After years of
bitterness, her triumph seemed assured. It was much to have
inherited from her father, to have expelled Petronilla; but the
marriage of Basil with a Goth, his renunciation of Catholicism, and
with it the Imperial cause, were greater things, and together with
their attainment she foredreamt the greatest of all, Totila's
complete conquest of Italy. She saw herself mistress in the Anician
palace at Rome, commanding vast wealth, her enemies mute, powerless,
submissive before her. Then, if it seemed good to her, she would
again wed, and her excited imagination deigned to think of no spouse
save him whose alliance would make her royal.
Providential was the coming of the holy Sisinnius. Beyond doubt he
had the gift of prophecy. From him she would not only receive the
consolations of religion, but might learn what awaited her. Very
slowly passed the hours until the reappearance of the black monk. He
came when day was declining, and joyfully she learnt that Sisinnius
permitted her to visit him; it must be on the morrow at the second
hour, the place a spot in the ilex wood, not far away, whither the
monk would guide her.
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