t in those years I learned something
of the strength of the Winged Hats. They increased their strength every
day, but I could not increase my men. Maximus had emptied Britain behind
us, and I felt myself to be a man with a rotten stick standing before a
broken fence to turn bulls.

'Thus, my friends, we lived on the Wall, waiting--waiting--waiting for
the men that Maximus never sent.

'Presently he wrote that he was preparing an army against Theodosius. He
wrote--and Pertinax read it over my shoulder in our quarters: "_Tell
your Father that my destiny orders me to drive three mules or be torn in
pieces by them. I hope within a year to finish with Theodosius, son of
Theodosius, once and for all. Then you shall have Britain to rule, and
Pertinax, if he chooses, Gaul. To-day I wish strongly you were with me
to beat my Auxiliaries into shape. Do not, I pray you, believe any
rumour of my sickness. I have a little evil in my old body which I shall
cure by riding swiftly into Rome._"

'Said Pertinax: "It is finished with Maximus. He writes as a man without
hope. I, a man without hope, can see this. What does he add at the
bottom of the roll? '_Tell Pertinax I have met his late Uncle, the
Duumvir of Divio, and that he accounted to me quite truthfully for all
his Mother's monies. I have sent her with a fitting escort, for she is
the mother of a hero, to Nicaea, where the climate is warm_.'

'"That is proof," said Pertinax. "Nicaea is not far by sea from Rome. A
woman there could take ship and fly to Rome in time of war. Yes, Maximus
foresees his death, and is fulfilling his promises one by one. But I am
glad my uncle met him."'

'"You think blackly to-day?" I asked.

'"I think truth. The Gods weary of the play we have played against them.
Theodosius will destroy Maximus. It is finished!"

'"Will you write him that?" I said.

'"See what I shall write," he answered, and he took pen and wrote a
letter cheerful as the light of day, tender as a woman's and full of
jests. Even I, reading over his shoulder, took comfort from it till--I
saw his face!

'"And now," he said, sealing it, "we be two dead men, my brother. Let us
go to the Temple."

'We prayed awhile to Mithras, where we had many times prayed before.
After that, we lived day by day among evil rumours till winter came
again.

'It happened one morning that we rode to the East shore, and found on
the beach a fair-haired man, half frozen, bound to some broken planks.