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] of certain others. Not that I am vacillating. Do not think that! Nor do I see any reason to doubt a favourable issue. For those omens should by no means discourage us. The fact that I retained the handle, when my shield broke during the games, may with ample reason, I think, be taken to mean that I shall succeed in holding what my hand has grasped. And if, in vaulting upon my horse, I overthrew the man who helped me to mount, may not this portend a sudden fall to Constantius, to whom I owe my rise? Be this as it may, my Sallust, I look forward to composing a treatise which shall most clearly justify

Very good, my gracious lord; but the soldiers are impatient; they would fain see you, and learn their fate from your own lips.

Go, go and pacify them;—tell them that Caesar will presently show himself.

My lord, 'tis not Caesar, it is the Emperor himself they want to see.

The Emperor is coming.

Then he comes—though empty-handed—yet with the lives of thousands in his hands!