ised the galley of the ambassador, hoisted the purple standard,
as a sign to lay to.

Very soon a messenger from the Empress came on board the galley. It was
Alexandros, the former ambassador to the court of Ravenna. He showed to
the captain of the galley a writing from the Emperor, at which the
captain appeared to be much startled; then he turned to Petros.

"In the name of the Emperor Justinian! You are condemned for life,
convicted of long-practised forgery and embezzlement of the taxes, to
the metal-works in the mines of Cherson, with the Ultra-Ziagirian Huns.
You have delivered the daughter of Theodoric into the hands of her
enemies. The Emperor thought you excused when he read your letter; but
the Empress, inconsolable for the death of her royal sister, revealed
your former guilt to the Emperor, and a letter from the Prefect of Rome
proved that you had secretly planned the murder of the Princess with
Gothelindis. Your fortune is confiscated, and the Empress wishes you to
recollect--" here he whispered into the ear of Petros, who was
completely stunned and broken by this terrible blow--"that you
yourself, in your letter, advised her to get rid of all the sharers of
her secrets."

With this, Alexandros returned to the _Thetis_, but the _Nemesis_
turned her stern to Byzantium, and bore the criminal away for ever from
all civilised community with mankind.

CHAPTER VIII.

We have lost sight of Cethegus ever since his departure for Rome.

During the events which we have described, he had been extremely active
in that city, for he saw that things were coming to a crisis, and
looked forward with confidence to a favourable result.

All Italy was united in hatred against the barbarians, and who could so
well direct this hatred as the head of the conspiracy of the Catacombs,
and the master of Rome?

For now he was so in fact. The legions were fully formed and equipped,
and the fortifications of the city--the works of which had been carried
on for the last few months night and day--were almost completed.

And, as he thought, he had finally succeeded preventing an immediate
incursion of the Byzantine army into Italy, the greatest calamity which
threatened his ambitious plans. He had learned, through trustworthy
spies, that the Byzantine fleet--which, till now had been anchored off
Sicily--had really left that island, and sailed towards the African
coast, where seemed occupied in suppr