Maximus frowned. "You'll never be an Emperor," he said. "Not even a General will you 66 66 be." 'I was silent, but my Father seemed pleased. "I came here to see the last of you,” he said. "You have seen it," said Maximus. "I shall never need your son any more. He will live and he will die an officer of a Legion—and he might have been Prefect of one of my Provinces. Now eat and drink with us," he said. wait till you have finished." Your men will 'My miserable thirty stood like wine-skins glistening in the hot sun, and Maximus led us to where his people had set a meal. Himself he mixed the wine. "A year from now," he said, " you will remember that you have sat with the Emperor of Britain— and Gaul." 6.66 Yes," said the Pater, "you can drive two mules-Gaul and Britain." "Five years hence you will remember that you have drunk "—he passed me the cup and there was blue borage in it-" with the Emperor of Rome!" "No; you can't drive three mules; they will tear you in pieces," said in pieces," said my Father. ""And you on the Wall, among the heather, will weep because your notion of justice was more to you than the favour of the Emperor of Rome." 'I sat quite still. One does not answer a General who wears Purple. "I am not angry with you," he went on; "I owe too much to your Father "You owe me nothing but advice that you never took," said the Pater. “to be unjust to any of your family. Indeed, I say you will make a good officer, but, so far as I am concerned, on the Wall you will live, and on the Wall you will die," said Maximus. 6.66 Very like," said my Father. "But we shall have the Picts and their friends breaking through before long. You cannot move all troops out of Britain to make you Emperor, and expect the North to sit quiet." "I follow my destiny," said Maximus. "Follow it, then," said my Father, pulling up a fern root; and die as Theodosius died." 6.66 "Ah!" said Maximus. "My old General was killed because he served the Empire too well. I may be killed, but not for that reason," and he smiled a pale grey smile that made my blood run cold. "Then I had better follow my destiny," I sai "and take my men to the Wall." He looked at me a long time, and bowed his head slanting like a Spaniard. "Follow it, boy," he said. That was all. I was only too glad to get way, though I had many messages for home. I rd my men standing as they had been putязямямая деwnubitted@hka atlet iwakeмояз ЯАЗУ А яоязма антÄTIW TA2 UOY TAHT "ЛУАӘ ДИА-ИІАТІЯЯ НО and off I marched, still feeling that terrific smile like an east wind up my back. I never halted them till sunset, and'-he turned about and looked at Pook's Hill below him- then I halted yonder.' He pointed to the broken, braken-covered shoulder of the Forge Hill behind old Hobden's cottage. There? Why, that's only the old Forgewhere they made iron once,' said Dan. . 'Very good stuff it was too,' said Parnesius, calmly. 'We mended three shoulder-straps here and had a spear-head riveted. The forge was rented from the Government by a one-eyed smith from Carthage. I remember we called him Cyclops. He sold me a beaver-skin rug for my sister's room.' 'But it couldn't have been here,' Dan insisted. But it was! From the Altar of Victory at Anderida to the First Forge in the Forest here is twelve miles seven hundred paces. It is all in the Road Book. A man doesn't forget his first march. I think I could tell you every station between this and He leaned forward, but his eye was caught by the setting sun. It had come down to the top of Cherry Clack Hill, and the light poured in between the tree trunks so that you could see red and gold and black deep into the heart of Far Wood; and Parnesius in his armour shone as though he had been afire. 'Wait,' he said, lifting a hand, and the sunlight |