"Ave, Caesar!" he said, throwing up his right hand.
"You may go," said Pertinax. "Go in silence. Not a word to a soul in the corridors. Leave Rome. Leave Italy. Take s.e.xtus with you."
"You will let him go?" asked Marcia. "Pertinax, what will become of you? Send to the guard at the gate and command them to seize him! s.e.xtus and Narcissus-"
"Have my promise!" he retorted. "If the fates intend me to be Caesar, it shall not be said I slew the men who set me on the throne."
"You are Caesar," she answered. "How long will you last? All omens favored you-the murder in the tunnel-now this storm, like a veil to act behind, and-"
"And last night a falling star!" said Galen. "Give me parchment. I will write the cause of death. Then let me go too, or else kill me. I am no more use. This is the second time that I have failed to serve the world by tutoring a Caesar. Commodus the hero, and now you the-"
"Silence!" Marcia commanded. "Or even Pertinax may rise above his scruples! Write a death certificate at once, and go your way and follow s.e.xtus!"