miss Nicephorus or wonder at his absence. I have sent a trusted
messenger to the lord high chamberlain to beg from his Sacred Majesty
permission to retire from all my offices and leave to enter a
hermitage. And his lord high eunuchship will take good care that his
Majesty grants my prayer. That is how I come to be here. My
sovereign lord Romanus will be glad to be rid of his gloomy
commander-in-chief, and our sovereign lady Theophano will jest about
the surly monster in the blood-stained tunic as she is unrobing with
her maids of honor; and she will finish the epigram she was beginning
to-day."
"What! Did she address thee in public?"
"She beckoned me towards her side as the procession was forming, and
called out, so loud that the wife of Lord Demetrius and others could
hear, 'Wear not so gloomy a countenance, for my sake, lord commander
of the eastern themes, or our loyal Byzantines will fly from the
sight of thee, as they say the Hagarenes so often fly when thy plume
is to the front!' These were her very words--I hear them ringing in
my ears; and then she smiled on me the smile that no man forgets."
"And is it possible that the 'Terror of the Hagarene,' as they truly
name thee, will suffer the idle word of a woman to turn his life, to
break the keenest sword in Christendom, if not to put in peril this
empire of Rome and of Christ?"
"Father, I tell thee it is done. My life as a layman is ended. My
surrender of office is already in the hands of our autocrator. I am
no longer a soldier. I am a postulant for the holy life--in what
remains to me on this earth," he muttered, with a deep sigh.
"Nicephorus, my son in God," said the monk, with solemnity that was
almost stern, "thou art hiding the truth from thy father-confessor.
To mislead the priest in confession is to seek to mislead God
Himself. And He who reads all thoughts and sees to the heart of man
will surely avenge the insult to His servant who is betrayed in his
holy office. Nicephorus, I charge thee, in the name of the Mother of
God, hide not the truth from me as thou canst not hide it from God!
Thou art bewitched by a woman! Who has seduced thee to sin?"
"Father, as I live by bread, I have never sinned with woman, nor has
woman ever sinned with me! My sins, as God knoweth, are sins of
violence and wrath and blood and pride; but of love never, of lust of
the flesh nothing, ay, of self-indulgence, I may say without a boast,
not an hour since I first grew a beard. Monk, I tell thee that of
woman I am as pure as thou--ay," he added, with a bitter word, "much
more worthy of the crown of virginity than are many monks of East and
of West."
"Nicephorus Phocas, palter not with words in this sacred office,"
rejoined the monk, now rising to stern authority in exercise of his
divine mandate, and addressing the great soldier with such power as
he himself was wont to use in giving his orders on the field. "I
said thou art bewitched by a woman. Again I ask thee in confession,
what woman has bewitched thee so to change thy life?"
The chief answered not a word; but he sank down flat on the marble
pavement, and lay prostrate, writhing in agony and shame and despair,
his huge limbs convulsed and his powerful hands clinched in his
passion. A long silence ensued, hardly broken by the sobs and groans
of the chief, as his frame was shaken with a tumult of emotions.
"God gives me no right to grant His absolution till the truth is
confessed and penance is prescribed," said the monk at last, in
measured and solemn tones, and he waited till the storm of feeling
had grown calm.
"Holy father," said the chief at last, rising from the pavement but
still on his knees, his head bowed down and his hands clasped under
him, speaking in a low and broken voice, "my sin is in thought, as
yet known only to God and to my heart. I have done no act of wrong.
I will do no act of wrong. But I am consumed with a fire within me,
and I must be far away from this city of sin--this palace of folly
and lust and vanity--this pandemonium of eunuchs, pimps, and panders.
I must flee from this woman--this new Theodora--this second Irene.
The thought of her haunts me day and night. When she first began to
mock the battered warrior, whose grisly boar's head, she said, might
well be used to frighten the Hagarene babies when they whined, a
thrill went through me--no! not of pain or anger--no! not of
shame--no! rather of pleasure. I found myself waiting in the portico
where she would take the air with her girls and creatures, and she
would pinch my rough cheek and call me Vulcan, looking herself,
indeed, the Goddess of Beauty, as fabled by those pagan poets that
the courtiers still love to recite."
