The features of Gallus took on an expression of boyish terror.
"No, no; I tell you all is over! I am as neatly finished as a fish already hooked. 'He' is drawing in the line gently, so that it doesn't break. A Cæsar, let him be who he will, is always a big fish to land. I know that it's impossible to escape. He'll take me one day or another.... And now I see the snare, and I am walking into it all the same out of fear. For six years, from the very first, I quaked before that man. Like a small boy, now however I've walked far enough. Brother, he'll cut my throat as a cook cuts the throat of a fowl. But he will torture me first by a thousand stratagems and caresses. I should prefer to finish quicker."
The eyes of Gallus became suddenly brilliant, and he exclaimed—
"Ah, if she had been here, at my side, she would certainly have saved me! She was such an astonishing woman!"
The tribune Scuda, entering the triclinium where supper was laid, announced, with a profound salutation, that on the morrow, in honour of the arrival of Cæsar, there would be races in the hippodrome of Constantinople, and that the celebrated rider Korax would take part in them. Gallus was delighted at the news, and ordered a crown of bay-leaf to be prepared, that, in case of the victory of Korax, he might himself crown his favourite before the people. He launched into racing stories, boasting the skill of his charioteers.
Gallus drank deeply, laughed like a man whose rakish conscience is at ease, with not a trace of his recent fears upon those handsome features. Only at the last moment of farewell he kissed Julian heartily, suddenly melting into tears.
"May God help you! May God help you!" he blubbered. "You alone have stood my friend—you and Constantia!"
Then he whispered into Julian's ear—
"I hope that you'll save your skin, brother. You can wear a mask and keep your own counsel; I have always envied you that. May God succour you!"
Julian sincerely pitied his brother; he knew that he would not escape Constantius.