wherewith you have girded him to your own hurt?"

"'Tis an evil choice; whichever way I turn, mischief is before me."

"Were it not best that he be recalled?"

"What? To plot and practise against my life! To mount upon my reeking
body to the throne! He will not reign with Geta. The proud boy
disdains a divided empire. And was not mine own soul fashioned in the
same mould? When Niger would have ruled in Syria, and Albinus in
Britain, I scattered their legions to the winds, and levelled their
hopes with their pride. 'Tis nature; and shall I, the author of his
being, punish him for mine own gift?"

He raised himself on his couch. The fierce blaze of ambition broke the
dark cloud of bodily infirmities, and the monarch and the tyrant again
dilated his almost savage features.

The secretary, used to these fiery moods, stood awaiting his commands.
The emperor, as though exhausted, sank down on his pillow,
exclaiming--

"I have governed the world, but I cannot govern a wayward heart!"

Thus did he often lament, and provoke himself the more with these vain
regrets; forgetting that, if he had exercised the same firmness in his
private as public capacity, the government of his own house would have
been easy as the government of the world.

"Virius Lupus, there is danger--and to-night. As I have told thee, the
stars do betoken mischief. But the peril is at my threshold. Let
Caracalla remain; so shall we avert his weapon. Should the assassin
come, it will not be with the blow of a parricide. Thou mayest retire
to thy couch, but first let the guards be doubled, the watchword and
countersign changed. And, hark thee, tell the tribune that he look
well to the _tessera_, and have the right count from the inspectors.
Should despatches come from Rome, let the messenger have immediate
audience."

Again the emperor stretched himself on the couch, and again his
slumbers were interrupted. A murmur was heard along the halls and
passages where the guards were stationed. The noise grew louder,
approaching the very door of the royal chamber. The monarch started as
from a dream, and the door at that moment opened. The Chaldean
soothsayer stood before him.

"Azor!" said the emperor, "at this hour? What betides such unseemly
greeting?"

"Caesar trembles on his throne; but the world quakes not! The angel of
death is at thy door. Caracalla hath returned."

"Returned? Surely thy wits are disturbed. Caracalla! Ay, even
yesterday, we had