CHAPTER V
IRENE'S PRAYER
Years had gone by, I know not how many, but only that much had happenedin them. For a while Irene and young Constantine were joint rulersof the Empire. Then they quarrelled again, and Constantine, afraid oftreachery, fled with his friends in a ship after an attempt had beenmade to seize his person. He purposed to join his legions in Asia, or soit was said, and make war upon his mother. But those friends of his uponthe ship were traitors, who, fearing Irene's vengeance or perhaps hisown, since she threatened to tell him all the truth concerning them,seized Constantine and delivered him up to Irene. She, the mother whobore him, caused him to be taken to the purple Porphyry Chamber in thepalace, that chamber in which, as the first-born of an emperor, he sawthe light, and there robbed him of light for ever.
Yes, Stauracius and his butchers blinded Constantine as I had beenblinded. Only it was told that they drove their knives deeper so that hedied. But others say that he lived on, a prisoner, unknown, unheeded, asthose uncles of his whom _he_ had blinded and who once were in my chargehad lived, till in Greece the assassin's daggers found their hearts. Ifso, oh! what a fate was his.
Afterwards for five years Irene reigned alone in glory, whileStauracius, my god-father, and his brother eunuch, Aetius, stroveagainst each other to be first Minister of the Crown. Aetius won, and,not content with all he had, plotted that his relative Nicetas, who heldthe place of Captain of the Guard, which once I filled, should be namedsuccessor to the throne. Then at last the nobles rebelled, and, electingone of their number, Nicephorus, as emperor, seized Irene in her privatehouse of Eleutherius, where she lay sick, and crowned Nicephorus in St.Sophia. Next day he visited Irene, when, fearing the worst and brokenby illness, she bought a promise of safety by revealing to him all herhoarded treasure.
Thus fell Irene, the mighty Empress of the Eastern Empire!
Now during all these years Heliodore and I were left in peace at Lesbos.I was not deposed from my governorship of that isle, which prosperedgreatly under my rule. Even Irene's estates, which Constantine had givenme, were not taken away. At the appointed times I remitted thetribute due, yes, and added to the sum, and received back the officialacknowledgment signed by the Empress, and with it the official thanks.But with these never came either letter or message. Yet it is evidentshe knew that I was married, for to Heliodore did come a message, andwith it a gift. The gift was that necklace and those other ornamentswhich Irene had caused to be made in an exact likeness of the stringof golden shells separated by emerald beetles, one half of which I hadtaken from the grave of the Wanderer at Aar and the other half of whichwas worn by Heliodore.
So much of the gift. The message was that she who owned the necklacemight wish to have the rest of the set. To it were added the words thata certain general had been wrong when he prophesied that the wearingof this necklace by any woman save one would bring ill fortune to thewearer, since from the day it hung about Irene's neck even that whichseemed to be bad fortune had turned to good. Thus she had escaped "themost evil thing in the world, namely, another husband," and had becomethe first woman in the world.
These words, which were written on a piece of sheepskin, sealed up, andaddressed to the Lady Heliodore, but unsigned, I thought of the mostevil omen, since boastfulness always seems to be hateful to the Powerthat decrees our fates. So, indeed, they proved to be.