Cethegus

“ Then--it is my office to tell the Emperor every morning how the Empress has passed the night--then--I will strike the tyrant in the midst of his slaves!"
"Madman!" cried Cethegus, in real terror--for he now wished to keep Justinian alive and in power--"to what has remorse and a planless and dissolute life brought you? No! the son of Boëthius must not end as a murderer. If you wish to atone in blood for your inglorious past--then fight with my legions! Purify yourself in the blood of the barbarians, shed, not by the dagger of the murderer, but by the sword of the hero!" ”

“ Farewell, Cethegus! Do not let your dismissal disquiet you. I fear that you will be menaced with many a troublesome process when the war is ended. You have many enemies, rightly and wrongly. There are bad omens against you. But I know that from the very beginning you have believed in only one omen--'The only omen'----"
"'Is to die for the fatherland!' Grant me one more favour, Narses. Allow me--for my Isaurians and tribunes are in Rome--to gather round me all the Italians and Romans whom you have divided among your troops, and lead them against the barbarians." ”

“ He gently drew near and took Amalaswintha's relaxed hand.
"Rise, noble lady, you belong to the living, not to the dead."
She looked up, startled.
"You here, Cethegus? What seek you here?"
"A Queen!"
"Oh, you only find a weeping mother!" she cried, sobbing.
"That I cannot believe. The kingdom is in danger, and Amalaswintha will show that even a woman can sacrifice her sorrow to the fatherland."
"She can!" replied the Queen, rising. "But look at him. How young! how beautiful! How could Heaven be so cruel!"
"Now, or never!" thought Cethegus, and said aloud: "Heaven is just, severe; not cruel." ”

“ He looks very insignificant. Shall he lay down his arms?"
"No," answered Cethegus. "We do not fear the barbarians. Let him in."
The slave went, and Cethegus laid his right hand upon the dagger in the bosom of his tunic.
A stately Goth entered, the cowl of his brown mantle drawn over his head. He now threw it back.
Cethegus started forward in astonishment.
"What leads the King of the Goths to me?"
"Softly!" said Witichis. "No one need know what we two transact. You know that yesterday and to-day my army has entered Rome from Regeta. You do not know that we leave Rome to-morrow!" ”

“ He was followed by Cabao, the leader of the Moorish mounted archers, who cried:
"Constantinus is dead! You must represent him."
"I represent Belisarius," said Cethegus proudly. "Take five hundred Armenians from the Appian Gate, and send them to the Porta Portuensis."
"Help--help for the Appian Gate! All the men on the ramparts are shot dead!" cried a Persian horseman, galloping up. "The farthest outwork is nearly lost; it may yet be saved, but with difficulty. It would be impossible to retake it!"
Cethegus called his young jurisconsult, Salvius Julianus, now his war-tribune. ”

“ Oh that I could call you back from the demoniac path, which will only lead you to destruction! You know that I ever loved and honoured you. But what I hear whispered of you by Greeks, Goths, and Romans, is not in tune with this reverence."
"What do they whisper?" asked Cethegus proudly. ”

“ You will not desert the man who, after centuries of helplessness, has again taught the Romans how to fight and conquer. Whoever will stand by Cethegus and the Capitol--let him raise his sword."
But not a blade was seen.
"Hunger is a more powerful god than the Capitoline Jupiter," said Cethegus contemptuously.
A centurion stepped forward.
"It is not that, Prefect of Rome. But we will not fight against our fathers and brothers who are on the side of the Goths."
"I ought to keep you as hostages for your fathers and brothers, and when they storm the bulwarks, throw to them your heads! ”

“ Who would have thought then that we should ever be able to count upon our fingers the day when not a single Goth would be left to tread Italian soil?"
"You are right, poet," said Cethegus with a smile; "these two friends of ours suffer from 'Narses-fever,' as their hero suffers from epilepsy. To over-rate one's enemy is also a failing. The holy remains upon which those priests have sworn, are really sacred to them; they will not break such an oath." ”

“ Queen. Rome is not less dear to me than to you. And if the next assault fail--they must renounce the siege, be they never so tough. And this Queen, is your doing. Let me this night--perhaps the last on which we meet--reveal to you my wonder and admiration. Cethegus does not easily admire, and where he must, he does not easily confess it. But--I admire you, Queen! With what death-despising temerity, with what demoniac cunning you have frustrated all the plots of the barbarians! Truly, Belisarius has done much--Cethegus more--but Mataswintha most. ”

