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PERILS OF BRITANNICUS 187
'
'
Onesimus,' she said, I have it in my power to befriend
you and if
you will be faithful you may rise to posts of
;
the greatest importance. But such promotion must depend
on your character. May I trust you ? '
'
Surely, Acte '
!
'
Then let me confide to you a secret of the deepest import.
'
You have seen the Prince Britannicus ?
'
'
Yes. He looks a noble boy.'
'
I fear that his life is imperilled it is not necessary to say
by whom. I could weep when I think of the dangers which
threaten him. Your office will give you opportunities of
sometimes seeing him. It is not possible that I should meet
you often but here is a coin which has on it the head of
;
Britannicus. If ever I send you one of these coins, as though
I wanted you to purchase something, will you come to me at
once ? It will be a sign that he is menaced.'
Ouesirnus promised ; and, in truth, the need for watchfulness
was very pressing ; for, on the day which followed
the evening of the Saturnalitiau games, Nero, fretting with
jealousy and alarm, summoned Julius Pollio, the tribune on
whom had been bestowed the post which Pudens had occupied,
and sent him with a message to Locusta. She was
allowed to move about the Palace, but was under the nominal
charge of the guardsmen.
It might well seem amazing that a youth whose disposition
was not innately cruel, and who a few years before had
been a timid, blushing boy, caring mainly for art and amusement,
should have developed, in so brief a space of time, into
the murderer of his brother. But the effects produced by the
vertigo of autocracy on a mean disposition are rapid as well
as terrible. He had soon discovered that it was in his power
to do exactly what he liked ;
and when he had learnt to
regard himself as a god on earth, to whose wishes every law,
divine and human, must give way, there was no vice of which
he did not rapidly become capable. What was the life of a
young boy, who stood in his way, to one who had unchallenged
power over the life and death of millions of subjects
over all the civilised world ?
And yet the fate of his predecessors showed him that the
pinnacle of absolute power was a place of constant peril.
The loss of empire would mean inevitably the loss also of