us! The Goth deprived me of Julius--Belisarius
deprives me of Procopius! Who will deprive me of Cethegus, my oldest
and last friend? No one. Neither Narses nor Fate. Away with you,
Procopius, out of the circle of my life! Almost too lachrymose,
certainly too long, is the funeral speech which I have held over you.
What else does the dead man say?"

And he continued to read:

"But I write this letter, because I wish to close our long
friendship--to which you have put an end by your treacherous attack
upon my hero, Belisarius--with a last sign of affection. I wish to warn
and to save you, if it yet be possible. Seven letters which I sent you
have evidently never reached you, otherwise you would not still be
dwelling in the camp of Narses, as his army-reports affirm. So I will
entrust this eighth letter to my slave, Agnellus, a fisherman's son
from Stabiae, where you are now encamped. I will give him his freedom,
and recommend this letter to him as my last commission. For, although I
ought to hate you, I still love you, Cethegus! It is hard to abandon
you, and I would gladly save you. When, shortly after your departure, I
returned to Byzantium--already on the way the news of the arrest
of Belisarius (on account of treachery!) came upon me like a
thunderbolt--I believed at first that you, like the Emperor, had been
deceived. In vain I tried to gain a hearing from Justinian; he raged
against all who had ever been united in ties of friendship to
Belisarius. In vain I strove to see Antonina by every means in my
power. She was strictly guarded (thanks to your hints) in the Red
House. In vain I proved to Tribonianus the impossibility of treachery
on the part of Belisarius. He shrugged his shoulders and said: 'I
cannot comprehend it! But the proof is striking; this senseless denial
of the visits of Anicius. He is lost!' And he was lost. The sentence
was pronounced; Belisarius was condemned to death; Antonina to
banishment. The Emperor mercifully _mitigated_ the sentence of
Belisarius into banishment--far from Antonina's exile--the loss of
sight, and confiscation of his property. This terrible judgment lay
heavy upon all Byzantium. No one believed in the guilt of Belisarius
except the Emperor and the judges. But no one was able to prove his
innocence, or change his fate. I was resolved to go with him into
banishment; the one-armed with the blind. Then--and may he be blessed
for it for ever!--his great enemy, Narses, saved him! He