g made known to the Emperor
Augustus, the Emperor lay at night debating this matter in his mind.
For on the one side, says he in words like this: "_Shall I pardon this
man after that he hath assailed my life, my life that I have preserved
in so many battles by sea and by land, after I have stablished one
single peace throughout the globe into all the corners thereof? Shall
he go free who has considered with himself not only to slay me but to
slay me when I offered sacrifice, ere its consummation, so that I may
be damned as well as slain? Shall I pardon this man?_" And, upon the
other side, the Emperor Augustus, lying in the black of the night,
being a prince, even as thou art, prone to leniency, said such words
as these: "_Why dost thou, Augustus, live, if it is of import to so
many people that thou diest? Shall there never be an end to thy
vengeance and thy punishments? Is thy single life of such worth that
so much ruin shall for ever be wrought to preserve it?_"'

'Why, I have had these thoughts,' Henry said. 'Speak on. What did this
Emperor that thought like me?'

'Sir,' Katharine continued, and now she had her hands upon his
shoulders, 'the Empress Livia his wife lay beside him and was aware of
these his night sweats and his anguishes. "_And the counsels of a
woman; shall these be listened to?_" she spoke to him. "_Do thou in
this what the Physicians follow when their accustomed recipes are of
no avail to cure. They do try the contrary drugs. By severity thou
hast never, sire, profited from the beginning to this very hour that
is; Lepidus has followed to death Savidienus; Murena, Lepidus; Caepio
followed Murena; Eynatius, Caepio. Commence to essay at this pass how
clemency shall act in cure. Cinna is convicted: pardon him. Further to
harm thee he hath no power, and it shall for ever redound to thy
glory._"'

She leaned upon him with all her weight, having her arms about his
neck.

'Sir,' she said, 'the Emperor Augustus listened to his wife, and the
days that followed are styled the Golden Age of Rome, he and the
Empress having great glory.'

Henry scratched his head, holding his beard back from her face that
lay upon his chest; she drew herself from him and once more laid her
hands upon his knees. Her fair face was piteous and afraid; her lips
trembled.

'Dear lord,' she began tremulously, 'I live in this world, and, great
pity 'tis! I cannot but have seen how many have died by the block and
faggots. Yet is