of a great victory gained over
the Caledonians, whom he had driven beyond Adrian's Wall. Though
suffering from severe illness, he was carried in a horse-litter; and,
marching from York at the head of his troops, penetrated almost to the
extremity of the island, where he subdued that fierce and intractable
nation the Scots. Returning, he left his son Caracalla to superintend
the building of a stone wall across the island in place of the earthen
ramparts called Adrian's; a structure, when completed, that
effectually resisted the inroads of those barbarians for a
considerable period.

He called a third time to Virius Lupus, one, the most confidential of
his attendants, to whom many of the most important secrets of the
state were entrusted.

"Thrice have I heard it, Virius. Again and again it seems to mock and
elude my grasp." He paused, the officer yet listening with becoming
reverence. The emperor continued, more like one whose thoughts had
taken utterance than as if he were addressing the individual before
him.

"When I led the Pannonian legions to victory; when Rome opened her
gates at my command; when I fought my way through blood to the
throne--I quailed not then! Now--satiated with power, careless of
fame, the prospects of life closed, and for ever--when all that is
left for me to do is to die--behold, I tremble at the shaking of a
leaf! I start even at the footstep that awakes me!"

"Long live the emperor!" said the cringing secretary. Interrupting
him, as he would have proceeded with the customary adulations, the
emperor again continued as though hardly noticing his presence--

"Caracalla yet remains with the army. Once I censured the misguided
clemency of Marcus, who by an act of justice might have prevented the
miseries that his son Caligula brought upon the empire; and yet I,
even I," said the haughty monarch, bitterly, "nourish the very
weakness that in others I despise!"

He dashed away the sweat from his brow, ashamed of the weakness he
could not quell.

"He hath sought your life," said the wily sycophant.

"He hath. Traitor! parricide! the distinctions he would have earned.
But my better genius triumphed, and history hath been spared this
infamy. It may be, this temporary exile from our court with the
northern army shall tame his spirit to submission. My life or his,
once the bitter alternative, may yet be avoided."

"But may not his presence with the army be impolitic, should he turn
the weapon