"Well, why this to me?" broke in the monk, in manifest disgust.
"What matters all this to thee or to me? Quit this city of folly and
sin, and be off hence to thy command in the marches of Taurus, to
stop the ravages of the Hagarenes who threaten the people of Christ."
"Thou hast not heard all, holy father, or I should not now be here
and on my knees. I tell thee the woman has seen her power. These
subtle daughters of Eve know by instinct when the sons of Adam begin
to feel weak. The flashing rays from those eyes burn me. They
pierce my eyes with fiery points, as it were when some royal traitor
is blinded by red-hot needles. She smiles triumphant when she sees
me quiver, and, woman-like, she loves to see me quiver again before
her."
"Leave her, and begone to the East," broke in the priest, with no
little impatience and contempt in his voice.
"That I cannot do while I remain an imperial officer of state. She
has her purposes: she means to make me her creature, her tool, her
lover--her--I know not how--I know not what is in her thought. She
despises her own lord; she tempts him to wallow further in the mire
of his harlots, eunuchs, and catamites. She has great designs and
aspiring thoughts. She needs a commander who has the trust of our
troops. Father, I tell thee, she has need of me; and I burn for her.
She knows her power and my shame."
A long pause followed, and neither spoke. The monk meditated in
silence. At last he spoke.
"Nicephorus Phocas, it cuts me to the heart to hear a warrior of high
renown confess to being tempted into the toils of a woman such as
this. I judge it to be a passing madness, which distance and thy own
great duties and labors alone can cure. The monks of St. Demetrius
shall not be poisoned by the presence among them of thy fevered soul.
Thou art not fit in the sight of God and His Mother for the spiritual
life; thou art sorely needed by God and His Son for the martial life.
Rome and Christ can be saved from Mohammed only by thee. Thou hast
sinned against Christ and His Virgin Mother by idly toying with the
imperial temptress. See her no more, but hasten to thy post in the
Anatolian Mountains. There, in thy lonely tent, pray nightly to the
immaculate one for her blessing and pass the day in the saddle among
the scattered outposts of thy menaced command. On this condition
alone can I give thee absolution for thy sin--sin as black in the
sight of Christ and His Mother as if thou hadst been taken in open
adultery and dragged to execution as a traitor. Accept this penance,
or remain unanealed in thy sin and thy shame!"
The silence lasted for a space, till it grew acutely painful to both.
With groans and tears and writhings, the chief at last uttered the
fatal words, "I obey the Holy Mother Church!"
Then the monk rose to his full height; and, with a look of triumphant
authority and a voice of thrilling power, as he placed his long,
thin, emaciated hands on the bare head of the chief, he said: "Christ
absolves thee from thy sin, and accepts thy obedience and service.
Pass to thy appointed command, and do thy duty as a soldier of Rome
and of Christ. I purge thee of thy sins in the name of the Trinity
and of the Mother of God, into whose holy keeping I now commit thee!
Nicephorus Phocas, go in peace, and may God be with thee!"
"I go," murmured the chief, exhausted by his long agony and strife;
"I go to my ruin--to my shame--to my death."
VIII
The Sacred Palace
The gay and luxurious young Basileus was no sooner installed on his
father's throne than he redoubled the riot and debauchery that had
been kept in restraint--or, at least, in concealment--by Constantine
Born-in-the-Purple. Romanus, who had been born in the purple
himself, whose legitimacy as Augustus could not be disputed, while
his personal popularity as a gallant and gracious prince was renowned
far and wide, saw not the slightest reason to curb or to restrain his
excesses. He replaced most of the aged and trusty counsellors of his
father with parasites and favorites of his own; and the revels and
buffooneries to which he gave himself reminded the serious of the
orgies of Elagabalus or Michael the Drunkard. Wrestlers from
Cappadocia, singers and lutists from the Lesbian theatres, boys who
might have stood as models for the Apollino of the Vatican or the
Hermaphrodite of the Louvre, lounged about the koiton of the Basileus
of New Rome. The Basilissa was not much seen in those sacred
precincts; for she troubled herself as little about the Basileus and
his amusements as he did about her and hers. Indeed, women were no
longer welcomed in the harem of the voluptuous Romanus. Theophano
had her own court, her privy purse, her favorites, her eunuchs, her
guards--and her own schemes.
