ds which the Persian King had presented to Belisarius after the
last peace; a very costly present, for it was seldom that the attempt
to tame these leopards succeeded, and many hundreds of cubs which had
been caught or born in confinement, were obliged to be killed as
useless after being trained for years. The large, beautiful, and
powerful animal--it easily became wild when it tasted warm blood while
hunting, and had therefore been left at home stretched itself
luxuriously, like a cat, upon the folds of Antonina's dress, played
with her ball of gold thread, waved its tail, and sometimes rubbed its
round and clever-looking head against the feet of its mistress.

A slave entered and announced a stranger--he had arrived in a modest
litter, and was dressed in a common mantle--the door-keeper would have
refused to admit him, as the master was away, and the mistress received
no visitors, but he would not be denied; he ordered them to announce to
Antonina "the conqueror of Pope Silverius."

"Cethegus!" cried Antonina.

She grew pale and trembled.

"Let him in at once."

The influence which the powerful intellect of Cethegus had gained upon
her the first time of their meeting; the recollection that, when her
husband, Procopius, and all the leaders of the army, had helplessly
succumbed to the priest, this man had conquered and humbled the
conqueror; of how, at the entrance into Rome, the fight on the bridge
of the Anio, the defence of Rome Against Witichis, in the camp of
Ravenna and at the taking of that city, he had always and everywhere
kept the upper hand, and yet had never used his superiority inimically
against her husband; how nothing but misfortune had followed any
neglect of his warnings; how all his counsels had been victorious in
themselves--these recollections now confusedly crossed her mind.

She heard the footsteps of the Prefect, and hastily rose.

The leopard--pushed roughly aside and disturbed in his comfortable
sport on account of the intruder--rose with a low growl, and looked
threateningly at the door, gnashing his yellow teeth.

Cethegus, before entering, drew the curtain violently aside and thrust
forth his head, which was covered by a cowl. The abrupt movement must
have either frightened or irritated the leopard. When the Persian lion
and tiger tamers first began to break in a newly-caught animal, they
were accustomed to envelop themselves and cover their heads with long
woollen cloaks. Possibly