Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/489

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sc. ii.]
the emperor julian.
453

Julian.

Yes, yes; both he and Eutherius keep watch on me. They imagine that—— Has neither of them told you aught?

Maximus.

No, my Julian! But why have you awakened me? What would you here in the darkness?

Julian.

I would be alone with you for the last time, my beloved teacher!

Maximus.

Not for the last time, Julian!

Julian.

See that dark water. Think you—if I utterly vanished from the earth, and my body was never found, and none knew what had become of me,—think you the report would spread abroad that Hermes had come for me, and carried me away, and that I had been exalted to the fellowship of the gods?

Maximus.

The time is at hand when men will not need to die, in order to live as gods on the earth.

Julian.

I am pining with home-sickness, Maximus,—with home-sick longing for the light and the sun and all the stars.

Maximus.

Oh, I beseech you—think not of sorrowful things. The Persian army is before you. To-