XXII
The Emperor Constantius meantime was passing at Antioch a somewhatmelancholy period. At night he had alarming visions and kept six lampsburning in his chamber till daybreak in the vain endeavour to relievehis fears of darkness. Hour after hour would he lie motionless andmoody, starting at the least sound. Once he dreamed he saw his father,Constantine the Great, holding a sturdy and mischievous child in hisarms. Constantius took the child and placed him on his right hand,attempting the while to hold in his left a great ball of crystal. Butthe child in wilfulness pushed the globe, which fell and broke; andits fragments, piercing like needles, buried themselves in the body ofConstantius, darting with intolerable pain, burning, and hissing intohis brain, eyes, and heart. The Emperor awoke, bathed in a coldperspiration. He consulted sorcerers, diviners, celebrated magicians.Troops were assembled at Antioch for a campaign against Julian.Sometimes after a moody fit of immobility the Emperor was seized withan impulse to action; the greater number of Court officials found thishaste unreasonable, and confided to each other their fears as to themental state of the august sovereign.
The autumn was reaching its end when he left Antioch. At noon, aboutthree miles from the city, near the village of Hypocephalus, theEmperor saw an unknown mutilated body lying on the road. Facing thesouth the corpse was stretched to the right of Constantius, who was onhorseback. The head was separated from the body.
The Emperor grew pale and turned away. None of the riders round himuttered a word, all being aware that the omen was an evil one. In thetown of Tarsus in Cilicia, Constantius had shivering fits and feltweakness, but he paid them no attention nor consulted leeches,believing that riding in the hot sun over the steep mountains wouldproduce reaction and relief.
He rode towards the little town of Mopsucrenam at the foot of MountTarsus, the last halting-place before crossing the Cilician border.
On the way he suffered several times from violent giddiness, whichobliged him to dismount and lie down in a litter. Subsequently theeunuch Eusebius tells how, when lying in the palanquin, the Emperortook from his bosom and tenderly kissed a precious stone on which wasengraven the profile of the late Empress Eusebia Aurelia.
At one of the cross-roads he asked whither one of the ways led, andwhen he was told to the abandoned palace of the kings of Cappadocia,at Macellum, his brow clouded. Mopsucrenam was reached at night-fall.Constantius was weary and full of gloom. Hardly had he entered thehouse which had been prepared when one of the courtiers, against thecommand of Eusebius, thoughtlessly announced to the Emperor that twocouriers from the southern provinces were awaiting him.
Constantius ordered them to be admitted, in spite of the supplicationsof Eusebius, his favourite chamberlain, who advised him to postponebusiness till the morrow. The Emperor declared that he felt better,and suffered from nothing but a slight pain at the nape of his neck.
The first courier, trembling and livid, was ushered in.
"Tell me all, immediately!" exclaimed Constantius, dismayed at theman's expression.
The courier then narrated the audacious movements of Julian, who,before the assembled army, had torn up the Imperial rescript. Gaul,Pannonia, Aquitania, had submitted to Julian, and the traitorous armywas advancing to encounter Constantius, with all the legions to begathered from those provinces.
The Emperor stood up, his face disfigured by fury, and, seizing themessenger by the throat, shook him.
"You lie, caitiff! You lie! You lie!... There is still a God in heavento shield the kings of the earth ...and He will not permit, do youunderstand!... Fools!... He will not permit...."
He had a spasm of weakness, and covered his eyes with his hand; thecourier, more dead than alive, slunk to the door.
"To-morrow," stammered Constantius wildly; "to-morrow we absolutelymust set out!... by forced marches, direct ... as the crow flies ...over the mountains.... We absolutely must go to Constantinople."
Eusebius approached him, with the humblest of bows--
"Divine Augustus! The Lord God has granted you, you His chosen,victory over your enemies. You have annihilated Magnentius,Constantius, Vetranio, Gallus. You will crush this impious----"
But Constantius, wagging his head without listening, muttered--
"Then He exists not; if it is all true, and I am single-handed, alone!Who dares to say that 'He' exists, when such crimes can beaccomplished! I've been thinking so a long time...."
He cast a dull look on the courtiers present and said--
"Call in the other."
A physician came up--a courtier-like person, with a clean-shaven rosyface, an Armenian who assumed the airs of a Roman patrician. Heobserved respectfully that too keen emotion might be harmful to theEmperor, that he should rest.... Constantius waved him away like anirritating fly.
The second courier was shown in. He was Cintula, the tribune of theImperial stables, who had escaped from Lutetia. He brought theterrible news that the inhabitants of Sirmium[7] had opened theirdoors to Julian, and welcomed him as the saviour of the country. Intwo days he would debouch on the great Roman road leading toConstantinople.
[7] On the Save, at no great distance from Belgrade.
