Silverius staggered, and was obliged to support himself by the chair which had been placed for him.
"The parchment of the document," continued Cethegus, "upon which the protonotary of Emperor Constantinus had written down the act of donation two hundred years ago, has therefore been taken from the ribs of an ass only a year ago at Byzantium! Confess, O general, that the reign of the conceivable ends here and the supernatural begins; that here a miracle has happened; and revere the mysterious ways of Heaven."
He gave the document to Belisarius.
"This is also a famous piece of history, holy and profane, which we are now experiencing," said Procopius aside.
"It is so, by the slumber of Justinian!" cried Belisarius. "Bishop of Rome, what have you to say?"
Silverius had with difficulty composed himself.
He saw the edifice which he had been constructing his whole life, sink into the ground before him.
With a voice half choked by despair, he answered:
"I found the document in the archives of the Church a few months ago. If it is as you say, I have been deceived as well as you."
"But we are not deceived," said Cethegus, smiling.