Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (156 page)

JULIAN.
himself with outstretched arms into the midst of the soldiers, crying
:] Fellow-soldiers, brothers in arms, — save me from my enemies!

DECENTIUS.
Ah, what is this — ?

WILD CRIES.
Down with Caesar! Strike him down!

JULIAN.
Close round me in a circle; draw your swords!

MAURUS.
They are drawn already!

WOMEN.
Strike him, cut him down!

JULIAN.
I thank you for coming! Maurus! Honest Maurus! Yes, yes; you I can trust.

A BATAVIAN SOLDIER.
How dare you send us to the ends of the earth? Was that what you swore to us?

OTHER ALLIES.
Not over the Alps! We are not bound to go!

JULIAN.
Not to Rome! I will not go; they would murder me, as they murdered my brother Gallus!

MAURUS.
What say you, my lord?

DECENTIUS.
Do not believe him!

JULIAN.
Lay no finger on the noble Decentius; the fault is not his.

LAIPSO.
[A Subaltern
.] That is true; the fault is Caesar’s.

JULIAN.
Ah, is that you, Laipso! My gallant friend, is that you? You fought well at Argentoratum.

LAIPSO.
Caesar has not forgotten that?

VARRO.
[A Subaltern.]
But he forgets his promises!

JULIAN.
Was not that the voice of the undaunted Varro? Ah, there he is! Your wound is healed, I see. Oh, well-deserving soldier, — why would they not let me make you captain?

VARRO.
Was it indeed your wish?

JULIAN.
Blame not the Emperor for refusing my request. The Emperor knows none of you as I know you.

DECENTIUS.
Soldiers, hear me — !

MANY VOICES.
We have nothing to do with the Emperor!

OTHERS.
[Pressing forward menacingly
.] It is Caesar we call to account!

JULIAN.
What power has your hapless Caesar, my friends? They would take me to Rome. They deny even the control of my private affairs. They seize upon my share of the spoils of war. I thought to give every soldier five gold pieces and a pound of silver, but —

THE SOLDIERS.
What does he say?

JULIAN.
‘Tis not the Emperor who forbids it, but bad and envious councillors. The Emperor is good, my dear friends! But oh, the Emperor is sick; he can do nothing —

MANY SOLDIERS.
Five gold pieces and a pound of silver!

OTHER SOLDIERS.
And that they deny us!

OTHERS AGAIN.
Who dares deny Caesar anything?

MAURUS.
Is it thus they treat Caesar, the soldiers’ father?

LAIPSO.
Caesar, who has been rather our friend than our master? Is it not true?

MANY VOICES.
Yes, yes, it is!

VARRO.
Should not Caesar, the victorious general, be suffered to choose his captains as he pleases?

MAURUS Should he not have free control over the spoils that fall to his share?

LOUD SHOUTS.
Yes, yes, yes!

JULIAN.
Alas, what would it profit you? What need you care for worldly goods, you, who are to be led forth to the most distant lands, to meet a doubtful fate — ?

SOLDIERS.
We will not go!

JULIAN.
Look not at me; I am ashamed; I can scarce help weeping when I think that, within a few months, you will be a prey to pestilence, famine, and the weapons of a bloodthirsty foe.

MANY SOLDIERS.
[Pressing round him
j Caesar! Kind Caesar!

JULIAN.
And your defenceless wives and children, whom you must leave behind in your scattered homes! Who shall protect them in their pitiable plight, soon to be widowed and fatherless, and exposed to the vengeful onslaughts of the Alemanni?

THE WOMEN.
[Weeping]
Caesar, Caesar, protect us!

JULIAN.
[
Weeping likewise
.] What is Caesar? What can the fallen Caesar do?

LAIPSO.
Write to the Emperor, and let him know —

JULIAN.
Ah, what is the Emperor? The Emperor is sick in mind and body; he is broken down by his care for the empire’s weal. Is it not so, Decentius?

DECENTIUS.
Yes, doubtless; but —

JULIAN.
How it cut me to the heart when I heard —
[Pressing the hands of those around him.
Pray for his soul, you who worship the good Christ! Offer sacrifices for his recovery, you who have remained faithful to the gods of your fathers! — Know you that the Emperor has held a triumphal entry into Rome?

MAURUS.
The Emperor!

VARRO.
What? As he returned, beaten, from the Danube?

JULIAN.
As he returned from the Danube, he held a triumph for our victories —

DECENTIUS.
[Threateningly.]
Noble Caesar, reflect — !

