Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/96

 There were at Constantinople two young Sisters, not only illustrious by the Consulship of their Grandfather and Father, but by a long des­cent of Nobility, as being of one of the cheif Families in the Senate. These two young Ladies having lost their Husbands betimes, devoted themselves to perpetual Widowhood. Theodora abhorring their vertue and pious way of living, chose out from among the dregs of the people, two the most execrable persons that could be found, and designed them to be their Husbands. Having notice of the Empresses intention, ap­prehending she would force them, they sled in­to the Church of Saint Sophia, and entring into the holy Bath, they held fast by the Fountain: But the Empress plagued them so many ways, and kept them in such want of necessary things, that they were constrained to marry them, to deliver themselves from their distress: And in this manner Theodora shewed her reverence to the Sanctuaries; and the two Gentlewomen who had been courted by several persons of their own quality, were married to two fellows, poor, miserable, infinitely below their condition, and in the presence of their Mother, who was by, weeping and lamenting all the while. It is true, afterwards Theodora abhorring what she had done, endeavored to make them amends by advancing their Husbands to the detriment of the publick: But all that would do no good; they were incapable of consolation, seeing their Husbands act with such insuppportable cruelty against the Emperors subjects; for Theodora regarded