Go in peace!'
Bessas rose, impatient to have done with business. In the little
hippodrome, hard by, an entertainment had been prepared for this
afternoon: female equestrians were to perform perilous feats; there
was to be a fight between a man and a boar; with other trifles, such
as served to pass the time till dinner. In the entrance hall waited
messengers from Ravenna, who for hours had urgently requested
audience; but, partly because he knew that their despatches would be
disagreeable, in part because he liked playing at royalty, the
commander put them off till to-morrow. Even so did he postpone an
inspection of a certain part of the city wall, repeatedly suggested
to him by one of his subordinates. Leisure and accumulation of
wealth were obscuring the man's soldierly qualities. He gave little
heed to the progress of the war, and scoffed at the fear that Totila
might ere long march against Rome.
Basil walked in gloomy silence. The interview had inflamed his
pride. Mentally he repeated the oath never to acquiesce in this
Byzantine tyranny, and he burned for the opportunity of open war
against it.
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