JULIAN.
Yes, the Tribune says well; reflect how our Emperor’s mind must be clouded, when he can do such things! Oh, my sorely afflicted kinsman! When he rode into Rome through the mighty arch of Constantine, he fancied himself so tall that he bent his back and bowed his head down to his saddle-bow.

MAURUS.
Like a cock in a doorway.
[Laughter among the soldiers.

SOME VOICES.
Is that an Emperor?

VARRO.
Shall we obey him?

LAIPSO.
Away with him!

MAURUS.
Caesar, do you take take the helm!

DECENTIUS.
Rebellion — !

MANY VOICES.
Seize the throne; seize the throne, Caesar!

JULIAN.
Madmen! Is this language for Romans? Would you imitate the barbarous Alemanni? What was it Knodomar cried at Argentoratum? Answer me, good Maurus, — what did he cry out?

MAURUS.
He cried,
“
Long live the Emperor Julian!”

JULIAN.
Ah, hush, hush! What are you saying?

MAURUS.
Long live the Emperor Julian!

THOSE BEHIND.
What is afoot?

VARRO.
They are proclaiming Julian Emperor!

LOUD CRIES.
Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor Julian!
[The cry spreads in wider and wider circles without; all talk together;
JULIAN
cannot make himself heard for some time.

JULIAN.
Oh, I entreat you — ! Soldiers, friends, brothers in arms, — see, I stretch out my trembling arms to you — ! Be not alarmed, my Decentius! — Oh that I should live to see this! I do not blame you, my faithful friends; it is despair that has driven you to this. You will have it? Good; I submit to the will of the army. — Sintula, call the generals together. — You, Tribune, can bear witness to Constantius that ‘twas only on compulsion that I —
[He turns to
Varro.] GO, captain, and make known throughout the camp this unlooked-for turn of events. I will write without delay to Rome —

SALLUST.
My lord, the soldiers clamour to see you.

MAURUS.
A circlet of gold on your head, Emperor!

JULIAN.
I have never possessed such a gaud.

MAURUS.
This will serve.
[He takes off his gold chain, and winds it several times round Caesar’s brow.

SHOUTS OUTSIDE.
The Emperor, the Emperor! We will see the Emperor!

SOLDIERS.
On the shield with him! Up, up!
[The bystanders raise
Julian
aloft on a shield, and show him to the multitude, amid long-continued acclamations.

JULIAN.
The will of the army be clone! I bow before the inevitable, and renew all my promises —

LEGIONARIES.
Five gold pieces and a pound of silver!

BATAVIANS.
Not over the Alps!

JULIAN.
We will occupy Vienna. ‘Tis the strongest city in Gaul, and well supplied with provisions of every sort. There I intend to wait until we see whether my afflicted kinsman sanctions what we have here determined, for the empire’s weal —

SALLUST.
That he will never do, my lord!

JULIAN.
[
With upstretched hands
.] Divine wisdom enlighten his darkened soul, and guide him for the best! Be thou with me, Fortune, who hast never yet deserted me!

MYRRHA AND THE WOMEN.
[Lamenting outside on the right.]
Dead, dead, dead!

ACT FIFTH
.

At Vienna
[
in Gaul]. A vaulted space in the catacombs. To the left a winding passage running upwards
.
In the background, a flight of steps is hewn in the rock, leading up to a closed door. In front, to the right, a number of stops lead down to the lower passages. The space is feebly lighted by a hanging-lamp,
Julian Caesar,
unshaven, and in dirty clothes, stands bending over the opening to the right, A subdued sound of psalm-singing comes through the door from the church beyond it, built on to the catacomb.

JULIAN.
[Speaking downwards
.] Still no sign?
A Voice.
[Far below.]
None.

JULIAN.
Neither yes nor no? Neither for nor against?

THE VOICE.
Both.

JULIAN.
That is the same as nothing.

THE VOICE.
Wait, wait.

JULIAN.
I have waited five days; you asked for only three. I tell you — I have no mind to —
[He
listens towards the entrance, and calls down.]
Do not speak!

SALLUST.
[Entering by the passage on the left
.] My lord, my lord!

JULIAN.
Is it you, Sallust? What would you down here?

SALLUST.
This thick darkness — ; ah! now I see you.

JULIAN.
What do you want?

SALLUST.
To serve you, if I can, — to lead you out to the living again.

JULIAN.
What news from the world above?

SALLUST.
The soldiers are restless; there are signs on all hands that their patience will soon be exhausted.

JULIAN.
Is the sun shining up there?

SALLUST.
Yes, my lord!

