use the knowledge he
had gained? Even when quite recovered from the fever, Marcian did not
venture to go forth, lest an enemy should be waiting for him without.
In his weak, dejected and humbled state he thought of the peace of a
monastery, and passed most of his time in prayer.

But when a few days had passed without event, and increasing strength
enabled him to think less brain-sickly, he began to ask whether he
himself had not peradventure been betrayed It was a long time since he
had seen Heliodora, who appeared to be making no effort for the
conquest of the Greek commander; had she merely failed, and lost
courage, or did the change in her mean treachery? To trust Heliodora
was to take a fool's risk; even a little wound to her vanity might
suffice to turn her against him. At their last meeting she had sat with
furrowed brows, brooding as if over some wrong, and when he urged her
for an explanation of her mood, she was first petulant, then fiery, so
that he took umbrage and left her. Happily she knew none of his graver
secrets, much though she had tried to discover them. Were she
traitorous, she could betray him alone.

But he, in the wreck of his manhood, had uttered many names besides
hers--that of Basil, from whom he had recently heard news, that of the
politic Leander, those of several nobles engaged in the Gothic cause.
Scarcely could he believe that he had been guilty of such baseness; he
would fain have persuaded himself that it was but a memory of delirium.
He cursed the subtlety of Pelagius, which had led him on till
everything was uttered. Pelagius, the bosom friend of Justinian, would
know how to deal with plotters against the Empire. Why had he not
already struck? What cunning held his hand?

Unable at length to sit in idleness, he tried to ease his conscience by
sending a warning to Basil, using for this purpose the trustworthy
slave who, in many disguises, was wont to travel with his secret
messages. This man wore false hair so well fixed upon his head that it
could not attract attention; the letter he had to deliver was laid
beneath an artificial scalp.

'Be on your guard,' thus Marcian wrote. 'Some one has made known to the
Greeks that you are arming men, and for what purpose. Delay no longer
than you must in joining the King. In him is your only hope, if hope
there still can be. I, too, shall soon be in the camp.'

These last words were for his friend's encouragement. As soon as the
letter had