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"Wouldst thou then suggest, O Hortensius Martius," quoth Marcus Ancyrus, the elder, after a slight pause, "that the Augusta's husband be made Emperor of Rome?" "Why not?" retorted the other simply. "It is not a bad notion," mused young Escanes, who thought himself high in the favour of Dea Flavia.
"Then 'tis to an unknown man ye would all pledge your loyalty?" "Unknown, yet vaguely guessed at, O praefect," here broke in Escanes, with his usual breezy cheerfulness; "we all feel that Dea Flavia's choice can but fall on an honourable man." "Thou speakest truly," rejoined Taurus Antinor earnestly; "but I fear me that for the present your schemes are too vague.
And then Philippus Decius remarked coolly: "So much for thy carvers and henchmen, O Caius Nepos, but thy waiting-maids? are they deaf and dumb too?" "No," replied the host, "but they come from foreign lands and do not understand our tongue." "Then you all think that the next few days will be propitious for our schemes?" here broke in young Escanes who seemed the most eager amongst them all.
"Aye! but we should be obeying him," he said simply, "if we accept his abdication." "There is no disloyalty," asserted Escanes, "in rejoicing at such an issue, if the Cæsar himself doth will it so." "None," admitted the praefect; "but there would be grave difficulty in choosing a successor." "To this," said the host, "we have given grave consideration." "Indeed!"
"Or wilt ply him with wine first?" "'Twere safer." "Nay! nay!" said Escanes, whose wrists and ankles were being bathed, "that would take too long. Taurus Antinor hath a strong head, and I, for one, could not keep sober another half-hour." "Dost know if he is at one with us?" was the query that came from every side. Hortensius Martius alone had remained silent.
"He is dead to the people, dead to his guard, dead to Rome!" asserted the praefect solemnly. "Yesterday the dagger of Escanes was ready to do the supreme act of retributory justice, and to rid the world of a maniacal tyrant and Rome of a cruel oppressor; to-day the act was virtually done by the madman himself when he fled in abject terror from before the face of his people."
The Augusta is too proud to look with favour on a stranger; as for me, I would sooner ask Escanes to plunge his dagger in my throat than I would serve the Empire under the Cæsarship of Taurus Antinor." "Thou canst record thy vote as thou thinkest best," said Caius Nepos with calm urbanity. And those who were sufficiently sober nodded approval with solemn gravity.
"Nay, 'tis no new craze," interposed Hortensius Martius, whose fresh young face had flushed very suddenly as if in anger. "Dea Flavia, as thou knowest full well, Escanes, hath fashioned exquisite figures both in marble and in clay even whilst thou didst waste thy boyhood in drunken revelries. She " "A truce on thine ill-temper," broke in Escanes with a good-humoured laugh.
"That some gods of evil have been at work," muttered young Escanes between set teeth, "and spirited the tyrannical madman out of the way for the further scourging of his people." "The spirit, my lords," she interposed quietly, "that led my kinsman to safety last night was one which actuated the noblest patrician in Rome to do his duty loyally by the Cæsar."
There were now some forty of them in number, rich patricians all of them, their ages ranging from that of young Escanes who was just twenty years old to that of Marcus Ancyrus, the elder, who had turned sixty. Their combined wealth mayhap would have purchased every inhabited house in the entire civilised world or every slave who was ever put up in the market.
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