"
"You jest with me, good father," said Vergilius.
"Nay, but I envy you; for have you not youth and love and the beauty of
Apollo?"
He laid his hand upon the arm of the boy, and there was in his voice
and manner a gentleness to make one regret that he lived not in a
better time; for, perhaps, after all, he was what he had to be as the
ruthless conqueror of a savage world.
"And I--what have I but burdens I dare not lay aside? When I sleep,
even, they press upon me. I am weary--but if I should let them fall,
what, think you, would happen?"
His keen eyes, seeing before them, possibly, the great down-rush to
madness, pressed a glance into the very soul of the young man. The
latter started to reply, but with a look the emperor forbade him.
"Think, good youth--learn to think. It will profit you--there is so
little competition. By-and-by Rome will need you."
Gently, forcefully this teacher of statesmen had given the young knight
his first lesson. It was nearing its end now. The litter had stopped
hard by the gate of the Lady Lucia.
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