door, and soon there burst into the chamber the gigantic form of the
parakeimomenos. The eunuch Bringas had now placed himself at the
head of the chief officials and members of the council of state. He
brought Michael, the chancellor of the exchequer; Symeon, the chief
secretary; Sisinnios, the head of the senate; magistroi, patricians,
protospathaires, basilikoi, with a strong force of ushers and palace
guards. The physicians proved the death of the emperor, and closed
his eyes. Theophano, at the first sound of the interruption, had on
her part summoned from her private apartments her own creatures,
secretaries, chamberlains, and guards. The two factions now
confronted each other, ranged on opposite sides of the imperial
couch, whereon lay the yet untended corpse of the Basileus, Bringas
at the head of the council of state on the one side, Theophano on the
other side, holding in her hands the last testament of the dead king.
"As parakeimomenos, grand chamberlain of his late Majesty, and
president of the council of state, it is my right to order the
ceremony for the burial of our late lord Romanus, and, furthermore,
to provide for the urgent needs of this empire of Rome until the
accession of our young Basileus," said Bringas, in a voice of proud
command. "You, madam, for whom our late revered sovereign has made
no written provision, as I am authorized to declare, may withdraw to
the apartments reserved for the secluded widowhood of the relict of
an autocrat of the Romans."
With a will as strong and a voice as clear, Theophano replied: "Here
I, as Regent of the empire by the last will of my late beloved lord
and emperor, summon the council to receive my commands. There is no
great chamberlain of any dead man. The death of an emperor dissolves
his council of state. Here is the testament of my lord Romanus,
signed by his own hand, as these secretaries and lawyers who were
present at the execution of it will testify on the sacred Gospels and
the ikon of the Mother of God." And with a look of triumph and
defiance Theophano held aloft the scroll, and in a firm voice read it
aloud to the amazed and hesitating throng.
"A forged document!" shouted Bringas. "I know that no such testament
exists. Its authenticity must be proved by something more than
Gospels and ikons. Let us have this document, madam, and it shall be
duly examined by the judges of the law."
The eunuch and his party advanced to wrest the parchment from the
empress by force, when a new interruption arose, and another large
party entered the chamber. It was the patriarch Polyeuctus, bearing
the miracle-working crucifix from the high altar of the Holy Wisdom,
with his canons and acolytes carrying the host. He had hastened to
the palace on the news of the agony of the emperor, and was
profoundly shocked to find that he had arrived too late to administer
the last rites. In words of passionate grief the venerable prelate
deplored the terrible calamity which had fallen on the royal house by
the sudden death of the Basileus, unhouselled, unanealed, in his
sins. He bitterly reproached both factions, who stood beside the
untended corpse of their sovereign, contending for mastery. He
listened to the claim of Bringas, he inspected the testament which
Theophano still held in her clutch, and he suffered two scribes to
swear on the ikon that they had heard the emperor dictate the words
and had seen him sign it with his own hand.
"My children, my daughter, princes, senators, and officers of Rome,"
said the venerable patriarch, "it will bring down on us and on this
empire the judgment of God and His Son, that we should strive for
power among ourselves, while the unanointed body of our late lord
lies here in its abandonment. Our first duty is to provide for the
funeral rites. As to the succession to this throne, the regency of
the empire, it is the appointed task of the senate and patricians to
ordain these in due course of law and custom. The senate has been
convoked and is now about to meet. Thither let those who have the
right to sit in it repair. As I hurried past the Augusteon hither, I
saw the streets filled with excited crowds of citizens. I would warn
you both, who stand here in contention such as this city will not
witness with any patience, that we heard no shouts of 'Long live the
venerated Augusta!' nor of 'Long live the lord great chamberlain!'
The only name that now echoes through our city, where men congregate
and speak, is the name of Nicephorus Phocas, the ever-victorious
general of the eastern armies."
