“So?” said he, “you are in league with astrologers and magicians against me! But, by the Gods! I can protect myself.”
He clapped his hands, and some of the guard appeared in the doorway.
“Remove him,” said the Emperor. “I have given orders concerning him already. Hey! Magus! knowest thou what will be thy doom, thou who pretendest to read the fate of men in the stars?”
“Augustus,” answered the necromancer, “I have read that I should be rent by wild dogs.”
“Sayest thou so? Then by Jupiter! I will make thy forecast come to naught. Go, Eulogius!—it is my command that he be at once, mark you, this very night, burned alive. We will see whether his prophecies come true. Here is my order.”
Domitian plucked a packet of tablets from his bosom, bound together with a string, drew forth one, and wrote hastily on it, then pressed his seal on the wax that covered the slab and handed it to the officer.
Then the guard surrounded the astrologer, and led him away.
Domitian waved his hand.
“Every one out of earshot,” ordered he, and he walked to the window and looked forth.
It was already night; to the south the sky was quivering with lightning, summer flashes, without thunder.