they were false! Look here; here I hold your life in my hands!"

She dragged a yellow parchment from a roll of documents, and showed it
to Petros, who, completely subdued, fell upon his knees at her feet.

"Command me!" he stammered, "I obey." Just then a knocking was heard at
the principal door.

"Away!" cried the Empress, "take my letter to the Queen from the
ground, and think over what I have said: patrician if she dies, torture
and death if she lives. Go!"

Galatea pushed the bewildered man through the secret entrance, turned
the statue into its place again, and went to open the great door.

CHAPTER XVIII.

There entered a stately woman, taller and of coarser frame than the
small and delicate Empress; not so seductively beautiful, but younger
and more blooming, with a fresh complexion and natural manners.

"Welcome, Antonina, sister of my heart! Come to my arms!" cried the
Empress to the new-comer, who humbly bent before her.

Antonina obeyed in silence.

"How hollow her eyes have become," she thought, as she rose from the
embrace.

"How bony is the soldier's wife!" said the delicate Empress to herself,
and looked at her friend.

"You are as blooming as Hebe!" she said aloud, "and how well the white
silk becomes your fresh complexion. Have you anything to tell me of--of
him?" she asked indifferently, and took from the wash-stand a
much-dreaded instrument, a sharp lancet with an ivory handle, with
which clumsy, or even only unfortunate, slaves were often pricked by
their angry mistress.

"Not to-day," whispered Antonina, blushing. "I did not see him
yesterday."

"I believe it!" said Theodora to herself, with a hidden smile.

"Oh, how painfully I shall miss you soon!" she added aloud, stroking
Antonina's full round arm. "Perhaps Belisarius will sail next week, and
you, most faithful of all wives, will go with him. Which of your
friends will accompany you?"

"Procopius," answered Antonina, "and--" she added, casting down her
eyes--"the two sons of Boethius."

"Ah, indeed," remarked the Empress, smiling, "I understand. In the
freedom of the camp you hope to please yourself with the handsome
youth, undisturbed; and while our hero, Belisarius, fights battles and
conquers cities----"

"You guess rightly. But I have a request to make. You are fortunate.
Alexandros, your handsome friend, has returned; he remains near you,
and is his own master; but Anicius, you know, is