The keen intellects of Theophano and of Bringas at once perceived all
the risks of a popular revolution in the midst of a disputed
succession; and both factions admitted the force of the patriarch's
appeal, as well as the imminent peril to the state and to their own
lives, if the government remained unsettled for another hour. At the
meeting of the senate, which immediately followed, the eloquence and
authority of the patriarch succeeded in securing a settlement which
was in the nature of a compromise. Theophano was duly installed as
regent during the minority of her two sons, but she was forced to
accept the mighty eunuch and his confederates, the late ministers,
and to reappoint them to the offices they held. Bringas saw himself
thus invested with practical mastery of the state, while the
patriarch and the majority of the senate supported the demand of the
regent, that Nicephorus should be retained in supreme command as
grand marshal of the east.
The duel between Theophano and Bringas was only withdrawn from public
view; it was carried on as fiercely as ever. The Regent despatched
messenger after messenger to the general to hasten his return to the
capital. The eunuch, on his side, was exerting all his arts to keep
the great soldier on the frontier and secretly to put him away. At
the next meeting of the council, which the woman was unable to
attend, prostrated as she was by the desperate efforts she had made
in her delicate condition, the wily Bringas thus spoke:
"Lords of the council and ministers of state, our first duty after
providing for the funeral of our late sovereign, the august autocrat
now with God, will be to secure the throne of his infant children,
the Basileis, to whom the succession falls of right and by his own
device. Their rights are menaced by many enemies, both without and
within the realm, perhaps not least by the disordered ambition of one
who ought to be their most disinterested friend. But of all the
disordered ambitions by which this empire is beset, the danger most
urgent and imminent is to be found in the far east. A fortunate
soldier, intoxicated with the favor of his emperor and--may we not
say?--the smiles of his empress, has seduced the giddy populace of
this city to welcome him as their idol and prepare to raise him to
the very purple itself. I hold the evidence of this conspiracy to
bring about a revolution and proclaim him as Basileus. The
government, the dynasty itself, stands on the edge of an abyss. His
triumph would mean confusion in this city, exile,
confiscation--death, no doubt--for each of us. My lords, I propose a
peremptory order to Nicephorus Phocas to prosecute the war towards
the east, and not to come west of the Anatolian theme on pain of
attainder and death."
"If this evidence is made public," said Michael, "the people will
soon forsake their favorite and justify the precautions we take."
And the councillors seemed ready to accept the proposal.
The wily eunuch saw his opportunity, and sought to push it home.
"Indeed, my lords," he said, with an insinuating tone, "it would be
wiser perhaps if we went further and secretly named some illustrious
soldier with authority to supersede and arrest so dangerous a man.
The late reigns of our autocrats Constantine Born-in-the-Purple, and
his son, Romanus, have introduced a dangerous laxity towards treason.
Time was when a popular general, suspected of rebellion, was seized
and deprived of his eyesight. Methinks we should all feel our heads
safer on our shoulders if the hero of the hour were treated as was
Belisarius when he was degraded by the great Justinian, or as another
Phocas who was justly put to death by our ancestors."
But here the eunuch overshot his mark. The arch-priest of St. George
of the Stoudion vehemently protested against such language as applied
to the victorious chief who had laid Islam low; and the rest of the
council dreaded the fury of the people if the hero were sacrificed by
his rivals. The council parted; nor could Bringas obtain from it
anything more than a peremptory order to Nicephorus to prosecute the
war to the borders as far as the Tigris and the Euphrates.
The astute minister was not easily beaten from his purpose, knowing,
as he did, that his hold on power, and perhaps his liberty and even
his life, depended on the issue. Profiting by the enforced absence
of the regent, whose exertions had brought on a dangerous collapse,
he inveighed at every council, in public and in private, against the
ambitious schemes of the great commander of the east, and he opened
secret negotiations with officers on the general's own staff. These
intrigues were countermined and reported to Nicephorus by agents of
Theophano, who spied out all the machinations of the eunuch. He and
his partisans still believed the general to be preparing for a fresh
advance into Syria; they were sitting in council in the privy chamber
of the cenourgion and considering a new scheme to isolate Nicephorus
from his friends, when loud shouts were heard in the streets and
squares, and even from the palace itself could be seen a crowd of
small craft and boats under the very walls of the Boucoleon Port. A
chamberlain burst into the council-hall with the tremendous news that
Nicephorus himself was in the act of landing from the Asiatic shore
and was actually making his way to the palace by the new basilica
built by the Emperor Basil I.
