Sometimes a flash of indignation illumined his face, and he raised his arm with a threatening gesture, as if, like a second Jupiter, to hurl back into the depths the Titans who dared to rise to his throne.
"To appoint a successor," he muttered in a fierce, threatening tone, "they dare to think, to busy themselves with that.

The ingrates! It is I who gave them fame, honor, titles, wealth; they are already cogitating about my death--my successor! It is a conspiracy which extends throughout the whole army.

I know it.

I was warned in Spain against the plots of the Carbonari, and the caution has been repeated here.

And I must keep silence.