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356 C H A P. of the night; and the unsuspecting guests were tempted _J L to indulge themselves in a dangerous and guilty free- dom of conversation. On a sudden the doors were thrown open, and Magnentius, who had retired for a few moments, returned into the apartment, invested with the diadem and purple. The conspirators in- stantly saluted him with the titles of Augustus and emperor. The surprise, the terror, the intoxication, the ambitious hopes, and the mutual ignorance of the rest of the assembly, prompted them to join their voices to the general acclamation. The guards hastened to take the oath of fidelity ; the gates of the town were shut ; and before the dawn of day, Magnentius became master of the troops and treasure of the palace and city of Autun. By his secrecy and diligence he enter- tained some hopes of surprising the person of Constans, who was pursuing in the adjacent forest his favourite amusement of hunting, or perhaps some plea- sures of a more private and criminal nature. The rapid progress of fame allowed him, however, an in- stant for flight; though the desertion of his soldiers and subjects deprived him of the power of resistance. Before he could reach a seaport in Spain, where he intended to embark, he was overtaken near Helena, at the foot of the Pyrenees, by a party of light cavalry, whose chief, regardless of the sanctity of a temple, executed his commission by the murder of the son of Constantine.

Magnentius As soon as the death of Constans had decided this nio assume ^^^y ^^^ important revolution, the example of the court the purple, of Autun was imitated by the provinces of the west. A D 350. . March 1. ' The authority of Magnentius was acknowledged through