I am merely in a position to strike if so I decide.

No,--nothing is settled." Drusus had never felt greater embarrassment.

Before he could make reply, Caesar had bidden Antiochus and the peasant boy remain in the roadway, and had led the young man down the embankment that ran sloping toward the river.

The light was growing stronger every moment, though the mist still hung heavy and dank.

Below their feet the slender stream--it was the end of the season--ran with a monotonous gurgle, now and then casting up a little fleck of foam, as it rolled by a small boulder in its bed.
"Imperator," said Drusus, while Caesar pressed his hand tighter and tighter, "why advise with an inexperienced young man like myself?
Why did you send Curio away?
I have no wisdom to offer; nor dare proffer it, if such I had." "Quintus Drusus," replied Caesar, sinking rather wearily down upon the dry, dying grass, "if I had needed the counsel of a soldier, I should have waited until Marcus Antonius arrived; if I had needed that of a politician, I was a fool to send away Curio; if I desire the counsel of one who is, as yet, neither a man of the camp, nor a man of the Forum, but who can see things with clear eyes, can tell what may be neither glorious nor expedient, but what will be the will,"-- and here the Imperator hesitated,--"the will of the gods, tell me to whom I shall go." Drusus was silent; the other continued;-- "Listen, Quintus Drusus.