t, for a moment, believed it possible.
Besides, you will bring proofs in writings and just now, forsaken as he
is by the Franks--the water is up to his neck--he will snatch at any
straw. Therefore I, also, do not doubt of success. Only make sure of
Antonina----"

"That shall be my care. At mid-day I hope to enter Ravenna as an
ambassador."

"Good--and do not forget to speak to the lovely Queen."

CHAPTER XVIII.

At mid-day Procopius rode into Ravenna.

He carried with him four letters: the letter of Justinian to
Belisarius, the letters of the King of the Franks to Cethegus and
Belisarius, and a letter from Belisarius to Witichis.

This last had been written by Procopius and dictated by Cethegus.

The ambassador had no suspicion of the mood in which he should find the
King of the Goths and his beautiful Queen.

The healthy but simple mind of the King had begun to darken, if not to
despair, under the pressure of continual misfortune. The murder of his
only child, the terrible wrench of parting from his beloved wife, had
shaken him to the very soul; but he had borne it all in the hope of
securing victory to the Goths.

And now this victory obstinately tarried.

In spite of all efforts, the state of his people became more hopeless
every month. With the single exception of the battle fought and won on
the march to Rome, fortune had never smiled upon the Goths.

The siege of Rome, undertaken with such proud hopes, had ended in a
woeful retreat and the loss of three-fourths of the army. New strokes
of fortune, bad news that followed each other like rapid blows,
increased the King's depression, until it degenerated into a state of
dull despair.

Almost all Italy, except Ravenna, was lost. Belisarius, while yet in
Rome, had sent a fleet to Genoa, under the command of Mundila the
Herulian, and Ennes the Isaurian. The troops had landed without
resistance, had conquered the sea-ruling harbour of Genoa, and, from
that point, almost all Liguria.

Datius, the Bishop of Mediolanum, himself invited the Byzantines to
that important city. Thence they easily won Bergomum, Comum, and
Novaria.

On the other side, the discouraged Goths in Clusium and the half-ruined
Dertona surrendered to the besiegers and were led prisoners out of
Italy.

Urbinum, after a brave resistance, was taken by the Byzantines; also
Forum Cornelii and the whole district of AEmilia by Johannes. The Goths
failed to r