When he had heard it, the tears welled from his hollow eyes and ran down his pale cheeks.

“Constantine, my brother Leo’s son, has done this,” he said, “for never will he rest until all of us are in the grave.”

“He is cruel because he fears you, O Nicephorus, and it is said that your ambition has given him cause to fear.”

“Once, General, that was true,” the prince replied.  “Once, foolishly, I did aspire to rule; but it is long ago.  Now they have made a priest of me, and I seek peace only.  Can I and my brethren help it if, mutilated though we are, some still wish to use us against the Emperor?  I tell you that Irene herself is at the back of them.  She would set us on high that afterwards she may throw us down and crush us.”

“I am her servant, Prince, and may not listen to such talk, who know only that she seeks to protect you from your enemies, and for that reason has placed me here, it seems not in vain.  If you would continue to live, I warn you and your brethren to fly from plots and to be careful of what you eat and drink.”

“I do not desire to live, General,” he answered.  “Oh! that I might die.  Would that I might die.”

“Death is not difficult to find, Prince,” I replied, and left him.

These may seem hard words, but, be it remembered, I was no Christian then, but a heathen man.  To see one who had been great and fallen from his greatness, one whom Fortune had deserted utterly, whining at Fate like a fretful child, and yet afraid to seek his freedom, moved me to contempt as well as to pity.  Therefore, I spoke the words.

Yet all the rest of that day they weighed upon my mind, for I knew well how I should have interpreted them were I in this poor Caesar’s place.  So heavily did they weigh that, during the following night, an impulse drew me from my bed and caused me to visit the cells in which these princes were imprisoned.  Four of them were dark and silent, but in that of Nicephorus burned a light.  I listened at the door, and through the key-place heard that the prisoner within was praying, and sobbing as he prayed.

Then I went away; but when I reached the end of the long passage something drew me back again.  It was as though a hand I could not see were guiding me.  I returned to the door of the cell, and now through it heard choking sounds.  Quickly I shot the bolts and unlocked it with my master-key.  This was what I saw within: 

To a bar of the window-place was fastened such a rope as monks wear for a girdle; at the end of the rope was a noose, and in that noose the head of Nicephorus.  There he hung, struggling.  His hands had gripped the rope above his head, for though he had sought Death, at the last he tried to escape him.  Of such stuff was Nicephorus made.  Yet it was too late, or would have been, for as I entered the place his hands slipped from the thin cord, which tightened round his throat, choking him.