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238 DARKNESS AND DAWN
are nobodies ; poor pieces on the
'
moved them ?
draughts-board. Who
'
Junia Silaua.'
Junia Silana! Ah ! now I understand it all the whole
'
vile plot from beginning to end ! Silana false wife, false
friend, evil woman what does she know of the sacredness
of motherhood? Children cannot be got rid of by their
mother so easily as lovers are by an adulteress. So ! I am to
be branded with the fictitious infamy of parricide, and Nero
with its actual guilt, that two broken-down freedmen may repay
their debts to the old woman their mistress ?
'
And you, sirs,' she said, raising herself to the full height of
'
her stature, ought you not to blush for the sorry part you
have played
? Instead of repaying me the gratitude which
you owe to one who recalled you, Seneca, from your disgraceful
exile, and raised you, Burrus, from the dust instead of
making the Emperor ashamed of attaching a feather's- weight
of importance to this paralytic comedy of pantomimes,
scoundrels, and rancorous old women you have encouraged
him to try and humiliate me ! I am ashamed of you,' she
cried, with the imperious gesture which had often made bold
men tremble; 'for as for these gentlemen' and she
glanced at the freedmen 'they, of course, must do as they
are bid. And so, such are my accusers Who will bear
!
who
witness that I have ever tampered with the city cohorts ?
that I have intrigued in the provinces
? who that I have
bribed one slave or one freedinan ?
They charge me with
mourning for the death of Britannicus. Why, had Britannicus
become emperor, whose head would have fallen sooner than
that of his mother's enemy and his own ? And Eubellius
Plautus if he were emperor would he be able for a single
month to protect me from accusers who, alas ! would be able
to charge me, not with the incautious freedom of a mother's
indignant utterance, but with deeds from which I can be
absolved by no one but that son for whose sake they were
committed.'
For one moment her nature broke down under the rush of
her emotion, and her glowing cheek was bathed in tears ; but,
recovering herself before she could dash the tears aside, she
repudiated the awkward attempts at consolation offered by
her judges, who themselves were deeply moved.