A week hardly passed since the coronation ceremonies when Romanus,
who had prolonged his feast late into the waning day, was surrounded
by his creatures and his scandalous favorites, led on by Chærina, a
disfrocked prelate, and now his coryphæus of the hermaphrodites. He
had just listened to a fescennine song by his favorite buffoon, at
which the parasites sought to surpass the applause of the Cæsar,
when, in the midst of a posture-dance by one of his young athletes,
the parakeimomenos sent his secretary to beg for an audience with the
Basileus.
"Bring him in!" cried Romanus, jovially; "if his Eminence will
promise not to scold. I am never too busy to see my invaluable
Nestor and fidus Achates. And so begone, all of ye! satyrs, fauns,
and young devils who would make a sinner of St. Peter himself."
Romanus, debauched as he was, was neither a fool nor an utter
fribble; and he thoroughly understood that if he was to enjoy his
pleasures and his popularity, he must place the government of the
empire in able hands. Accordingly, he had given his confidence to
the lord high chamberlain, the eunuch Joseph Bringas, whom he created
anew the president of the privy council and of the senate. Joseph,
indeed, was a statesman of consummate ability and vast experience.
Eunuch as he was, he had courage, energy, caution, and profound
knowledge of men and of things. It had long been the tradition of
the empire to intrust the ultimate seals of office and the most
important arcana of state to men who, either by their sacerdotal rank
or the cruel ambition of their parents and sovereigns, were incapable
of succeeding to the purple themselves. Men so prepared from infancy
for confidential employment about the cabinet and bed-chambers of
Basileus and Basilissa were in no way disparaged thereby, but held an
honorable rank almost analogous to that of dukes in modern times.
Joseph was as well qualified to direct the fortunes of the empire as
any one of the many millions within it; and Romanus well knew his
value--how much his own peace, good name, perhaps his throne and his
life, depended on the brain and will of such a statesman.
After the ceremonious reverences by the parakeimomenos on entering
the august presence--reverences which the good-natured Basileus cut
short with a pleasant welcome, "What brings ye here, my lord, with so
gloomy a look--at so unreasonable a season--to disturb our peace?"
"I have grave news from Miletus, most august sovereign, which I
cannot keep from your royal wisdom for an hour. An infidel fleet has
eluded our guardships off Cnidus and Naxos, has swept up the Ægean,
and has stormed and sacked the city of Miletus with horrible outrages
of blood and lust. They have carried away ten thousand girls and
youths into captivity, after massacring their parents."
"From whence do they come, these children of wrath; and how are we to
find them if they have made good their escape?"
"They come from the island of Crete, which they first overran in the
disturbed time of your royal predecessor, Michael the Stammerer, long
before the august dynasty of Basil had mounted the throne. There,
generation after generation, they have established their power,
harassing the Christian people and forming almost impregnable
fortresses and arsenals. They issue thence from its hundred ports,
as you must remember, time after time, sweeping the Ægean Sea up to
the very gates of the Hellespont. You have heard of the terrible
sack of Thessalonica in the age of your royal grandfather, Leo the
Learned. And you must remember the incessant efforts in the late
reign, and finally the disastrous expedition of Gongyles which cut
your father's royal heart to its core, and doubtless shortened his
life. The very existence of this haunt of infidels and pirates is a
menace to the empire, and drains its life-blood, its children, and
its wealth. Our harried people, plundered and decimated, cannot pay
the taxes due from them, and the finances of your Majesty are
distressed. There is just arrived at the capital a young son of the
late governor of the Samian Theme, who has escaped from captivity,
when the flourishing town of Miletus was stormed and laid in ruins.
He saw his gallant father murdered and tortured, his mother defiled
and murdered by these Hagarene demons, and his sisters carried off
with himself to their harems in Candax, their stronghold in the
island. The lad was preserved by his rare beauty for these monsters;
and I crave your Majesty's grace to admit him to your presence, that
you may hear from the lips of an eye-witness the horrors and the
desolation to which the most loyal and industrious of your Majesty's
servants are subject."
