Rome took the
responsibility and he took things easily. But this very day,
while his daughter Helena was floating down the river to meet him
on the strand at Wivanloe, he was returning from an unsuccessful
boar-hunt in the Essex woods, very much out of sorts--cross
because he had not captured the big boar he had hoped to kill,
cross because his favorite musicians had been "confiscated" by
the Roman governor or propraetor at Londinium (as London was then
called), and still more cross because he had that day received
dispatches from Rome demanding a special and unexpected tax levy,
or tribute, to meet the necessary expenses of the new Emperor
Diocletian.
Something else had happened to increase his ill temper. His
"jolly old soul," vexed by the numerous crosses of the day, was
thrown into still greater perplexity by the arrival, just as he
stood fretful and chafing on the shore at Wivanloe, of one who
even now was with him on the trireme, bearing him company back to
his palace at Camolodunum--Carausius the admiral.
This Carausius, the admiral, was an especially vigorous,
valorous, and fiery young fellow of twenty-one. He was cousin to
the Princess Helena and a prince of the blood royal of ancient
Britain.
Pages:
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47