She must hear him, must be his--not by compulsion, not by imperial command, but of the free impulse of her heart.
His confession would help to this end.
With a swift gesture, as if to throw off the last trace of fatigue, he sat up and began in a firm voice, with a light in his eyes: "Yes, I killed my brother Geta.

You shudder.

And yet, if at this day, when I know all the results of the deed, the state of affairs were the same as then, I would do it again! That shocks you.

But only listen, and then you will say with me that it was Fate which compelled me to act so, and not otherwise." He paused, and then mistaking the anxiety which was visible in Melissa's face for sympathetic attention, he began his story, confident of her interest: "When I was born, my father had not yet assumed the purple, but he already aimed at the sovereignty.

Augury had promised it to him; my mother knew this, and shared his ambition.