The Emperor hastily seized the tablet which Sabina held out to him, and
as he attentively examined the forecasts, arranged in order according to
the hours, he said:

"Quite right. That of course did not escape me! Well done, exactly the
same as my own observations--but here--stay--here comes the third hour,
at the beginning of which I was interrupted. Eternal gods! what have we
here?"

The Emperor held the wax tablet prepared by Aminonius at arm's length
from his eyes and never parted his lips again till he had come to the end
of the last hour of the night. Then he dropped the hand that held the
horoscope, saying with a shudder:

"A hideous destiny. Horace was right in saying the highest towers fall
with the greatest crash."

"The tower of which you speak," said Sabina, "is that darling of fortune
of whom you are afraid. Vouchsafe then to Verus a brief space of
happiness before the horrible end you foresee for him."

While she spoke Hadrian sat with his eyes thoughtfully fixed on the
ground, and then, standing in front of his wife, he replied:

"If no sinister catastrophe falls upon this man, the stars and the fate
of men have no more to do with one another than the sea with the heart of
the desert, than the throb of men's pulses with the pebbles in the brook.
If Ammonius has erred ten times over still more than ten signs remain on
this tablet, hostile and fatal to the praetor. I grieve for Verus--but