One day, while the war was still in progress, the course of my mistress's fortune was again changed by the arrival at our house of two haggard and wayworn monks, the elder carrying a little basket. They had traced her whereabouts with great difficulty, having walked all the way from Autioch, where they had expected to find her. Only after many fruitless inquiries from one end of the City to the other, and much prayer, had they come upon her house. When we first looked into the basket it seemed to contain only a few freshly plucked mulberry leaves. Yet in those leaves was stored a fortune of colossal size. My mistress immediately took them to the Palace and asked for an audience with Her Resplendency, the Empress Theodora. She had put on dull-looking clothes and described herself as the pious relict of Such-and-Such, late Treasurer of the Blues at Antioch; not as Antonina of the club-house. She refused to particularize her business, but said that it was an important matter of State, and that if she announced it she would not be believed. She knew Theodora well enough to be sure that this statement would be irresistible.
The part of the Palace to which my mistress Antonina went was the vestibule, called the Brazen House. Its roof is of brass tiles, and there is an image of Christ over the Gate. Here the four battalions of the Imperial Guards are quartered; here also are to be found the Throne-rooms and State banqueting halls, and the State prison for men and women accused of treason. The other principal buildings of the Palace are the Daphne, where most of the Imperial business is transacted, and the Sigma, where the Emperor and Empress have their sleeping-quarters, and the Residence of the Eunuchs. There is also a little square palace with a pyramidal roof, built of purple-speckled marble – the others are of white, yellow, red, or green marble – where all Empresses must, by an ancient rule, be brought to bed of their children, who are then said to be 'born in the purple'. Theodora bore Justinian a child here, a girl; but she died in infancy. The Palace and its annexes and grounds cover one-tenth of the total area of the City, and occupy a triangle of land between the Bosphorus and the waters of the Sea of Marmora.
My mistress was kept waiting for hours in the reception lobby of the Brazen I louse, a small, stuffy apartment, and questioned by a number of important and unimportant people, mostly eunuchs, each in turn trying to break her persistent silence. The Empress, she was continually assured, refused to see claimants unless they expressly stated their business in detail. My mistress answered that if the Empress knew that they were keeping away so important a petitioner, she would punish them for their interference. Surely they could judge from the seriousness of her person that she was not one to petition the Empress idly?
She was at length successful. They admitted her to Theodora's silk-hung audience chamber at the second audience, which began at two o'clock. She had with her, besides the basket, the children Photius and Martha; and they were cross and tearful because they had missed their dinner, having been kept standing about in the reception lobby since before eight o'clock. My mistress recognized one or two of the officials and Guards officers from her club-house days, but took care that no one should recognize her. The handsome gold cross on her breast and her widow's weeds were a sufficient disguise; and she had grown a good deal plumper since her acrobatic dancing days. She had been ten years away from this part of the world.
My mistress watched the preliminaries of the audience, which Theodora conducted at a different hour from Justinian's, so that the chief Officers of State should be free to assist her. A priest opened proceedings with a short prayer, and a few responses were sung, during which Theodora trimmed her nails with a tiny knife and looked contemptuous. Next, retired officials and women of note came up one by one to her throne very reverently, to kiss the hem of her robe or the instep of her feet. She greeted them coldly. Then the first petitioners were announced. Theodora listened to some attentively and to some impatiently with bent brows. Her decisions were short and pointed. 'A present of gold to this woman', 'This plea must be referred to His Clemency, the Emperor', 'Take the impudent fellow out and whip him.' Everyone seemed to stand in awe of Theodora.
Yet she had not changed at all, my mistress thought. At last Narses, the eunuch Chamberlain, announced her apologetically to Theodora: 'Antonina, widow of Such-and-Such, silk-merchant, late Treasurer of the Blue faction at Antioch: with a personal plea. Obstinately refuses to state her business; insists, however, that it is of importance to the State and to your Resplendency.'
My mistress advanced and made a deep obeisance.
