He paused--his eyes rested sarcastically upon the countenance of Silverius, who wiped the sweat off his brow.
"Therefore," asked Belisarius, in great excitement, "the document is formally quite correct, and can be proved?"
"Yes, certainly," sighed Cethegus, "the act of donation is faultlessly drawn up. It is only a pity that----"
"Well!" interrupted Belisarius.
"It is only a pity that it is false."
A general cry arose. Belisarius and Antonina sprang from their seats; all present pressed nearer to Cethegus. Silverius alone fell back a step.
"False!" cried Belisarius in a tone that sounded like a shout of joy. "Prefect--friend--can you prove that?"
"I should otherwise have taken care not to assert it. The parchment upon which the act of donation is written shows all the signs of great age: worm-eaten, cracked, spots of every kind--everything that one can expect from such an ancient document, so that, sometimes, it is difficult to decipher the letters. Notwithstanding, the document only appears to be old; with as much art as many women employ to give themselves the appearance of youth does it ape the sanctity of great age. It is real parchment from the old and still existing parchment manufactory at Byzantium, founded by Constantinus."
"Keep to the matter!" cried Belisarius.
"But it is not known to every one--and it appears, unfortunately for him, to have escaped the notice of the Bishop--that these parchments, on the lower edge to the left, are always marked with the stamp of the year of their manufacture, by the names of the then consuls, in, certainly, almost invisible characters. Now pay attention, general. The document pretends, as it says in the text, to have been prepared in the sixteenth year of the reign of Constantinus, the same year that he closed the heathen temples, as the pious document observes, and a year after the naming of Constantinopolis as the capital city; and it rightly names the right consuls of that year, Dalmatius and Xenophilos. Now it can only be explained by a miracle--but in this case it would be a miracle against the Church--that, in that year, therefore in the year three hundred and thirty-five after the birth of Christ, it was already known who would be consul in the year after the death of Emperor Justinus and King Theodoric; for look, here on the lower edge the stamp says--the writer had not noticed it--it is really very difficult to make out, unless one holds the parchment against the lights so--do you see, Belisarius?--and had blindly painted the cross upon it; but I, with my--what did he call it?--sacrilegious, but clever, hand have wiped it off; do you see? there stand stamped the words, 'VI. Indiction: Justinianus Augustus, sole consul in the first year of his reign.'"