_A room in the house of Piso._
_Enter FLAVUS and PISO, meeting._
_FLAVUS._
My lord, I come from Rufus.
_PISO._
Give thy message.
_Fla._ Natalis and Scevinus both are taken.
All must be known; and your complicity
The first: meanwhile Rufus is unsuspected;
Cæsar hath summoned him to sit as judge
In trial of the accused this afternoon.
He has therefore this last hope, but only this,
That you with all your friends proceed at once
To the fort of the guard: he will proclaim you there,
Relying on the people, who well know
Your prudence, and may passively accept
The revolution as a thing accomplished.
Seeing you countenance it, and have your title
Supported by the guards.
_Pis._ Calls he this hope?
’Tis the forlorn hope.
_Fla._ Desperation, my lord,
Is not despair. I venture it with gladness.
_Pis._ So do not I. I am no doubt betrayed
Already and watched.
_Fla._ Rufus may still be clear:
The informers will not name him while the guards
Remain their last resource.
_Pis._ Bid him act quickly,
And for himself.
_Fla._ My lord, he looks to you.
Unless you appear we cannot gain the people.
Consider how we have all trusted our lives
To your concerted action: now stand forth
And help us as you can.
_Pis._ Stay, man; consider
How I have trusted my life to your action;
And what ye have done with it: my stake in this
Compares no more with thine than does my prize
In the success with thine: I should be Cæsar,
Thou Flavus still: so, if we fail, I suffer
In like degree, my family dishonoured,
My rich estates cónfiscate, my innocent,
Honest dependants, whom I count by thousands,
All plunged in misery: to them my duties
Forbid this reckless hazard.—Return to Rufus,
And say so much. I utter no reproach
’Gainst thee nor any other; I forgive
What reproach thou didst hint. I know thou’rt brave;
Thou hast wished well, and I with thee; but now
Our ill-built ship founders. I am your captain;
My word is each man for himself: my part
I shall act no less bravely, that I see
All goes to the bottom.
_Fla._ Defer, my lord, to the last.
I’ll save you if I may. I will go armed
To the trial.
_Pis._ Act for thyself; think not of me.
Now bear my word to Rufus. Go this way.
[_Exit, showing Flavus out._