"No. The Egyptians use them to indicate conflict, and to them conflict
and unrest are identical with what we call evil and disaster."

"That is strange!"

"Nay, it is well conceived; for they say that everything was originally
created good by the gods, but that the different portions of the great
All changed their nature by restless and inharmonious mingling. This
explanation was given me by the priest of Apis, and here--here by the
month of November are the three fighting arias--a hideous token. If one
of the flashes which light up this tent so incessantly, like a living
stream of light were to strike you, or me, and all of us--I should not
wonder. Terrible--terrible things hang over us! It requires some courage
under such omens as these, to keep an untroubled gaze and not to quail."

"Only use your own arms against the fighting arms of the Egyptian gods;
they are powerful," said Antinous; but Hadrian let his head sink on his
breast, and said, in a tone of discouragement:

"The gods themselves must succumb to Destiny."

The thunder continued to roar. More than once the storm snapped the
tent-ropes, and the slaves were obliged to hold on to the Emperor's
fragile shelter with their hands; the chambers of the clouds poured
mighty torrents out upon the desert range which for years had not known
a drop of rain, and every rift and runlet was filled with a stream or a
torrent.

Neither Hadrian nor Antinous closed their eyes that fearful night. The
Emperor had as yet opened only one of the rolls that were in the day's
letter-bag; it contained the information that Titianus the prefect was
cruelly troubled by his old difficulty of breathing, with a petition
from that worthy official to be allowed to retire from the service of
the state and to withdraw to his own estate. It was no small matter for
Hadrian to dispense for the future with this faithful coadjutor, to lose
the man on whom he had had his eye to tranquillize Judaea--where a fresh
revolt had raised its head, and to reduce it again to subjection without
bloodshed. To crush and depopulate the rebellious province was within
the power of other men, but to conquer and govern it with kindness
belonged only to the wise and gentle Titianus. The Emperor had no heart
to open a second letter that night. He lay in silence on his couch
till morning began to grow gray, thinking over every evil hour of his
life--the murders of Nigrinus, of Tatianus and of the senators, by which