Petrus----"

"Or a Roman republic, a State of the Church----"

"In which the Bishop of Rome is master, Italy the principal country,
and the barbarian kings in Gaul, Germany, and Spain the obedient sons
of the Church. All very fine, my friend. But first the enemy must be
annihilated, whose spoils you already divide. Therefore let us drink an
old Roman toast: 'Woe to the barbarians!'"

He rose and drank to the priest.

"But," he added, "the last night-watch creeps on, and my slaves must
find me in the morning in my bedchamber. Farewell!"

With this he drew the _cucullus_ (hood) of his mantle over his head and
departed.

His host looked after him. "A very important tool!" he said to himself.
"It is a good thing that he is only a tool. May he always remain so!"

Cethegus walked away from the Via Appia in a north-westerly direction,
towards the Capitol, beneath which, at the northern end of the Via
Sacra, his house was situated, to the north-east of the Forum Romanum.

The cool morning air played refreshingly over his brow. He threw open
his mantle and deeply inflated his strong broad chest.

"Yes, I am a riddle," he said to himself. "I join in a conspiracy and
go about by night, like a republican or a lover at twenty. And
wherefore? Who knows why he breathes? Because he must. And so I do what
I must. But one thing is certain, this priest may--perhaps must--become
Pope; but he must not remain so long, else farewell my scarcely-avowed
thoughts, which are yet but dreams and cloud-mists. Perhaps it may be
that from them will arise a storm that will decide my fate. See, it
lightens in the east! 'Tis well; I accept the omen!"

With these words he entered his house.

In his bed-chamber he found a letter on the cedar table before his bed,
tied with a silken string, and sealed with the royal seal. He cut the
string with his dagger, opened the double waxen tablets, and read:

"To Cethegus Caesarius, the Princeps Senatus, Marcus Aurelius
Cassiodorus, Senator.

"Our lord and king lies on his death-bed. His daughter and heiress,
Amalaswintha, wishes to speak with you before his end.

"You are to undertake the most important office in the kingdom.

"Hasten at once to Ravenna."

CHAPTER V.

Over the King's palace at Ravenna, with all its gloomy splendour and
inhospitable spaciousness, lay an air of breathless anxiety.

The old castle of the Caesars had suffered many disfiguring chan