“ At last on the right side, and against the barbarian King!"
"He must not escape alive!" growled the Corsican.
"What? How? He still lives! I thought that--he had fallen," said Cethegus hastily.
"No; they managed to rescue him after he was wounded."
"He must not live!" cried Cethegus. "Then you are right! It is of more importance than to win Taginæ. Narses can manage that heroic work from his litter. He has seventy to one. Up, Furius! Why do your horsemen stand idle here?"
"The animals cannot ride up the walls!" ”

“ She followed reluctantly, nodded to the priest at parting, looked once more at Cethegus, who appeared not to observe her inward emotion, and went out, slightly shaking her head.
Cethegus sat down again and emptied his cup of wine.
"A strange struggle in this woman's nature," remarked Silverius, and sat down by Cethegus with stylus, wax-tablets, letters and documents.
"It is not strange. She wishes to atone for having wronged her husband by avenging him," said Cethegus. "And that she can accomplish this by means of her former lover, makes the sacred duty doubly sweet. ”

“ The feeling against the barbarians had made such progress amongst all Italians, that Cethegus could entertain the project of striking a blow without the help of the Byzantines, as soon as ever Rome was sufficiently fortified.
"For," he repeatedly told himself, "all foreign liberators are easily summoned, but with difficulty discarded."
Musing thus, Cethegus reposed upon his lectus. He laid aside Cæsar's "Civil Wars," the leaves of which he had been turning over, and said to himself:
"The gods must have great things in store for me; whenever I fall, it is like a cat--upon my feet and unhurt. ”

“ He was evidently surprised when I answered that you preferred to witness here the destruction of the Goths."
"Well," said Cethegus, "where, then, is this terrible Narses, the great statesman! Even my friend Procopius sadly over-rated him, when he once named him to me as the greatest man of the time."
"The greatest man of the time is--some one else," cried Licinius.
"It was natural that Procopius should give the palm to the superior enemy of his Belisarius. But one almost ought to take advantage of the clumsy blunder made by the 'greatest man,'" continued Cethegus reflectively. ”

“ But let us go down upon the ramparts; the fight begins," said Cethegus.
"Hildebrand has reached the trench."
"There stand my Byzantines, under Gregorius. The Gothic archers aim well. The ramparts become thinned. Massurius, bring up my Abasgian archers, and the best archers of the legions. They must aim at the oxen and horses of the battering-rams."
Very soon the battle was kindled upon all sides, and Cethegus remarked with rage that the Goths progressed everywhere. ”

“ While the red current was yet flowing, he gave the weapon to Cethegus, and he did likewise, passing it in his turn to the conspirator who stood beside him, and he in like manner to the next, till each one in his turn had shed his blood into the bowl, which now mantled to the brim with a foul and sacrilegious mixture, the richest vintage of the Massic hills, curdled with human gore. ”

“ Witichis tried to lift his hand to give an order--but his arm fell, faint and powerless. Cethegus saw it.
"Now!" he cried; "now let us assault!"
"No; halt!" thundered Belisarius. "He who lifts his sword is the Emperor's enemy and dies! Back to the camp--all. Now Ravenna is mine! To-morrow it will fall without a struggle."
His troops obeyed him and drew back.
Cethegus was in a fury. He alone was too weak to oppose the order. He was obliged to yield.
His plans were ruined. He had wished to take the city by storm in order--as he had done in Rome--to take possession of its principal defences. ”

“ I shall accompany Belisarius and Antonina, and I will try, in the contemplation of their complete reconciliation and happiness, to forget the disgust, doubt, and vexation with which all human affairs have filled me."
CHAPTER XII. Cethegus sprang from his seat, tossed the letter down, and hastily paced his tent.
"Feeble creature! and weak-minded Cethegus! to vex yourself that another soul is lost to you! Had you not lost Julius long before you killed him? And yet you still live and strive! And this Narses, whom all fear as if he were God and devil in one--is he, then, really so dangerous? ”

