Her features were sharp, but not plain; she would even have been called beautiful, but that her left eye was utterly destroyed, and the whole of her left cheek disfigured by a long scar. The wound seemed to bleed afresh as her cheeks flushed while pronouncing the angry word. Such deadly hatred shone from her grey eye, that Cethegus involuntarily retreated. "Revenge?" he asked. "On whom?" "On--of that later. Forgive that I disturb you," she added, composing herself. "Your friend Petros of Byzantium is with you, is he not?" "Yes; but how do you know?" "Oh! I saw him enter your door before supper," she answered, with assumed indifference. "That is not true," said Cethegus to himself; "for he was brought in by the garden-gate. So they have made an appointment here, and I was not to know it. What can they want with me?" "I will not keep you long," continued Gothelindis. "I have only one question to ask of you. Answer briefly, 'yes' or 'no.' I have the power to ruin that woman--the daughter of Theodoric--and I have the will. Are you for me in this, or against me?" "Oh! friend Petros," thought the Prefect. "Now I already know what you intend to do with Amalaswintha. But we will see how far you have gone.--Gothelindis," he said aloud, "I readily believe that you wish to ruin the Gothic Queen; but I doubt if you can do so." "Listen to me, and then decide whether I can or no. The woman has caused the three dukes to be murdered." Cethegus shrugged his shoulders. "Many people think that." "But I can prove it." "You don't say so?" exclaimed Cethegus incredulously. "Duke Thulun, as you know, did not die immediately. He was attacked on the Æmilian Way, near my villa at Tannetum. My husbandmen found him and brought him into my house. You know that he was my cousin--I belong to the Balthe family. He died in my arms." "Well, and what said the sick man in his fever?" "Fever! Nothing of the sort! As Duke Thulun fell, he wounded his murderer, who was not able to fly far. My husbandmen sought for him, and found him dying in the nearest wood. He confessed everything to me." Cethegus imperceptibly compressed his lips. "Well? What was he? What did he say?" "He was an Isaurian mercenary," said Gothelindis sharply, "an overlooker of the works on the ramparts at Rome, and he said, 'Cethegus, the Prefect, sent me to the Queen, and the Queen sent me to Duke Thulun!'" "Who heard his confession besides you?" asked Cethegus. "No one. And no one shall know of this, if you stand by me. But if not, then----"