JULIAN.
The vault of heaven is like a sea of glittering light. Perhaps it is high noon. It is warm; the air quivers along the walls of the houses; the river, half-shrunken in its bed, ripples over the white flints. — Beautiful life! Beautiful earth!

SALLUST.
Oh come, my lord, come! This stay in the catacombs is construed to your hurt.

JULIAN.
How is it construed?

SALLUST.
Dare I tell you?

JULIAN.
You dare, and you must. How is it construed?

SALLUST.
Many believe that it is remorse rather than sorrow that has driven you underground in this strange fashion.

JULIAN.
They think I killed her?

SALLUST.
The mystery of the case may excuse them,

JULIAN.
No one killed her, Sallust! She was too pure for this sinful world; therefore an angel from heaven descended every night into her secret chamber, and called upon her. You doubt it? Know you not that this is how the priests in Lutetia accounted for her death? And the priests ought to know. Has not the transport of her body hither been like a triumphal progress through the land? Did not all the women of Vienna stream forth beyond the gates to meet her coffin, hailing her with green boughs in their hands, spreading draperies on the road, and singing songs of praise to the bride of heaven, who was being brought home to the bridegroom’s house? — Why do you laugh?

SALLUST.
I, my lord?

JULIAN.
Ever since, I have heard bridal songs night and day. Listen, listen; they are wafting her up to glory. Ay, she was indeed a true Christian woman. She observed the commandment strictly; — she gave to Caesar what was Caesar’s, and to the other she gave — ; but ‘twas not of that you came to speak; you are not initiated in the secrets of the faith, Sallust! — What news, I ask?

SALLUST.
The weightiest news is that on learning of the events at Lutetia, the Emperor fled hastily to Antioch.

JULIAN.
That news I know No doubt Constantius already saw us in imagination before the gates of Rome.

SALLUST.
The friends who boldly cast in their lot with you in this dangerous business, saw in imagination the same thing.

JULIAN.
The time is not auspicious, Sallust! Know you not that in the martial games, before we left Lutetia, my shield broke in pieces, so that only the handle remained in my grasp? And know you not that, when I was mounting my horse, the groom stumbled as I swung myself up from his folded hands?

SALLUST.
Yet you gained the saddle, my lord!

JULIAN.
But the man fell.

SALLUST.
Better men will fall if Caesar loiters.

JULIAN.
The Emperor is at death’s door.

SALLUST.
The Emperor still lives. The letters you wrote him as to your election —

JULIAN.
My enforced election. They constrained me; I had no choice.

SALLUST.
The Emperor does not hold that explanation valid. He designs, as soon as he has mustered an army in the eastern provinces, to march into Gaul.

JULIAN.
How know you that ——
 
— ?

SALLUST.
By an accident, my lord! Believe me, I entreat you — !

JULIAN.
Good, good; when that happens, I will go to meet Constantius — not sword in hand —

SALLUST.
Not? How, then, do you think to meet him?

JULIAN, I will render to the Emperor what is the Emperor’s.

SALLUST.
Mean you that you will abdicate?

JULIAN.
The Emperor is at death’s door.

SALLUST.
Oh that vain hope!
[He casts himself on his knees.]
Then take my life, my lord!

JULIAN.
What now?

SALLUST.
Caesar, take my life; I would rather die by your will than by the Emperor’s.

JULIAN.
Rise, friend!

SALLUST.
No, let me lie at my Caesar’s feet, and confess all. Oh, beloved master, — to have to tell you this! — When I sought you out in the camp on the Rhine, — when I recalled to you the old friendship of our Athenian days, — when I begged to share with you the dangers of war, — then, oh Caesar, I came as a secret spy, in the Emperor’s pay —

JULIAN.
You — !

SALLUST.
My mind had for some time been inflamed against you. You remember that little variance in Milan — yet no little one for me, who had hoped that Caesar would help to restore my waning fortunes. Of all this they took advantage in Rome; they regarded me as the very man to spy out your doings.

JULIAN.
And you could sell yourself so basely? To so black a treachery!

SALLUST.
I was ruined, my lord; and I thought Caesar had forsaken me. Yes, my Caesar, I betrayed you — , during the first few months; but not afterwards. Your friendliness, your magnanimity, all the favour you showed me — ; I became, what I had professed to be, your faithful adherent; and in my secret letters to Rome I put my employers on false scents.

JULIAN.
Those letters were from you? — Oh, Sallust)

SALLUST.
They contained nothing to injure you, my lord! What others may have written, I know not; I only know that I often enough groaned in anguish under my enforced and hated silence. I ventured as far as I by any means dared. That letter written to an unnamed man in your camp, which contained an account of the Emperor’s triumphal entry in Rome, and which you found one morning on the march to Lutetia pushed under your tent flap — ; you did find it, my lord?

