Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/458

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Nothing can be more pressing than this. You must hear me!

Then in the name of fortune and wisdom, speak, my brother!

[Draws him apart, and says in a low voice.] You know how I have striven to search and spell out, both in books and through auguries, the issue of this campaign?

I know that you have been unable to foretell anything.

The omens spoke and the writings confirmed them. But the answer which always came was so strange that I could not but think myself mistaken.

But now?

When we departed from Antioch, I wrote to Rome to consult the Sibylline Books

Yes, yes!

This very moment the answer has arrived; a courier from the governor of Antioch brought it.

Ah, Maximus,—and its purport?