‘There!’ he said. ‘You may have it; I have done with it!’ And with these words he turned his back upon her, and went out without a farewell.
It seemed a small matter, and what else could she expect from such a being as her son—a youth soft without tenderness, caressing without affection, cruel without courage?
She stood and looked towards the curtain through which he had disappeared. She stood with gleaming eyes and dilated nostrils, and firm-set lips. Every tear was dried up in her burning glance, as she outstretched her clenched hand and vowed a terrible vengeance.
‘O wronged Britannicus!’ she murmured; ‘O wronged Octavia! cannot I even now redress your wrongs? Alas! it cannot be. Their first act would be to avenge the injured manes of Claudius. But does not Rubellius Plautus live, and Cornelius Sulla? Could I not even yet brush this mean and thankless actor like an insect from my path—son though he be—and seat one of them upon the throne of the Cæsars?’
She picked up the armlet with the serpent’s skin. ‘It shall be as he said,’ she murmured; ‘he shall never wear or see it more.’
When his hour of doom had come, Nero searched for that amulet in vain!
CHAPTER XV
EMPEROR AND ÆSTHETE.
‘The skipping king, he ambled up and down
With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled and soon burned, carded his state,