The Emperor either did not hear, or did not understand, the last wordsof the messenger. His face became strangely rigid. He made a gestureof dismissal to all present. Eusebius alone remained to talk thebusiness over with him. In another quarter of an hour Constantiusordered that he should be assisted to his chamber, and made severalsteps. Then a cry escaped him; he pressed his hands to his head, as ifhe suddenly felt terrible pain. Courtiers ran to support him. TheEmperor did not lose consciousness. By his face and movements, and theveins, standing out like whipcord on his forehead, it was evident thathe was making fearful efforts to speak.
Finally he stammered slowly, word by word, as if being throttled by aniron collar--
"I--want--to--speak--and--I--cannot!" Those were his last words;paralysis had stricken the whole of his right side. His arm and legfell inert.
He was carried to bed, but his eyes were wakeful and intelligent, andhe struggled to utter something--some important order perhaps. Fromhis lips came only confused sounds, like weak lowings. No oneunderstood what he wanted, and the invalid fixed his clear gaze inturn on each present. Eunuchs, courtiers, generals, slaves, throngedround the dying man, helplessly desirous of doing his last behest.
At moments the clear eye became angered and the lowing hoarse. At lastEusebius understood, and brought wax and tablets. At the sight ofthese a flash of joy was seen on the Emperor's face. He gripped thesteel stylus awkwardly, like a child. After some struggles, hesucceeded in tracing a few letters on the soft wax, and the courtierswith difficulty deciphered the word "_Baptism_." Constantius fixed hissupplicating look on Eusebius, and everybody wondered at not havingunderstood before. He was desirous of being baptised before death,having, like his father Constantine, always postponed this sacramentto the last, in the belief that he could then miraculously cleanse hissoul and leave it whiter than snow. A messenger was despatched for thebishop. There proved to be none in Mopsucrenam, and recourse was hadto the Arian priest of the basilica. He was a timid man, with abird-like face, red-nosed, with a goat's beard, and a provincialmanner.
When disturbed by the messengers, Father Nymphodion was enjoying histenth wine-cup, and seemed in too cheerful a mood. It was impossibleto make clear to him the matter in hand, and he grew angry at what hebelieved to be raillery. But when at length convinced that fate haddesignated him to baptise an Emperor he nearly lost his reason. Whenhe entered the chamber of the sick man, the Emperor gazed on thetrembling priest with such humility that it was evident he feared todie, and was eager to hasten the ceremony. Meantime the town had beenscoured in vain for a basin of gold or silver. It is true that ajewelled one was available, but it had served for the bacchicmysteries of Dionysus; and the common copper basin used by theparishioners of the basilica was therefore preferable. This copperbasin was brought to the bed and warm water poured into it. The d
octorwas about to feel its temperature, but the Emperor made a brusquemovement and groaned, lest the water should be sullied. The dyingman's tunic was taken off. Strong arms of legionaries raised him, likea child, and immersed him. The wasted face of Constantius, his eyesfixed and wide open, stared at the cross fixed above the Labarum, thegolden standard of Constantine. It was an obstinate and vacuous stare,as of children when they see some dazzling object and cannot turn awayfrom it.
The ceremony did not soothe the sick man, who seemed to have forgotteneverything. Volition came into his eyes for the last time whenEusebius again stretched out to him the waxen tablet, but Constantius,unable to write, only traced with his finger the name "_Julian_." Didhe desire to pardon his enemy or to bequeath his vengeance?
For three days he lay in the extremity of death; courtiers murmured toeach other that this was evidently some special punishment of God, whowould not permit him to die. But they referred to him always as "TheDivine Augustus," "His Holiness," and "The Eternal." His sufferingsmust have been great; the low moaning turned into a steadydeath-rattle, which went on day and night. Courtiers came in and wentout, eagerly hoping for the end. The eunuch Eusebius alone never lefthis master. Many a crime had this eunuch upon his conscience; all thetangled threads of reports, espials, and ecclesiastical broils weregathered in his hands. But he alone in the palace proved his love tohis master, and at night when everyone was sleeping, or had withdrawn,worn out by the task of nursing, Eusebius remained by the bedside,arranging pillows, cooling the dry lips with ice, or kneeling at thefeet of the Emperor in prayer. When none saw, Eusebius would gentlylift the purple coverlet and weepingly kiss the feet, now pale andbenumbed. Once it seemed to him that Constantius noticed this caressand thanked him with a look. Something fraternal and tender passedbetween the two cruel, ill-starred, and solitary men.
Eusebius closed the eyes of the Emperor; the Church recited over him,before the body was committed to the tomb--
"Rise again, O king of the earth! Answer the summons of thy comingJudge, the King of kings!"
The Death of the Gods Page 23