“ Swear to me only one thing: the freedom of the Roman Church--free choice of a Pope."
"Certainly," said Cethegus; "but first Silverius must have become Pope. So be it."
The priest departed with a smile upon his lips, but with a weight upon his mind.
"Go," said Cethegus, after a pause, looking in the direction taken by his three visitors. "You will never overthrow a tyrant--you need one!" ”

“ I have been his master," continued the speaker, turning to the assembly: "I tell you that he can measure his strength against any foe; and whom old Hildebrand declares capable of bearing arms is considered so by all the Goths."
Loud applause from all the Goths present confirmed this assertion. Again Cethegus would have put in his word, but a movement behind the curtain drew his attention away. "It is one of my greatest enemies, but who?" he thought.
"There is yet an important matter to make known to you," again began the King with a hasty glance at the niche, which did not escape Cethegus. ”

“ Marcius Rex will be ordered from the city, with his cohorts, to Capua, or Apulia, or the Picene district; for in all these, the slaves will rise, so soon as my Eagle soars above the Appenine. The heart of the city will then lie open to your daggers."
"And they shall pierce it to the core," cried Cethegus.
"Wisely you have resolved, my Catiline, as ever," said Longinus Cassius. "Go, and success sit upon your banners!"
"Be not thou over slow, my Cassius, nor thou, Cethegus, over daring. Temper each one, the metal of the other. ”

“ Wisand, the standard-bearer, advanced furiously against Cethegus; their blades crossed; sparks flew from shield and helmet; but Cethegus cleverly parried a too hasty stroke, and before the Goth could recover himself, the broad blade of the Roman had entered his thigh. Wisand tottered. Two of his cousins bore him out of the fight.
His brother, Ragnaris of Tarentum, now attacked Cethegus, but Syphax, running up, caught the well-thrust spear in his hand, and before Ragnaris could let fall the shaft, and draw his axe from his belt, Cethegus stabbed him in the forehead. ”

“ It was to the first of these persons that Cethegus applied.
As he took the well-known way to the King's apartments, he found all the Goths and Romans whose rank or importance had procured them admittance, scattered in groups about the halls and corridors.
In the once noisy banqueting-hall the young leaders of the Gothic hundreds and thousands stood together, silent and sorrowing, or whispering their anxious inquiries, while here and there an elderly man--a companion-at-arms of the dying hero--leaned in the niche of a bow-window, seeking to hide his ungovernable sorrow. ”

“ What sayest thou, my Cethegus?"
"That thou art a sluggard, a fool, and a coward; curses! curses! curses upon thee!" And he made an effort to rush against his comrade, as if to strike him; and, when the guards seized him and dragged him back, he shook his fist at Cicero, and gnashed his teeth, and howling out, "Thou too! thou too shalt die proscribed, and thy country's foe!" by a sudden effort cast off the men who held him, and crying, "Slaves and dastards, see how a Roman noble dies," rushed, with his head down, at the solid wall, as a buffalo rushes blindly against an elephant. ”

“ They have sworn only to open their gates to the Prefect of Rome.' 'Well, and then?' asked Anicius. 'Well', they know, and they knew then, that now the Prefect of Rome is called--Narses. To me, not to him have, they sworn!'"
Cethegus threw himself upon his couch and hid his face in his purple-hemmed mantle. No loud complaint issued from his heaving chest.
"Oh, my dear master!" cried Syphax, "it will kill you! But I have not yet finished. You must know all. Despair will give you strength, as it does to the snared lion." ”

“ Cethegus trembled at the thought that he might see an energetic man unite the strength of the whole nation. And often the traits of sublimity which occasionally were to be seen in Amalaswintha, and, still more, the fiery sparks of repressed feeling which sometimes blazed out in Athalaric's soul, caused him serious uneasiness. ”

“ Cethegus rolled the papyrus together, tied it with a string of red bast, fastened the knot with wax, and pressed his amethyst ring, engraved with a splendid head of Jupiter, upon it. Then he touched a silver eagle which protruded from the marble wainscoting of the room; outside, upon the wall of the vestibule, a bronze thunderbolt struck upon the silver shield of a fallen Titan with a clear bell-like tone. The slave re-entered the room.
"Let the messenger have a bath; give him food and wine, a gold solidus, and this letter. To-morrow at sunrise he will return to Neapolis." ”