"I swear," said Silverius, turning to the people. "And thus I, who have power to bind and to loose, call upon you, Romans, surrounded as you are by Gothic weapons, to swear in the same spirit in which I myself have taken the oath."
The priests and some of the nobility appeared to have understood, and lifted their hands to swear without delay.
Then the mass hesitated no longer, and the place echoed with the loud shout: "We swear fidelity to the Goths!"
"It is well, Bishop of Rome," said the King, "we count upon your oath. Farewell, Romans! We shall soon meet again."
And he descended the broad flight of steps. Teja and Hildebad followed him.
"Now I am only curious--" said Earl Teja.
"Whether they will keep their oath?" interposed Hildebad.
"No; not at all. But how they will break it. Well, the priest will find out the way."
With flying standards the Goths marched out of the Porta Flaminia, leaving the city to its Pope and the Prefect. Meanwhile Belisarius approached by forced marches upon the Via Latina.