give the daughter of the emperor Romanns and of the empress Theophano to my master his son, Otto the august emperor, thou may'st affirm this to me with an oath; -whereupon I will affirm by an oath that, in return for such favours, he will observe and do to thee this and this. But already my master has given to thee, as to his brother, the best pledge of his friendship in restoring to thee, by mv intervention, at whose suggestion thou declarest this evil to have been done, all Apulia which was subject to his sway. Of which thing there are as many witnesses as there are inhabitants in all Apulia."
"The second hour," said Nicephorus, "is already past. The solemn procession to the church is about to take place. Let us now do what the hour demands. At a convenient time we will reply to what thou hast said."
May nothing keep me from describing this procession, and my masters from hearing about it! A numerous multitude of tradesmen and low-born persons, collected at this festival to receive and to do honour to Nicephorus, occupied both sides of the road from the palace to St. Sophia like walls, being disfigured by quite thin little shields and wretched spears. And it served to increase this disfigurement that the greater part of this same crowd in his (Nicephorus') honour, had marched with bare feet. I believe that they thought in this way better to adorn that holy procession. But also his nobles who passed with him through the plebeian and barefoot multitude were clad in tunics which were too large, and which were torn through too great age. It would have been much more suitable had they marched in their everyday clothes. There was no one whose grandfather had owned one of these garments when it was new. No one there was adorned with gold, no one with gems, save Nicephorus alone, whom the imperial adornments, bought and prepared for the persons of his ancestors, rendered still more disgusting. By thy salvation, which is dearer to me than my own, one precious garment of thy nobles is worth a hundred of these, and more too. I was led to this church procession and was placed on. a raised place next to the singers.
And as, like a creeping monster, he proceeded thither, the singers cried out in adulation: "Behold the morning
