Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/461

] The camp shall break up! Go, Jovian, see that the vanguard is afoot within an hour. The Persian knows the way. Go!

As you command, my august Emperor!

[He goes out to the right.

You would burn the fleet? Then surely you have great things in your mind.

Tell me, would the Macedonian Alexander have ventured this?

Did Alexander know where the danger threatened?

True, true! I know it. All the powers of victory are in league with me. Omens and signs yield up their mystic secrets to advance my empire.

Is it not said of the Galilean, that spirits came and ministered unto him?—To whom do the spirits now minister?

What would the Galilean say, were he present unseen among us?

He would say: the third empire is at hand.

The third empire is here, Maximus! I feel that the Messiah of the earth lives in me. The