Empress had ordered him to travel by sea, and had
given him commissions for Athens and Lampsacus.

Before his departure from Ravenna, he already calculated the rewards he
expected to receive at Byzantium for his successful operations in
Italy.

He would return twice as rich as he had come, for he had never
confessed to the Qu