"Well then, you must have it at heart to spare him all great sorrow, and
to prevent grave apprehensions from paralyzing the pinions of his free
and noble soul."

"No doubt."

"I knew I should find a colleague in you. See this roll. It contains
the calculations and diagrams of the greatest astrologer of our time, and
from these it is to be discovered that this night, from the end of the
second hour of the morning till the beginning of the fourth, the stars
will announce fearful disasters to our Sovereign. Do you understand?"

"Alas! perfectly."

"After that the indications of evil disappear. Now if we could only
succeed in preventing Hadrian observing the heavens merely during the
third hour after midnight we should preserve him from trouble and
anxiety, which will torment and spoil his life. Who knows whether the
stars may not be? But even if they tell the truth, misfortune, when it
does come, always comes much too soon. Do you agree with me?"

"Your suggestion sounds a very sensible one--still I think--"

"It is both sensible and wise," said the praetor, shortly and decidedly,
interrupting the boy. "And it must be your part to hinder Hadrian from
marking the course of the stars from the end of the second to the
beginning of the fourth hour after midnight."

"My part?" cried Antinous, startled.