hould be
consul, and besides Pompeius promised to have permission granted Caesar
to be elected consul, without appearing as a candidate in Rome; so at
no moment was Caesar to be without office,[72] and consequently he was
not to be liable to prosecution from his enemies. All this was secured
to Caesar by the laws,--laws which Pompeius aided to have enacted. But
now Crassus the third triumvir is dead; Julia, Caesar's daughter and
Pompeius's wife, whom both dearly loved, is dead. And Pompeius has
been persuaded by your uncle and his friends to break with Caesar and
repudiate his promise. Caesar and Pompeius have long been so powerful
together that none could shake their authority; but if one falls away
and combines with the common enemy, what but trouble is to be
expected?"

[72] Without the _imperium_--so long as a Roman official held this
he was above prosecution.

"The enemy! the enemy!" repeated Cornelia, looking down, and sighing.
"Quintus, these feuds are a dreadful thing. Can't you," and here she
threw a bit of pathetic entreaty into her voice, "join with my uncle's
party, and be his friend? I hate to think of having my husband at
variance with the man who stands in place of my father."

Drusus took her face between his hands, and looked straight at her.
They were standing within the colonnade of the villa of the Lentuli,
and the sunlight streaming between the pillars fell directly upon
Cornelia's troubled face, and made a sort of halo around her.

"My dearest, delectissima," said Quintus, earnestly, "I could not
honourably take your hand in marriage, if I had not done that which my
conscience, if not my reason, tells me is the only right thing to do.
It grieves me to hurt you; but we are not fickle Greeks, nor servile
Easterns; but Romans born to rule, and because born to rule, born to
count nothing dear that will tend to advance the strength and
prosperity not of self, but of the state. You would not love me if I
said I cared more for keeping a pang from your dear heart, than for
the performance of that which our ancestors counted the one end of
life--duty to the commonwealth."

Cornelia threw her arms around him.

"You are the noblest man on the whole earth!" she cried with bright
enthusiasm. "Of course I would not love you if you did what you
believed to be wrong! My uncle may scold, may storm. I shan't care for
all his anger, for you _must be_ right."

"Ah! delectissima," cried Drusus, feeling at