Messenger.

Cæsar, from Anicetus. He asks great Cæsar’s pardon ere I tell.

Ner. Thou’rt free to speak.

Mess. There has an accident Befallen the Augusta’s yacht.

Ner. Hey! what was that?

Mess. At a lurch of the ship the awning fell and dragged The Augusta overboard.

Ner. Speak, man, speak on.

Mess. We thought her drowned.

Ner. Ha!

Mess. But by the grace of the gods She is escaped.

Ner. Escaped!

Mess. She swam to shore unharmed.

Ner. Thou wretch, And comest thou here in thy master’s place To bate mine anger? Forth and send him hither. Fly, or I kill thee.

Mess. Pardon, great Cæsar, pardon. The Admiral follows and will straight be here.

[Runs out.

Ner. (aside). Escaped! after such boast, escaped! I am lost.— To have done this thing had tried me; to have attempted it And failed is ruin.

Sen. (aside from Nero). What is this?

Bur. (to Sen.) ’Tis clear Cæsar knows what: and her escape not being His pleasure tells us that ’twas not his purpose.

Sen. (aloud). Alas, alas!

Ner. What friend there cries Alas? Who now stands by me? who will aid me now?

Tig. If Cæsar make his will but known...

Ner. Thou dullard! I need the brains of them that know my will. Now is no time for parley. Seneca, Speak what thou thinkest.

Sen. Cæsar, I am so much grieved that...

Ner. What’s thy pain To mine? Speak, man!

Sen. Alas, what shall I say?

Ner. How hast thou guessed this thing without a word, And yet hast not foreseen it?

Sen. Oh, is’t then true? The letter false; the Augusta hither brought But to be drowned!

Ner. See if ye know it not.

Sen. Let her escape belie thy guilty purpose.

Ner. Why, nay, the failure damns a thousand-fold More than her death—I am henceforth the man Who would have killed his mother, and could not.

Sen. Alas, alas!

Ner. Hast thou no word but that? Thou that hast ever warned me, ay, and gone So far upon this path that thou hast sought To dull the natural feeling which so long Held off my hand, hast argued ’gainst repugnance, Crying, ’tis she that is the guilty one, The dangerous one, there is no peace with her: And now the day the thing thou hast foreseen, Ay, and hast led me to, is done, thou’rt silent. Hast thou no word?—Thou that wast ever ready, Hast thou no word?—What strikes thee on a sudden Dumb? Be my counsellor now that I need thee. Speak now! Why, thou dost weep! surely thou weepest! Burrus, what sayest thou?

Bur. This mischief, Cæsar, Being thus arisen is the Augusta’s death. Though I bewail the occasion, yet I say ’Twere most untimely justice to endanger The public peace for her whose life hath been So long the shame of justice. Since the sentence We know is just, and that necessity O’errides the common forms, the less delay The better. Let her die.

Ner. I thank thee, Burrus. How were this best performed?

Tig. Now, if none speak, I’ll say that Burrus, being the advocate Of what is planned, and as pretorian prefect Possessed of means, is fittest for the work.

Bur. Look not on me, Seneca, as if to say ’Tis well; as if ’twere thy thought that my office Covered this deed. I pardon Tigellinus, That, unacquainted with a soldier’s honour, He thinks it passable in time of peace, Entering in private houses there to slay Defenceless citizens. But that the guards Would thus lay hands on one that bears the name Of Agrippina, that they could forget Their loved Germanicus, who would think this? To such a deed they would not follow me, Far less another; and if Cæsar now Look for it from me, lo, I here throw down My prefecture to any man soe’er Who durst with this condition take it up.

Ner. Nay, Burrus, I’ll not ask thee that. Thou’rt right. And yet, if thou could’st do it— See here the man.

Enter Anicetus in haste, Paris following.

Thou hast been my ruin!