a glance at some military maps of the
Roman Empire, which lay unrolled upon the table.

"First trample upon these barbarians: Rome! Then once more subdue the
North: Paris! Then reduce the rebellious East to its old subjection to
the Caesar-city: Byzantium! and farther, even farther, to the Tigris, to
the Indus; farther than Alexander; and back to the West, through
Scythia and Germania, to the Tiber; the path, Caesar, which Brutus'
dagger cut off for thee. And so to be greater than thou, greater than
Alexander----hold, my thought! Enough!"

And the heart of the icy Cethegus flamed and glowed; the veins of his
temples throbbed violently; he pressed his burning forehead against the
cold marble breast of Julius Caesar, who majestically looked down upon
him.

CHAPTER IX.

The day of the King's death was not only decisive for Cethegus, but
also for the conspiracy in the Catacombs, for Italy, and for the Gothic
kingdom.

Although the intrigues of the patriots--led by different men, who were
not agreed upon the means, nor even upon the aims of their plots--had,
till now, made slow and doubtful progress, this state of things was
completely altered from the moment when Cethegus took the conduct of
affairs into his own strong hands. Only then did the conspiracy become
really dangerous to the Goths.

Cethegus untiringly sought to undermine the security of their kingdom.
With his great capacity for winning and governing men, and penetrating
their motives, he was able daily to increase the number of important
members and the means of success. He understood how to avoid the
suspicion of the Goths on the one hand, and to prevent any untimely
rebellion on the other. For it would have been easy to attack the
barbarians in all the towns of the Peninsula on some special day, and
to call upon the Byzantines--who had long since been on the watch for
such a crisis--to complete the conquest. But in this way the Prefect
would not have been able to carry out his secret plans. He would merely
have put Byzantine tyranny in the place of Gothic rule. And we know
that he had very different intentions. In order to fulfil them, he
wished first to create for himself a power in Italy, greater than any
other man possessed. Before the foot of a Byzantine was set upon
Italian soil, he must become--although in secret--the mightiest man in
the country. All must be so prepared that the barbarians should be
driven away