We continued our journey to Daras by land. When we reached the fortress my mistress was met by Trajan, who had returned safely with his force and his plunder from Assyria. He led her to the room where Belisarius awaited her. There Belisarius, ignoring her affectionate greeting, confronted her at once with Photius's sworn testimony as to her adultery, and the depositions of the Senator and the two domestics. He shouted angrily at her: 'This is the end, Antonina. Your conduct as my wife should have been such as to make it impossible for me ever to reproach you with your past. That reproach you now hear from me: I am reminded of what your condition was when I first became acquainted with you.'
She met his severity with a severity of her own. Taking the parchment from his hand, she read it coldly, ripped it across, and let the pieces fall to the ground. She said that she would not demean herself by denying these charges, but in answer to his gross reproach of her she would say this: she could not feel any of the pain and misery that he clearly intended her to feel, but must think of him henceforward as a buffoon unworthy to be the husband of a woman like herself.
My mistress's demeanour was not a guilty one and, indeed, she fully expected to convince Belisarius that he was once more mistaken. But though Belisarius, in spite of his glowing rage, still loved her exceedingly, he could not return to his simple faith in her as readily as he had once done at Syracuse. He pressed her:' Do you mean to tell me, wife, that your son Photius would swear by the Holy Ghost unless he was certain, beyond all argument, that he was speaking the truth?'
She replied scornfully: 'Do you think that everyone takes an oath as seriously as yourself- especially one to so obscure a concept as the Holy Ghost? Did not our master Justinian once swear this oath to Vitalian on the Bread and Wine, and then break it cheerfully for urgent reasons of state, on the sophistical ground that Vitalian was a heretic? Why, the day before I left Constantinople I myself swore by the Holy Ghost, for what might also be called urgent reasons of state-and I cannot regard myself as a particularly dishonest woman.'
Then she told him the whole story of the plot against Cappadocian John. When Belisarius heard that she, his trusted wife Antonina, had solemnly pledged his honour for the sake of a freakish plot of revenge, he felt dizzy and was obliged to sit down on a stool. When his head cleared he asked her: 'Tell me, Antonina, have I served my Emperor so frivolously that anyone can be made to believe me capable of playing the traitor? What amorous or magical arts did you use with Cappadocian John to persuade him of this impossible thing? What rights over me do you think that you hold, that you dare to bandy my name among scoundrels? And what did you think to gain by this wickedness? Was it perhaps the Empress's protection for an incestuous union with our godson?'
Instead of defending herself, she attacked him in what she knew to be his most sensitive feelings: his religion and his manhood. 'It seems that all but myself are to benefit by your famous Christian forbearance. But who could say whether it was piety or cowardice that has resigned you to Justinian's contemptuous treatment of you 1 He has whipped you and kicked you like a dog, and like a dog you come crawling and fawning to his feet. In crediting you even in jest with a desire to regain your lost self-respect by rebellion I did you an honour that you did not deserve.'
Belisarius could stand no more. He called Trajan from the anteroom. 'Convey the Lady Antonina to her quarters and post a guard at the door. She is to remain under close arrest until further notice.'
Trajan was dumbfounded.
My mistress felt that here indeed was a Belisarius that she had never encountered before. She was frightened at the sudden chasm that gaped between them and at the dreadful things that she had said to him. But she was also indignant that her liberty to behave how she pleased had been challenged, and this affected her fir more strongly than his doubts of her chastity. She followed Trajan with a set face.
I shared in her confinement. For a long time all that she would say to me was the often-repeated: 'When the Empress releases mc it will be a bad day for my Lord Belisarius.'
I contrived to get word to the Empress of what had happened. Within a month, namely at the end of September, Belisarius was ordered to set my mistress Antonina free and return to Constantinople immediately. Our confinement had not been over-tedious, and my mistress had not been subjected to any indignities, Belisarius not being of a revengeful nature.
Photius had meanwhile gone to Ephesus to seize Theodosius and bring him back to Daras for punishment, though Belisarius had given him no such commission, and was indeed unaware of his intentions. Photius managed, by tricking the Bishop of Ephesus into believing that he was Theodora's agent, to remove Theodosius from the church of St John the Evangelist; he had fled here for sanctuary. Photius carried him away to the mountain resort in Cilicia where the sick men of the Household Regiment had been sent to recuperate; and there confined him in a hut, as if on Belisarius's own orders. He had already robbed Theodosius of a large sack of gold which he had brought with him to the church of St John. It was money that my mistress Antonina had asked him to bank at Ephesus — she made a practice of depositing money in different Asiatic cities, as a security against evil times.
When we arrived at Constantinople, Belisarius boldly came before the Empress and asked her for justice against my mistress Antonina, telling her all that had passed. But the Empress raged against him like a tigress and ordered him to be immediately reconciled with his wife.
He replied: 'So long as my godson Theodosius is alive no reconciliation is possible; for the Lady Antonina is bewitched by him, and has behaved towards me in a criminal manner.'
Theodora tried to break down his assurance: 'And I suppose that you have never once been unfaithful to Antonina in all your life'
'She would not accuse me of that, surely?'
Theodora was a just woman in her way, and took no direct action against Belisarius. But she could not refrain from injuring him through his intimate friends, charging them with real but forgotten offences that had been noted in the books for an emergency of this sort. Some were banished, others imprisoned. For Photius, worse was in store. Theodora sent after him to Cilicia and had him arrested for fraud, perjury, and theft; and, though of Consular rank, he was stripped and lashed and tortured before her until he confessed that he had lied to Belisarius, and until he revealed where Theodosius was being detained.
As for Photius's associate, the Senator: Theodora deprived him of all his property and had him immured in a dark underground stable, where a curiously loathsome treatment was meted out to him. He was tied to a manger with a short halter, his hands shackled behind him. There the poor wretch stood like an ass, unable to move or lie down, but ate and slept and fulfilled all the other needs of nature on his feet. This extreme torture was not only on my mistress Antonina's account: Theodora had a long-standing grudge against the man, who had once insulted her in our club-house days and called her a two-legged ass. He went mad after a few months of stable-life and began braying aloud; she then released him, but he died almost at once. Photius was confined in a comer of the same stable, though spared the manger and halter. I may as well tell the rest of his story here. Twice, with secret aid from Justinian, who had always found him a useful agent, Photius managed to escape from his prison and reach a city sanctuary: each time Theodora violated the sanctuary and returned him to his stable. On the third occasion he got dear away to Jerusalem, where he took monastic vows and remained safe from further vengeance.
Theodosius was brought back from Cilicia by Theodora's agents about the end of November. Theodora did not immediately report his arrival to my mistress, but told her gaily at the conclusion of the next audience: 'My dearest Lady Antonina, a most remarkable pearl has just come into my hands, and I should like your opinion of it. Will you come with me and judge of it?'