"My excellent friend and sweet counsellor, could not this affair of
state be submitted to the wisdom of our privy council to-morrow--or,
indeed, at its next meeting--and perhaps with previous inquiry into
the facts and conditions? And yet--well! if the lad be noble, and
the Antinous you describe (and, by St. Sebastian, these Paynims have
a pretty taste in boys!), why, I might see him at once--if he be
within our palace and presentable at this hour."
With this consent, the politic minister introduced to the presence of
his sovereign the poor lad, who was encouraged to tell his horrible
story and the sufferings of his family. He was, indeed, a youth of
rare beauty and winning artlessness of manner. He still wore the
girl's dress in which he had made his escape from the Saracen harem.
After battling for days in an open boat in which he sailed forth at
night alone, he had been fortunately picked up by a trading-vessel
that brought him into Greek waters. The slight robe he wore had been
almost torn in rags from his graceful limbs, and sufficed to show
that it was no girl, but a stripling of the finest Ionic type. The
terrible life that he had passed of late had given him an energy and
seriousness beyond his years. He spoke with eloquence, fire, and not
a few sobs and tears as he told his awful tale. The voluptuous
Basileus, whose thirst for adventure equalled his enjoyment of
beauty, fixed his eyes on the lad, graciously encouraged him to
speak, and listened with open ears to the thrilling and piteous tale.
Young Glaucus told how peaceful and happy the town of Miletus seemed
one bright Sunday morning, when the churches were full and the
streets were thronged with gay crowds. No one was alarmed when a
fleet of dromons was observed in the offing, treacherously hung with
the imperial ensigns.
Suddenly a startling cry ran through the city when it was discovered
that the ships were not from the imperial fleet, but were Saracen
rovers filled with armed pirates. The boy described the gallant
fight made by his father, who manned the walls with all the available
fighting men--the furious assault by engines and missiles of the
enemy--and their ultimate entrance by an unguarded postern. Once in
possession of the arsenal, the town was given over to fire and sword.
The youth wept as he told of the horrid fate of his father and his
mother, how all that was valuable and precious was torn out of the
houses, how the streets ran with blood, how churches had been burned,
and thousands of citizens who had fled to them for refuge perished in
the flames. For three days and nights massacres continued, the booty
was gathered in the holds of the ships, and a city of fifty thousand
inhabitants had been laid desolate. Ten thousand virgins, young
women, and lads of tender age, among them nuns torn from their sacred
monasteries with the children they had gathered round them, were
collected in the market-place, stripped, inspected, catalogued like
cattle at a fair, and finally put up to public auction and sold to
the highest bidders, a portion both of the fairest virgins and youths
being reserved for the commanders and chiefs.
The Basileus, to whom the more personal and thrilling part of
Glaucus's narrative was as fascinating as a romance, put many
questions to the youth as to all his adventures and experiences, when
the politic minister seized the first opportunity to dismiss the lad
that he might impress the imperial mind with the need of action.
"My sovereign lord," he said, solemnly, "the truth is this--that a
flourishing city, the centre of a most industrious province, is
blotted out from thy royal dominions; its population is destroyed or
dispersed; panic is spread through the islands and seaboard of the
Ægean Sea, and a revenue of fifty thousand pieces of gold is lost to
the imperial treasury. The capital itself is hardly safe; nor can I
or any servant of thy throne answer for its stability while this
cancer is consuming the vitals of the empire."
"You desire, then, most resourceful of counsellors, to increase the
strength and alertness of our fleet in the southern waters. Well, be
it so. Double the fleet at Halicarnassus and Cnidus, station a
second fleet at Cythera, and let both be provided with a new squadron
of cruisers. Oh, best of all parakeimomenoi, thou shalt have an
order for their cost, though I may not buy myself a new Arabian
charger nor a Lydian singer for the next six months. My empire shall
come first, my lord high chamberlain, as I am Roman by name and in
soul!"