"Our agents have played us false, then," stammered Bringas, "in
keeping his journey secret. But he cannot have brought his army, or
even a division of it, without our knowledge."
"My lord," said the chamberlain, "we have certain intelligence that
he has hurried hither by forced posts--alone, or with only a few of
his personal followers."
"The Lord has delivered him into our hands!" shouted Bringas in
triumph; "we will have him seized as a traitor and a rebel before he
can rouse the city or gather an armed force. Put out his eyes, and
he will give no more trouble!" And the swarthy countenance of the
eunuch glowed with a fierce gleam, as a beast of prey that has seized
his victim. The roar of the populace outside grew louder and nearer,
minute by minute, and more than one councillor shrank from signing
the order which Bringas had already got prepared for the executioners
whose duty it was to blind prisoners with red-hot needles.
Suddenly the door of the hall was thrown open, and Nicephorus Phocas,
in the military uniform of his service, burst in upon the council,
attended only by his faithful Digenes and three or four other
officers.
"In the name of our sovereigns, the Basileis, I order the arrest of
this traitor and rebel! He is conspiring against their throne, and
is defying the command of the state to remain on the Asian frontier.
Guards, seize that man and bind him fast! I answer as lawful
authority for this order!" said Bringas, in a voice of thunder.
"I am no traitor nor rebel!" said Nicephorus, proudly, with slow and
measured utterance. "I come here as magistros and grand domestic of
the eastern armies to swear allegiance to our young Basileis, and to
their mother, the lawful regent by the will of our late emperor. I
come to claim my right to a public triumph for my victorious
campaigns in Syria against the infidel, and I come to claim my right,
by the will of our late lord, to be invested as general-in-chief of
the armies of the east."
"The pretexts of a traitor!" cried Bringas, fiercely. "Guards, do
your duty and seize this rebel!"
Nicephorus stood almost alone in the midst of a hostile council of
his enemies, supported by ministers of the state and by a strong
armed force. Fearless as he was, the general now felt that his
precipitate act had driven him into a veritable den of wild beasts
thirsting for his blood.
Again the door opened, this time on the side of the empress's
apartments, and Theophano appeared, pale as death, and hardly able to
stand, with a proud gleam in her royal eyes. She was borne along by
chamberlains, and attended by her own officials, and by those members
of the council of state on whom she could count. She calmly moved
towards the imperial throne and took her seat as president--empress
and regent by undisputed right.
"My lords," she said, with dignity, "the general of the eastern
armies is here by our imperial summons, to take the oath of fealty to
myself as regent and to my sons, the Basileis, to be duly invested in
the great command which my late lord committed to him, and to present
to the people, as of old, the triumph in the Hippodrome for the
victories by which he has justified his title to that high office."
"Surely, madam," the eunuch broke in, "the triumph should be
adjourned until the campaign of the east is concluded. The accursed
Chamdas is still unbroken. He yet holds his inner fortress of
Aleppo, and it is to be seen if he will not be soon as formidable as
ever."
"My lord great chamberlain and lords of the council," replied the
regent, "the victories that the marshal of the east has won are the
most glorious of which Rome can boast since the ages of our
ancestors, Heraclius or Justinian, of pious and immortal memory.
Crete has been restored to our empire after lying for a hundred and
fifty years under the iron heel of the infidel. The spoil, the
wealth, the stores that are the prize of war exceed anything ever yet
seen in New Rome. The boundaries of the empire have been moved again
east to the rivers of Mesopotamia. No captain since Belisarius has
ever won such renown, and, let me remind you, such popular favor and
trust. We must decree him the triumph that is his of right; for let
me warn you that to refuse it, while the city is wild with excitement
and our bravest troops are making their cantonments resound with
shouts for their 'ever-victorious commander,' would be to imperil the
security of our state, to shake the dynasty to its foundations, and,
indeed, to risk the very lives of those who are known to be his
public enemies." And she turned with a dangerous flash in her eyes
upon the eunuch. "And for the loyalty of the lord general, my
lords," she added, "I myself, Augusta and regent, am ready to answer."
Here the roar of the vast crowds around the palace, and shouts borne
over sea and land, of our "Ever-victorious Nicephorus Phocas!" joined
to the powerful and indeed unanswerable appeal of the empress, made
the council waver, and drove dismay into the soul of Bringas. He
dared no longer to resist openly, and made politic excuses while he
signed the orders for the installation of the chief as generalissimo
and for his immediate celebration of the triumph.
