We had his promise; we saw him Emperor--' 'You should have won Antonina,' said Marcian, with a return to his sarcastic humour.

'She must have mused long and anxiously, weighing the purple against Theodora's fury.

The Patrician's fidelity stood by his wife's prudence.' 'The one blot upon his noble nature,' uttered Basil, with a sigh.

'His one weakness.

How,' he cried scornfully, 'can the conqueror of half the world bend before such a woman ?' Fatigued already by the conversation, Maximus had lain back and closed his eyes.