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158 DARKNESS AND DAWN
the orphan son of a murdered mother of a father ;
foully dealt
with, infamously calumniated. What cared the Eoman world
whether he perished or not, or how he perished
? He choked
down the sob which rose, and left his brother's presence in
silence ; but, as he traversed the long corridor to the room of
Octavia, he could not help asking himself, with dread forebodings,
what would be his fate Would ?
he be starved, like
the younger Drusus ? or poisoned, like the elder ? or bidden
to end his own life, like poor young Tiberius Gemellus ? or
assassinated by violence, like Agrippa Posthumus ? How
was he better than they
? And if he perished, who would
care to avenge him ? But, oh God ! if there were such a God
as He in whom the Christians believed, what a world was this
into which he had been plunged
! What sin had he or his ancestors
committed, that these hell-dogs of wrong and murder
banned his steps from birth ? The old Eomans had been
strong and noble and simple. Even in the days of Augustus
they could thrill to the lesson of Virgil :
'Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento ;
Hae tibi erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem,
'
Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos.
Whence the present dearth of all nobleness ? What creeping
paralysis of immoral apathy had stricken this corrupt and
servile aristocracy, this nerveless and obsequious Senate ?
From what black pit of Acheron had surged up the slime of
universal corruption which polluted every class around him
with ignoble debaucheries ? He saw on every side of him a
remorseless egotism, an unutterable sadness, the fatalism of
infidelity and despair. A poisoning of the blood with physical
and moral madness seemed to have become the heritage
of the ruling Caesars. Where could he look for relief? Men
had ceased to believe in the gods. The Stoics had nothing
better to offer than hard theories and the possibility of suicide
and what a thing must life be if it had no more precious
privilege than the means of its own agonising and violent
suppression !
Britannicus was intelligent beyond his years, and thoughts
like these chased each other through his mind as he made his
way with slow and painful steps to the rooms of his sister. For
an instant the thought of a rebellion flashed across his mind,
but it was at once rejected. What could he do ? He was