Standing erect in a circle on the top of the Mound the nine Bishops of the realm held each a lighted torch in his hand.  In the centre stood Desiderius beside the King deposed, and holding high his torch uttered the anathema which was to sever all bonds of plighted troth and loyalty and service, and to cast him forth from the pale of Holy Church, and to debar him from the common charity of all Christian people.  At that moment the Bishops marked with awe the strange resemblance between Desiderius and the King, and the eyes of these two met, and each was aware how marvellously like to himself was the other.  But with a clear unfaltering voice the Archbishop cried aloud the doom: