far greater cruelties against their subjects. The real cause of her
hatred was, that he ventured to oppose her designs and accused her to
the Emperor, so that they nearly came to open hostilities. I mention
this here because, as I have already stated, in this work I am bound
to state the real causes of events. When, after having inflicted upon
him the sufferings I have related, she had confined him in Egypt, she
was not even then satisfied with his punishment, but was incessantly
on the look out to find false witnesses against him. Four years
afterwards, she succeeded in finding two of the Green faction who had
taken part in the sedition at Cyzicus, and were accused of having been
accessory to the assault upon the Bishop. These she attacked with
flattery, promises, and threats. One of them, alarmed and inveigled by
her promises, accused John of the foul crime of murder, but the other
refused to utter falsehoods, although he was so cruelly tortured that
he seemed likely to die on the spot. She was, therefore, unable to
compass the death of John on this pretext, but she caused the young
men's right hands to be chopped off--that of the one because he
refused to bear false witness; that of the other, to prevent her
intrigue becoming universally known, for she endeavoured to keep
secret from others those things which were done in the open
market-place.




CHAPTER XVIII


That Justinian was not a man, but a demon in human shape, as I have
already said, may be abundantly proved by considering the enormity of