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104 DARKNESS AND DAWN
those who confronted him with boldness ;
but he triumphed
over all who showed that they feared him. He wanted to
feel perfectly independent. The only person whose power he
feared was his mother. And here was this all-dreaded
mother pleading with him, at whose lightest look he had been
accustomed for years to tremble ! He was not in the leastmoved
;
he only intended to secure the ascendency of which,
in that struggle, he had won the first step.
' '
You curse me,' he said, one moment, and the next you
are all tears and entreaties. Do you think that it is only
your amulet that keeps me from your Furies? You have dishonoured
my image ;
see how much I care for your amulet.
I will never wear it again.'
He unclasped the armlet from his wrist, and flung it to the
other end of the room.
'
'
'
There ! he said. You may have it I have done with
;
it !' And with these words he turned his back upon her, and
went out without a farewell.
It seemed a small matter, and what else could she expect
from such a being as her son a youth soft without tender-
'
ness, caressing without affection, cruel without courage
?
She stood and looked towards the curtain through which
he had disappeared. She stood with gleaming eyes and dilated
nostrils, and firm -set lips. Every tear was dried up in
her burning glance, as she outstretched her clenched hand
and vowed a terrible vengeance.
wronged Britannicus '
she ! murmured
; wronged
'
Octavia ! cannot 1 even now redress your
?
wrongs Alas ! it
cannot be. Their first act would be to avenge the injured
manes of Claudius. But does not Rubellius Plautus live, and
Cornelius Sulla ? Could I not even yet brush this mean and
thankless actor like an insect from my path son though he
'
be and seat one of them upon the throne of the Csesars ?
She picked up the armlet with the serpent's skin. 'It shall
be as he said,' she murmured
;
he shall never wear or see it
'
more.'
When his hour of doom had conie, Nero searched for that
amulet in vain !