Part 12 (1/2)

”How will it be to-morrow?”

”When the tumult is at its highest, he who has the surest hand shall strike the Caesar down. I, in the meanwhile----”

”Then thou, Caius Nepos, art not certain of the sureness of thy hand?”

interposed Hortensius Martius who hitherto had taken no active part in the discussion.

He lay on a couch at some distance from his host and had declined every morsel offered to him by the waiting-maids; but he had drunk over freely, and his good-looking young face looked flushed and dark beneath its wealth of curls. Unlike his usual self he was ill-humoured and almost morose to-night, and there was a dark, glowering look in his eyes as from time to time he cast furtive glances towards the door.

”Nay, good Hortensius,” said the host loftily, ”mine will be the greater part. The praetorian guard know and trust me. It will be my duty when the Caesar is attacked to keep them from rus.h.i.+ng to his aid. The army is apt to forget a tyrant's crime, and to think of him only as a leader to be obeyed. But when the guard hear my voice, they will understand and will be true to me.”

”'Tis I will strike,” now broke in young Escanes, with all the enthusiasm of his years. The ardour of leaders.h.i.+p glowed upon his face, and he seemed to challenge this small a.s.sembly to dispute his right to the foremost place in the great event of the morrow.

But his challenge was not taken up; no one else seemed eager to dispute his wish. Somewhat sobered, he resumed more calmly:

”The Caesar hath much affection for me. I oft sat beside him in the Circus or at the games last year. The Augustas too like to have me beside them, to talk pleasing gossip in their ears. 'Twill be easiest for me, at a signal given, to strike with my dagger in the Caesar's throat.”

”Thine shall be that glory, O Escanes, since thou dost will it so,” said Caius Nepos, not without a touch of irony. ”Directly the deed is done, the praetorian guard shall raise the cry: 'The Caesar is dead!'”

”And it should at once be followed by another,” said Marcus Ancyrus, the elder, ”by 'Hail to thee, O mighty Caesar!'”

”'Tis thou shouldst raise that cry, O Caius Nepos,” said Hortensius with a sarcastic curl of his lip.

”Oh! as to that----” began the other with some hesitation.

”Aye! as to that,” said Escanes hotly, ”if I slay the tyrant to-morrow with mine own hand, then must I know at least for whom I do the deed.”

There was silence after that. Everyone seemed absorbed in his own thoughts. Dreamy eyes gazed abstractedly in crystal goblets, as if vainly trying to trace in its crimson depths the outline of an imperial sceptre. At last Caius Nepos spoke:

”Let us be rid of the tyrant first. The army then will soon elect its new chief.”

”And is it on the support of the army, O praefect! that thou dost base thine own hopes of supreme power?” asked Hortensius, whose ill-humour seemed to grow on him more and more.

”Nay!” retorted Caius Nepos, ”I did not know that by so doing I was das.h.i.+ng thine!”

”Silence,” admonished Marcus Ancyrus, the elder. ”Are we children or slaves that we should wrangle thus? Have we met here in order to rid the Empire of an abominable and bloodthirsty tyrant, or are we mere vulgar conspirators pursuing our own ends? There was no thought in our host's mind of supreme power, O Hortensius! nor in thine, I'll vow. As for me, I care nought for the imperium,” he added navely, ”it is difficult to content everyone, and a permanent consuls.h.i.+p under our chosen Caesar were more to my liking. Bring forth thy tablets, O Caius Nepos, and we'll put the matter to the vote. There are not many of the House of Caesar fit to succeed the present madman, and our choice there will be limited.”

”There is but Claudius, the brother of Germanicus,” interposed the host curtly.

”Germanicus' brother to succeed Germanicus' son,” said another with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders.

”And he is as crazy as his nephew,” added Caius Nepos.

He had not a.s.sembled his friends here to-night, he had not feasted them and loaded them with gifts with a view to pa.s.sing the imperium merely from one head to another. He was fairly sure of the support of the praetorian guard, whose praefect he was, and had counted on the adherence of these malcontents, who he hoped would look to him for future favours whilst raising him to supreme dignity.

He liked not this talk of the family of Caesar which took the attention of his closest adherents away from his own claim.

”The entire House of Caesar,” he said, ”is rotten to the core. There is not one member of it fit to rule.”

”But of a truth,” said prudent Ancyrus, ”they have the foremost claim.”