"The council has risen," said Theophano, in her grandest tone, "and
the ceremony of homage to ourselves and to our sons and the
installation of the grand domestic shall take place forthwith in our
privy chamber," and she beckoned imperiously to Nicephorus to attend
her at once.
Homage and installation were duly performed according to the
ceremonial of that most ceremonious of courts. All were at last
dismissed, but a secret message from the empress recalled the general
to a private interview alone in her own cabinet.
He fell on his knees, and, seizing her hand in his, he kissed it with
passion. Looking up to her with all the fervor with which he had
ever invoked the Mother of God in his prayers, he murmured: "My
queen, my savior, my good angel, you have saved my life and my honor!"
"I have saved your life, indeed, and at the risk of my own. I may
die of this battle for your sake, but I shall die with joy. My hero,
my lord and master, you and I are henceforth one. We will rule Rome
together, side by side, or die in each other's arms."
Then Theophano bent down to the hero, as he knelt at her feet; she
threw her bare arms round his neck and printed on his brow a long,
melting, fervid kiss, which thrilled through the veteran to the
marrow of his bones.
At this moment the curtain over the door of the cabinet was half
pushed aside by a massive arm in an embroidered robe. Bringas had
ventured to make a last appeal to the Regent, and had suddenly sought
her in her privy cabinet.
Standing behind them, himself unseen, he watched the embrace, and
stealthily withdrew without a word. It burst on the astute mind of
the eunuch like a thunderclap how it was that he had been outwitted
and rebuffed. He saw his own danger, and the forces arrayed against
him. He was no longer dealing merely with the intrigues of a woman
and the ambition of a soldier. He saw that the man and the woman,
who of all Rome had the greatest influence, were now bound together
in love as well as in policy. He felt how strong was the combination
against him, but it made him more fiercely resolved to win in the
strife.
The wild excitement of the great city would not suffer the triumph to
be delayed beyond the days required to bring across from Asia picked
detachments of the victorious army, the principal prisoners of war,
and the trophies, spoils, and standards. The ceremonies began with a
solemn Pannychid--a succession of magnificent Te Deums chanted in the
great church continuously all through the night, in presence of a
crowd of dignitaries, senators, officials, soldiers, and prelates,
adorned in state robes, amid a blaze of lamps from a thousand
chandeliers, while the ladies of the court crowded into the galleries
beneath the mosaic domes of the Holy Wisdom. Then took place the
triumph itself, on a scale even more magnificent than that which
Nicephorus had celebrated on his return from Crete. From the country
round, and from the towns on the Thracian and Asian shores and on
both sides of the Bosphorus, masses of people poured in, so that the
enormous city was one continuous throng from Golden Horn to Golden
Gate. From early dawn the vast procession of troops on foot and on
horse, of prisoners in chains, camels, horses, trophies, and gold and
silver vessels, was extended along the "middle" street, which had
been decorated for the occasion with wreaths, flowers, tapestries,
flags, and Byzantine, or what we now call "Venetian," masts.
At length the Hippodrome was reached. On its tiers of seats up to
the marble colonnades were seated one hundred thousand spectators in
gala dress, according to their rank. The cataphracti or mailed
cuirassiers came first, and were followed by detachments of
light-armed bow-men from the Anatolian mountains, and Macedonian
shield-men in close phalanx. After them advanced Thracian and
Albanian spearmen, wild Scythian Cossacks, and at last a corps of
Varangian battle-axe foot-soldiers of the guard. Next were led
detachments of the finest Arab chargers, taken from the stable of
Chamdas's own palace, with their brilliant trappings, arms, and
accoutrements of gorgeous tones and Oriental fantasy of ornament.
Then came the camels taken from the Saracens, bearing the
embroideries, standards, pennons, carpets, tents, kettle-drums, and
trumpets, with the general spoil of variegated colors and in confused
mass. A wild shout arose from the benches on either side as the
Hagarene captives in white tunics were driven forward; and, as they
were forced to prostrate themselves in the dust before the imperial
balcony, the whole circus, at the signal of the precentors of the
factions, broke out into the ceremonial chant as ordained in the book
of rites:
"Glory to God who has given us this triumph over the children of
Hagar! Glory to God who has laid in the dust the cities of the
Saracens! Glory to God who has confounded those who mock at the
Mother of God!
