In the stillness that followed there quivered a deep breath.

Flavius Anicius Maximus had lived his life.
When the bishop, supported by Leander and Andreas, rose from prayer, he was led by the obsequious clerics to a hall illumined by several lamps, where two brasiers gave forth a grateful glow in the chill of the autumn morning.

Round about the walls, in niches, stood busts carved or cast of the ancestors of him who lay dead.

Here, whilst voices of lamentation sounded from without, Leander made known to the prelate and the presbyter the terms of the will.

Basil was instituted 'heir'; that is to say, he became the legal representative of the dead man, and was charged with the distribution of those parts of the estate bequeathed to others.