Justinian

JUSTINIAN

Is that you, Brother Elpidios? No, wait, don't speak. I know it's you, for I recognize your step. I may have had my eyes burned out, but my ears see for me now. And, as the saying goes, a robe is revealed in advance by its border. So in the same way the stride reveals the man. You should fix the strap on your left sandal. It's loose, and flaps when you walk. Have you got the book with you? Ah, there it goes down on the table. Turn to the first leaf, I pray you. Justinian is gone from men these past twenty years- as long as I've been blind- but not all his deeds were wicked, and many of those that might be reckoned so were on such a scale that they deserve to live in the memories of men, too. I knew he had been working on the tale of his life for years, writing every now and then as he found a few minutes' leisure. When the end came, there at Damatrys, he put it into my hands. I got caught soon enough afterwards, of course, and blinded. I remember how red the irons glowed when they brought them to my eyes. I remember the smell, like the baked white of an egg. They were merciful, in their way. Helias could have struck off my head. He thought about it, Lord knows. Instead, he had me brought here, and his men let me keep the book. Read now, Brother Elpidios. Read. If, one day, you write the chronicle of days gone by of which you've talked so much, let what Justinian did and said have its place there. And if not, that's as God wills. The tale is worth the hearing either way; by God and the Virgin I swear it. What's that? Yes, of course you may ask me questions. By your voice, you're young, and, even if you had my years, there's much here you didn't see, much here you couldn't know. So ask. And if, every now and then, you find me interrupting unasked, I pray you forgive me. For old men will talk, and blind men, too. When I speak back and forth with someone, for that time it's as if I see his face in my mind. I don't know how close the face I see matches the face that is, but for me it must do. So read now, Brother Elpidios. Read.