"By the just judgment of God our enemies have been thrust down! The
horse and his rider hath He cast into the sea!
"Thy right hand, O Lord, hath become glorious in power. Thy right
hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
"Who is like unto Thee, O Lord; who is like Thee, glorious in
holiness, doing wonders?
"Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed!
"The Lord shall reign forever and ever!"
So the Te Deum rang, led by the trained choirs of the factions, each
under their musical directors. The entire audience of the circus
joined in, and the familiar chant was taken up by the vast crowds
outside the Hippodrome, until from some hundred thousand voices in
unison the song of triumph was borne across the waters far away.
It was a scene that combined the barbarous splendors of a triumph by
the Scipios and Cæsars of old Rome, the fierce exultation of the
tribes of Israel recorded in the book of Exodus, and the majestic
pomp of a Te Deum celebrated as a religious rite with all the fervor
of the Orthodox Church.
The long procession of the trophies and spoils of the Saracens of
Syria and Aleppo was closed by that trophy which, to the people of
Byzantium, outweighed in value all the gold and silver, the gems, the
embroideries, the Damascene arms, and the enamels. This was a
silver-gilt and jewelled case containing battered fragments of the
camel's-hair tunic of St. John the Baptist. This inestimable relic
had fallen into the hands of the infidel on the capture of the Holy
City by Omar. For more than three centuries it had remained in the
hands of the Hagarenes. The recovery of this precious relic had
seemed to the delighted populace a glory to be placed beside the
restoration of the true cross to Jerusalem by the Emperor
Heraclius.[1]
[1] This holy tunic of the Baptist was kept reverentially in
Constantinople for 240 years, when it became the prize of the Latin
conquerors in 1204, and was carried off by Robert de Clari to the
abbey of Corbie.
As the last notes of the chant died away, the hero of the hour was
seen to enter the Hippodrome from the Forum of Constantine, from
whence the roar of the people had already reached the expectant
crowds in the circus. Nicephorus, in his golden panoply, covered
with the crimson military cloak, stood in the brazen chariot of state
which was drawn by four milk-white chargers led by grooms on foot.
As he advanced slowly round the vast circus, the shouts of the
assembly broke out with a frenzy of cheers; and the choirs took up
the chant again: "Long live the ever-victorious commander! Son of
God, give him many happy years! Son of God, strengthen his arm in
battle! Son of God, give the victory to this Thy people of Rome!
Long years to our Basileis, whose loyal servants we are! May this
holy empire of Rome be preserved forever and ever!"
With these prayers to Heaven resounding in the great amphitheatre,
the victorious marshal advanced to the eastern end, at which stood
the cathisma, or imperial tribune, where Theophano, in her robes of
state, blazing with gold brocade and jewels, sat between her two
infants, the joint Basileis, Basil II. and Constantine VIII., as they
were destined to become. The milk-white chargers were reined in and
the car was halted at the foot of the stairs. Then Nicephorus,
escorted by chamberlains and officers, both military and civil,
stepped from his chariot and ascended the staircase to the imperial
throne. There he ungirt his sword and laid it at the feet of the
empress; and, prostrating himself on the ground, he offered his
homage by kissing the fringe of her robe and by placing his hands
upon the knees of the two wondering royal children.
Amid thunders of applause from the vast arena and renewed chants of
"Long life to the ever-victorious commander! Long years to our
august Basileis! God preserve this holy empire of Rome!"--the
soldier rose to his feet. His queen beamed down on him from her
jewelled throne with looks of mingled love, triumph, and admiration,
that burned into his inmost soul. And as he retreated slowly
backward from the royal presence he saw the cruel glare of envy and
hatred which Bringas and his partisans cast on him. The smiles of
the queen and the scowls of the ministers were alike full of warning
and charged with destiny. If the hatred of the mighty statesman was
a menace to his life, the favor of the sovereign seemed to summon him
to mount to a dizzy and perilous height.