Again the emperor stretched himself on the couch, and again his slumbers were interrupted. A murmur was heard along the halls and passages where the guards were stationed. The noise grew louder, approaching the very door of the royal chamber. The monarch started as from a dream, and the door at that moment opened. The Chaldean soothsayer stood before him.
"Azor!" said the emperor, "at this hour? What betides such unseemly greeting?"
"Cæsar trembles on his throne; but the world quakes not! The angel of death is at thy door. Caracalla hath returned."
"Returned? Surely thy wits are disturbed. Caracalla! Ay, even yesterday, we had despatches from the camp."
"Howbeit, he is at thy threshold. The sound of his feet is behind me."
"Impossible! the mischief is not from him."
"Even now I looked in the crystal, and behold"——The soothsayer paused. Horror was gathering on his features. The light suspended above him began to quiver; and as it waved to and fro his countenance assumed a tremulous and distorted expression.
Severus watched the result with no little anxiety. The magician drew a crystal cup from his girdle. Looking in apparently with great alarm, he presented it at arm's length to the emperor, who beheld a milky cloud slowly undulating within the vessel.
"Take this," said the soothsayer, "and tell me what thou seest."
The monarch took it at his bidding. The cloud seemed to be clearing away, as the morning mist before the sun.