ricum! That has not been heard
of for sixty years. And the King has sworn to return every year until
he has peace--or Byzantium! Since he won Corcyra and the Sybotes, he
stands upon the bridge of your Empire. Therefore, as God has touched
the heart of this King, as he offers peace at a moderate price--the
price of what he has actually gained--we beseech you, in the name of
your trembling subjects, and of your smoking towns, to conclude a
peace! Save us and save Byzantium! For your generals Belisarius and
Narses will rather be able to stop the course of the sun and the
blowing of the wind, than to stay King Totila and the terrible Teja."

"They are prisoners," said the Emperor, interrupting the reader; "and
perhaps they speak in fear of death. Now it is your turn to speak,
venerable Bishop of Thessalonica; you, Anatolius, commander of Dodona;
and you, Parmenio, brave captain of the Macedonian lancers. You are
safe here under our imperial protection, but you have seen the
barbarian generals. What do you advise?"

At this the aged Bishop of Thessalonica again threw himself upon his
knees, and cried:

"O Emperor of the Romani, the barbarian King, Totila, is a heretic, and
accursed for ever, yet never have I seen a man more richly endowed with
all Christian virtues! Do not strive with him! In the other world he
will be damned for ever, but--I cannot comprehend it--on earth God
blesses all his ways. He is irresistible!"

"I understand it well," interposed Anatolius. "It is his craft which
wins for him all hearts--the deepest hypocrisy, a power of
dissimulation which outdoes all our much-renowned and defamed Grecian
cunning. The barbarian plays the part of a philanthropist so
excellently, that he almost deceived me, until I reflected that there
was no such thing in the world as the love which this man pretends,
with all the art of a comedian. He acts as if he really felt compassion
for his conquered enemies! He feeds the hungry, he divides the
booty--your tax-money, O Emperor!--amongst the country people, whose
fields have been devastated by the war. Women who had fled into the
woods, and were found by his horsemen, he returns uninjured to their
husbands. He enters the villages to the sound of a harp, played by a
beautiful youth, who leads his horse. Do you know what is the
consequence? Your own subjects, O Emperor of the Romani, rebel to him,
and deliver your officers, who have obeyed your severe laws, into his
hands. Th