"The slipnoose of death is already here! 'He' is tightening it little
by little. Why, he would unearth me from a rabbit-burrow, Julian! No,
no, best speak no more of it! All's over! We've made the most of time,
that's all."
"But you have two legions left you at Antioch?"
"Not one. 'He' has filched all my best soldiers, little by little,
under colour of this pretext and that; and always, by Jove! for my own
good! Why, everything he does is for my own good.... He thinks of
nothing else! Now he's in a hurry to see me simply to profit by my
advice. Julian, that man is terrible! You don't know yet, and God
grant that you may never know, what that man is. He sees everything,
knows my inmost thoughts, those that I wouldn't mutter to my pillow;
and he's watching your mind also. Frankly, I am afraid of him!"
"But can't you escape?"
"Hush, speak lower!"
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."