Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/285

]

True; fortune has been against our arms in those regions. But 'twas the rumour of the great armament which the Emperor Constantius was preparing for the spring that alarmed the Armenians and the other nations.—Oh, reckon out the time, sire, count the days if you will, and say if it can possibly be otherwise. Your march hither from Gaul was marvellously rapid; but the journey of these men from the Indian isles; it would be tenfold more marvellous if; ask them, and you will hear

[Pale with anger.] Why do you say all this to me?

Because it is the truth, and because I cannot bear to see your fresh and fair renown darkened by borrowed trappings.

What audacity!

What brazen audacity!

You cannot bear, forsooth! You cannot bear! Oh, I know you better. I know all you old courtiers. It is the gods whose glory you would disparage. For is it not to the glory of the gods that through a man they can compass such great things! But you hate them, these gods, whose temples you have thrown down, whose statues you have broken to pieces, and whose treasures you