"We know the glorious spirit that animates the heroic line of Basil,
Leo, and Constantine," broke in the wily eunuch, "but the need of the
hour is far more serious than your Majesty conceives. The story
brought by this eye-witness of the latest disaster, which has just
been so vividly told to your grace, makes it clear that no vigilance
or force in the fleet can restrain the audacity of these Saracens, so
long as they can issue at will from their arsenals in Crete, and can
in a night's voyage betake themselves to this secure stronghold after
every raid on our coasts. After Crete is again our own, we shall
restore to Rome all that the Hagarene has wrested from thy royal
ancestors. Most gracious Lord Basileus, thy throne is in peril while
Crete is in the power of the False Prophet and his unbelieving crews
of pirates. Crete must be Cæsar's, or Constantinople will not remain
his own forever!"
"Crete, Crete! most inconsistent of lord privy councillors, have you
not told me even to-day that Crete is impregnable to our forces by
land or by sea; and is not that the answer which I and my father
continually have received when we insisted on having it conquered by
our arms?"
"By our forces as now or lately they have been organized, Crete was
and is practically impregnable; nay, it would be madness to attempt
its reconquest by any forces that your Majesty now has on foot. But
by an adequate force, by an irresistible fleet and an invincible
army, such as the empire can yet equip, Crete can be, shall be,
retaken. Nothing is impregnable that Rome and Cæsar resolve to
subdue!"
"And thou hast just told me, my lord-of-short-memory, how the boasted
expedition of Gongyles ended in disaster, and how cruelly it wounded
my royal father and his kingdom."
"The expedition sent forth by thy royal father, great as it was, was
not adequate for its tremendous task. It will be my case to equip a
fleet and an army which will be ample--even for the formidable work
of storming Candax and restoring Crete to the empire of Rome."
"And where shall we find the commander who is to succeed in the task
in which thy illustrious predecessor Gongyles so egregiously failed?"
"It is just in that, my august sovereign lord, in which I plant my
trust. Rome has still one invincible soldier to whom no mission is
impossible. The entire equipment, strength, and numbers of the fleet
and the army to be raised must be intrusted to one man, and that man
must have absolute command and undivided authority by sea and on
land, and the right to give orders of every sort, as if he were Cæsar
himself."
"And that man is--?"
"Nicephorus Phocas, O king of kings, the general-in-chief of the
orient themes--he who never yet failed his sovereign lord."
"Ho! ho! ho! My most incomprehensible of privy councillors," broke
in the Basileus, with a ringing laugh, "what has converted your
sagacity to the fierce Armenian hero? We thought ye were anything
but friends. And stanch as I know him to be, and inestimable in the
Anatolian marches, is it not tempting his virtue too much if we give
him our sovereign authority without a limit, and place him in
effective command of the whole resources of our state--and that
within a day's sail of our Byzantine capital? No, my lord
parakeimomenos, never will I put temptation such as this in the way
of any man, were he the archangel Michael with his sword drawn! I
have said it. Send your Belisarius off to the Saracen frontier--and
place a good month's march between him and us."
"The reconquest of Crete, my august lord and king, will take
Nicephorus far enough away, and will occupy him long enough; and,
indeed, may expose him to death and disaster, even more than the
Saracen frontier. Nicephorus Phocas we all know to be the one great
officer of the empire who is incapable of treason as he is of fear.
And has not the infallible eye of my lord Basileus perceived that the
temptations of Nicephorus Phocas lie not in the power he commands nor
in the themes he controls, but rather they are within the Sacred
Palace itself, and in the light that shines upon him there?" added
the eunuch, in his most subtle and insinuating tone.
"Ah!" cried Romanus, quickly, as a frown crossed the joyous and
beautiful face of the young Cæsar, "thou counsellest me to find
employment for this Hercules of mine lest he prove himself
troublesome at home in sheer wantonness of heart and lack of heroic
occupation. My lord high chamberlain, we understand you at last--we
thank you and commend your frankness. Would that your colleagues of
our council were equally vigilant and outspoken. My lord, we will
hear more of this. Come to-morrow with the rest of our privy
council. This matter is critical and urgent." The Basileus spoke
with a seriousness and a dignity which he had not shown in the long
interview, and as became an emperor of Rome.