common feelings of human
nature forbade them to justify. They pretend, that as soon as the
afflicted father discovered the falsehood of the accusation by which
his credulity had been so fatally misled, he published to the world
his repentance and remorse; that he mourned forty days, during which
he abstained from the use of the bath, and all the ordinary comforts of
life; and that, for the lasting instruction of posterity, he erected a
golden statue of Crispus, with this memorable inscription: To my son,
whom I unjustly condemned. A tale so moral and so interesting would
deserve to be supported by less exceptionable authority; but if we
consult the more ancient and authentic writers, they will inform us,
that the repentance of Constantine was manifested only in acts of blood
and revenge; and that he atoned for the murder of an innocent son, by
the execution, perhaps, of a guilty wife. They ascribe the misfortunes
of Crispus to the arts of his step-mother Fausta, whose implacable
hatred, or whose disappointed love, renewed in the palace of Constantine
the ancient tragedy of Hippolitus and of Phaedra. Like the daughter of
Minos, the daughter of Maximian accused her son-in-law of an incestuous
attempt on the chastity of his father's wife; and easily obtained, from
the jealousy of the emperor, a sentence of death against a young prince,
whom she considered with reason as the most formidable rival of her
own children. But Helena, the aged mother of Constantine, lamented and
revenged the untimely fate of her grandson Crispus; nor was it long
before a real or pretended discovery was made, that Fausta herself
entertained a criminal connection with a slave belonging to the Imperial
stables. Her condemnation and punishment were the instant consequences
of the charge; and the adulteress was suffocated by the steam of a bath,
which, for that purpose, had been heated to an extraordinary degree.
By some it will perhaps be thought, that the remembrance of a conjugal
union of twenty years, and the honor of their common offspring, the
destined heirs of the throne, might have softened the obdurate heart of
Constantine, and persuaded him to suffer his wife, however guilty she
might appear, to expiate her offences in a solitary prison. But it seems
a superfluous labor to weigh the propriety, unless we could ascertain
the truth, of this singular event, which is attended with some
circumstances of doubt and perplexity. Those who have attacked,