JULIAN.
Yes, yes — ?

SALLUST.
That was directed to me, and chance favoured me in bringing it into your hands. I dared not speak. I longed to, but I could not; I put off from day to day the confession of my shame. Oh, punish me, my lord; see, here I lie!

JULIAN.
Stand up; you are dearer to me thus, — conquered without my will and against your own. Stand up, friend of my soul; no one shall touch a hair of your head.

SALLUST.
Rather take the life which you will not long have power to shield. You say the Emperor is at death’s door.
[He rises
.] My Caesar, what I have sworn to conceal, I now reveal to you. There is no hope for you in the Emperor’s decay. The Emperor is taking a new wife.

JULIAN.
Ah, what madness! How can you think — ?

SALLUST.
The Emperor is taking a new wife, my lord!
[He hands him some papers
.] Read, read, noble Caesar; these letters will leave you no room for doubt.

JULIAN.
[Seizing
the papers, and reading.
] Yes, by the light and might of Helios — !

SALLUST.
Oh that I had dared to speak sooner!

JULIAN.
[Still reading
.] He take a woman to wife! Constantius, — that dwindling shadow of a man — ! Faustina, — what is this? — young, scarcely nineteen, — a daughter of —— ah! a daughter of that insolent tribe. Therefore, of course, a zealous Christian woman.
[He folds the papers together
.] You are right, Sallust; his decay gives no room for hope. What though he be decrepit, dying, — what of that? Is not Faustina pious. An annunciating angel will appear; or even — ; ha-ha! — in short, — by some means or other, — a young Caesar will be forthcoming, and thus —

SALLUST.
Delay means ruin.

JULIAN.
This move has long been planned in all secrecy, Sallust! Ah, now all the riddles are solved. Helena — , ‘twas not, as I conceived, her heedless tongue that destroyed her —

SALLUST.
No, my lord!

JULIAN.
 
— they thought, — they believed that — ! oh inscrutable, even-handed retribution! that was why she had to die.

SALLUST.
Yes, that was the reason. I was the man they first pitched upon in Rome. Oh, my lord, you cannot doubt that I refused to do it? I pleaded the impossibility of finding an occasion; they assured me that the abominable design was abandoned, and then — !

JULIAN.
They will not stop at — at the double corpse in the sarcophagus up yonder. Constantius takes another wife. That is why I was to be disarmed in Lutetia.

SALLUST.
One thing alone can save you, my Caesar: you must act before the Emperor has recruited his forces.

JULIAN.
What if, of my own free will, I withdrew into solitude, devoting myself to that wisdom which I have here been forced to neglect? Would the new men in power leave me undisturbed? Would not the very fact of my existence be like a sword hanging over their heads?

SALLUST.
The kinsmen of the Empress that is to be are the men who surrounded Gallus Caesar in his last hours.

JULIAN.
The tribune Scudilo. Trust me, friend, — I have not forgotten that. And am I to yield and fall before this bloodthirsty Emperor! Am I to spare him who for long years has stumbled about among the corpses of my nearest kin!

SALLUST.
If you spare him, in less than three months he will be stumbling among the corpses of your adherents.

JULIAN.
Yes, yes; there you are right. It is almost my imperative duty to stand up against him. If I do, ‘twill not be for my own sake. Do not the weal and woe of thousands hang in the balance? Arts not thousands of lives at stake? Or could I have averted this extremity? You are more to blame than I, Sallust! Why did you not speak before?

SALLUST.
In Home they made me swear a solemn oath of secrecy.

JULIAN.
An oath? Indeed! By the gods of your forefathers?

SALLUST.
Yes, my lord — by Zeus and by Apollo.

JULIAN.
And yet you break your oath?

SALLUST.
I wish to live.

JULIAN.
But the gods?

SALLUST.
The gods — they are far away.

JULIAN.
Yes, your gods are far away; they hamper no one; they are a burden to no one; they leave a man elbow-room for action. Oh, that Greek happiness, that sense of freedom — ! You said that the Emperor, vengeful as he is, will pour out the blood of my friends. Yes, who can doubt that? Was Knodomar spared? Did not that harmless captive pay with his life for an error of language? For — I know it, Sallust — they killed him; that tale about the barbarian’s homesickness was a lie. Then what may not we expect? In what a hateful light must not Decentius nave represented matters in Rome? Sallust. That you may best understand from the hasty flight of the court to Antioch.