ts_ and _Petulants,_ and
after these, the _Herulians_ and _Batavians_ (or shall I say
_Dutchmen?_);--how Constantius tried to deprive him of these,
ordering him to send them off to him for wars with Sapor in the
east;--how Julian sorrowfully bade them go, judging well by
Gallus his brother's experience (whom Constantius had treated in
the same way as a first step towards cutting off his head) what
the next thing should be;--but how they, (bless their Celtic and
Petulant and Herulian and Dutch hearts!) told him very plainly
that that kind of thing would not wash with them: "Come!" said
they; "no nonsense of this sort; be you our emperor, and
_condemn_ that old lady your cousin Constantius!--or we kill you
right now." Into his bed-room in Paris they poured by night with
those terms,--an ultimatum; whether or not with a twinkle in
their eyes when they proposed the alternative, who can say?--What
was a young hero to do, whom the Gods had commissioned to strike
the grand blow for them; and who never should strike it, that
was certain, if Constantius should have leave to take away from
him, first his Celts and Petulants, and then his head? So he
accepts; and writes kindly and respectfully to his Maiden Aunt--
Spidership the Emperor telling him he must manage _without_ the
legions, and _with_ a Co-Augustus to share the empire with him,--
ruling (it was to be hoped in perfect harmony with himself) the
west and leaving the east to Constantius. However, all will not
do: Constantius writes severe and haughtily, Send the men, and
let's hear no more of that presumptuous fooling about the second
Augustus!--So Julian marches east; whither, accompanying him,
the lately rebellious Celts and Petulants are ready enough to go
now; and Constantius might after all have fallen in battle, and
so missed his saving baptism; but his plans had gone agley, and
the whole situation was extremely disturbing; and you never
knew what might happen: and really, when you thought how you
had treated this Julian's father, and his two brothers, and
numberless uncles and cousins, you might fear the very worst;--
and so, good maiden-auntish soul, he fell into a sadness, and
thence into a decline; and while Julian and his Petulants were
yet a long way off, got baptized respectably, and slipped
off to heaven.

And you know, too, probably, how Julian, being now sole emperor,
reigned: working night and day; wearing out relays of secretaries,
but never w