Part 24 (2/2)
He stretched out a paternal hand, and with weary sadness stroked her golden hair.
”Trust me, gracious lord,” she reiterated, ”my life is thine, do with it what thou wilt.”
”Traitors are at work, Dea Flavia, to murder the Caesar,” he said gently.
”Ye G.o.ds!” she murmured, horrified.
”Aye! wouldst think mayhap that the G.o.ds will interfere? They will? I tell thee that they will! but they have need of thee, Augusta! I, thy Caesar, thy G.o.d do have need of thee!”
With both hands now he took her own in his, not roughly, but with infinite tenderness, and cunningly contrived that two hot tears should fall upon her fingers.
”My gracious lord!” she whispered, ”my life is at thy service.”
”Accept the husband whom I propose for thee ... and my life will be safe.... Refuse to obey me in this and to-morrow the blood of Caesar will be upon thy head....”
”My lord....”
”Wilt obey me, Augusta?”
”My gracious lord ... I do not understand,” she pleaded; ”have pity on my ignorance ... trust me but a little further....”
”I cannot tell thee more,” he said with a sigh of patient weariness, ”but this I do tell thee, that my life and with it the future of our House--of the Empire--now lie in thy hands. The abominable traitors would make a tool even of thee. 'The husband of Dea Flavia Augusta,'
they say, 'shall succeed the murdered Caesar!'”
She uttered a cry of horror.
”Their names,” she murmured, ”tell me their names.”
”I know but a few.”
”Which are they?”
”They speak of Hortensius Martius.”
”Oh!”
”And of young Escanes ... also of Philario, my servant.”
”Ye G.o.ds,” she exclaimed, ”let your judgments fall upon them.”
”And of Taurus Antinor--the praefect of Rome,” added the Caesar, and a savage snarl escaped his lips even when he spoke the name.
”Taurus Antinor!” she exclaimed.
Then half-audibly she murmured to herself, repeating the Caesar's words:
”They would make a tool of thee!”
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