Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/197

]

[Also to the Tribune.] I dare scarcely think what turn this inroad of the Alemanni might have taken, but for Caesar's courage and conduct. [Pressing forward.] Yes, yes; Caesar is great! [Clapping their hands.] Caesar is peerless! [Looks for a time alternately at and the others; thereupon breaks out into a loud, short laugh.] So blind is friendship, Decentius! So blind, so blind! [He turns to the rest, and taps the roll of paper in his hand.

Here I read far other tidings! listen and drink in the refreshing dew of knowledge. This is the Emperor's despatch to all the proconsuls of the empire;—our excellent Decentius has brought me a copy of it. Here we learn that I have accomplished nothing in Gaul. It was, as I told you, a dream. Here we have the Emperor's own words: it was under the Emperor's happy auspices that the imminent danger to the empire was averted.

All the affairs of the empire flourish under the Emperor's auspices.

More, more. It is here set forth that it was the Emperor who fought and conquered on the