At this a tumult broke loose below, as if the sea had burst its dams; weapons clashed, and a thousand voices shouted: "War! war with Byzantium!" This repetition of his words was not without effect upon Petros or the Italians. The fierceness of this enthusiasm alarmed them; they were silent, and cast down their eyes. While the Goths, shaking hands, congratulated each other, Witichis went up to Petros with an earnest mien, and said solemnly: "Then it is war! We do not shun it; that you have heard. Better open war than this lurking, undermining enmity. War is good; but woe to him who kindles it without reason and without a just cause! I see beforehand years of blood and murder and conflagration; I see trampled corn-fields, smoking towns, and numberless corpses swimming down the rivers! Listen to our words. Upon your heads be this blood, this misery! You have irritated and excited us for years; we bore it quietly. And now you have declared war against us, judging where you had no right to judge, and mixing yourselves in the affairs of a nation which is as free as your own. On your heads be the responsibility! This is our answer to Byzantium." Silently Petros listened to these words; silently he turned and went out, followed by his companions. Some of them accompanied him to his residence, amongst them the Bishop of Florentia. "Reverend friend," Petros said to the latter at parting, "the letters of Theodahad about the matter you know of, which you entrusted to me for perusal, you must leave entirely at my disposal. I need them, and they are no longer necessary to you." "The process is long since decided," answered the Bishop, "and the property irrevocably acquired. The documents are yours." The ambassador then dismissed his friends, who hoped soon to see him again in Ravenna with the imperial army, and went to his chamber, where he at once despatched a messenger to Belisarius, ordering him to invade the country. Then he wrote a detailed report to the Emperor, which concluded in the following words: