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listened to these stories
INSTRUMENTA IMPERII 17
of the Greek freedman with the indifference
of disdain. But it was far otherwise when he told
her that Narcissus had been heard to utter very dangerous
speeches. He had said that whether Britannicus or Nero
succeeded, he himself was doomed to perish. Britannicus
would hate him as the man who had brought about the death
of his mother Messalina. Nero would hate him, because he
had opposed his adoption, and the marriage of his mother to
the Emperor, both which events had been achieved by the
rival influence of Pallas. Still Narcissus was faithful to his
kind master, and Britannicus was the Emperor's son. The
freedman had been seen to embrace Britannicus; he had
spoken of him as the ' true image of Claudius '
had stretched
;
forth his hands now to him and now to heaven, and had
prayed '
that the boy might grow speedily to man's estate, and
drive away the enemies of his father, even if he also took
vengeance on the slayer of his mother.'
Agrippina listened to this report with anxious disquietude,
and Pallas told her further that lately the Emperor had often
pressed Britannicus and Octavia to his heart had
; spoken of
their wrongs had declared that they should not be ousted
;
from their place in his affections by the crafty and upstart
sou of such a wretch as Domitius Ahenobarbus, of whom it
might be said, as the orator Licinius Crassus said of his ancestor,
No ' wonder his beard was of brass, since his tongue
was of iron, and his heart of lead.' Claudius often repeated
himself, and when he saw his son he had several times used
the Greek proverb, 6 rpcaa-as /cat Ida-erai, ' he who wounded
shall also heal you.'
But worse news followed, and Agrippina grasped the side
of her couch with an impulse of terror, when, last of all, Pallas
told her that, on that very evening, the Emperor, in his cups,
had been heard to mutter to some of his intimates ' that he
more than suspected the designs of his wife ;
and that it had
always been his destiny to bear the flagitious conduct of his
consorts for a time, but at last to avenge it.'
As she heard these words Agrippina stood up, her arms outstretched,
her fine nostril dilated, her whole countenance
inflamed with rage and scorn. 'The dotard !' she exclaimed,
'
the miserable, drivelling, drunken dotard ! He to speak
thus of me !
Pallas, the hour for delay is over. It is time