"'Pida silloin Ares kasilla.' "Ystava", sanoi han vetaytyen hiukan taaksepain. "Me olemme siis liittolaisia. Mekin olemme roomalaisia ja tahdomme vapauttaa Italian ryovareista. Vaisty siis ja salli meidan paasta lapi." "And," interrupted Cethegus, "that is very uncomfortable, is it not? For by knowledge of their motives one can govern men. Well, I am sorry, reverend friend, but I cannot help you. I really do not know myself what my motive is. I am so curious about it, that I would gladly tell it to you--and allow myself to be governed--if I could only find it out. Only one thing I feel--that these Goths are my antipathy. I hate these full-blooded fellows, with their broad flaxen beards. I cannot bear their brutal good humour, their ingenuous youthfulness, their stupid heroism, their unbroken natures. It is the impudence of chance, which governs the world, that this country, after such a history, possessing men like--like you and me--should be ruled by these Northern bears!" "Queen, I have never deceived you in this: that I love Italy and Rome more than the Goths. You will remember that I never concealed it from you." Solchen Besuch eines Bettlers erwartete sie, als ein Mann in braunem Mantel und einer Sturmhaube wiederholt und dringend sie um die Gnade gebeten hatte, sie mochte nicht ihm, sondern einer armen Frau ihres Volkes die Gunst einer Unterredung ohne Zeugen gewahren. Cethegus istuutui ja joi pikarinsa pohjaan saakka. Den Helden Belisarius hatte der geistige Kampf dieser Stunde, der rasche Wechsel von Zorn, Furcht, Spannung und Triumph mehr als ein halber Tag des Kampfes unter Helm und Schild angestrengt und erschopft. Er verlangte nach Erholung und Labung und entlie? seine Heerfuhrer, von denen keiner ohne ein Wort der Anerkennung an den Prafekten das Zelt verlie?. Dieser sah seine Uberlegenheit von allen, auch von Belisar, anerkannt; es that ihm wohl, in einer Stunde den schlauen Bischof vernichtet und die stolzen Byzantiner gedemutigt zu haben. Aber er wiegte sich nicht mu?ig in dieser Siegesfreude. Dieser Geist kannte die Gefahrlichkeit des Schlafes auf Lorbeer: Lorbeer betaubt. "Ha, ha!" said Theodora, in a rage, "you, too, miserable man, are dazzled by the 'born Queen!' All men are fools, still more than rascals! Listen, Petros--the day when the news of her death arrives from Ravenna, you shall be a senator and a patrician." "And Athalaric? Have you ever loved him? Have you not rather loved his right to the throne? Oh, how often have we poor children wept, when we sought the mother and found the Queen!" "Jos sina unohdat voimattomuutesi, taytyy sinua siita muistuttaa. "Invectives are no proof," interposed Sc?vola. "But I ask himself; he shall confess here before us all. Albinus, was it you, or was it not, who, when the existence of our league was betrayed to the tyrant and you alone were accused, looked quietly on and saw the noble Boethius and Symmachus, our confederates, because they defended you against the tyrant, despoiled of their fortune, persecuted, taken prisoners and executed; while you, the really accused, saved yourself by taking a shameful oath that you would never more trouble yourself about the state, and by suddenly disappearing? Speak, was it you for whose sake the pride of our fatherland fell?" In kurzerer Zeit, seufzte der Geschutzmeister, wenn es denn doch sein mu?. Ich habe einen kundigen Mann mitgebracht, der uns viel helfen kann und die Arbeit vereinfachen: er ist ein lebendiger Plan der Stadt. Darf ich ihn bringen?