om Rome, turned to
Antiochus, and bade him bring a basin and perfumed water to wash
Drusus's feet. Meantime the young man had recovered his breath.

"You have heard of the violence of the new consuls and how Antonius
and Cassius withstood them. On the seventh the end came. The vetoes
were set aside. Our protests were disregarded. The Senate has clothed
the consuls and other magistrates with dictatorial power; they are
about to make Lucius Domitius proconsul of Gaul."

"And I?" asked Caesar, for the first time displaying any personal
interest.

"You, Imperator, must disband your army and return to Rome speedily,
or be declared an outlaw, as Sertorius or Catilina was."

"Ah!" and for a minute the proconsul sat motionless, while Drusus
again kept silence.

"But you--my friends--the tribunes?" demanded the general, "you spoke
of danger; why was it that you fled?"

"We fled in slaves' dresses, O Caesar, because otherwise we should long
ago have been strangled like bandits in the Tullianum. Lentulus Crus
drove us with threats from the Senate. On the bridge, but for the
favour of the gods, his lictors would have taken us. We were chased by
Pompeius's foot soldiers as far as Janiculum. We ran away from his
cavalry. If they hate us, your humble friends, so bitterly, how much
the more must they hate you!"

"And the tribunes, and Curio, and Caelius are on their way hither?"
asked Caesar.

"They will be here very soon."

"That is well," replied the proconsul; then, with a totally unexpected
turn, "Quintus Drusus, what do you advise me to do?"

"I--I advise, Imperator?" stammered the young man.

"And who should advise, if not he who has ridden so hard and fast in
my service? Tell me, is there any hope of peace, of reconciliation
with Pompeius?"

"None."

"Any chance that the senators will recover their senses, and propose a
reasonable compromise?"

"None."

"Will not Cicero use his eloquence in the cause of peace and common
justice?"

"I have seen him. He dare not open his mouth."

"Ah!" and again Caesar was silent, this time with a smile, perhaps of
scorn, playing around his mouth.

"Are the people, the equites, given body and soul over to the war
party?"

Drusus nodded sadly. "So long as the consuls are in the ascendant,
they need fear no revolution at home. The people are not at heart your
enemies, Imperator; but they will wait to be led by the winning side."

"And you advise?"--pressed Caesar, return