"Thou wouldst rather cease to be than cease to rule the empire. Dominion is the dominant passion of thy lofty soul. It is the marked characteristic of thy race. There are other men mastered by similar ambition. The quiet, orderly life of Cæsar may blind the eyes of mankind to an ambition that would hesitate at nothing. Thy father was such a temperate youth that he sacrificed all common lusts and appetites to win the sovereignty of Rome, and he would not have been contented long with that if he had lived. Thou didst inherit his nature with his military genius, and thou hast lived moderately in order to gain the sovereignty of the world. Crispus hath inherited from thee the great abilities which enabled him to triumph on the Hellespont and share thy glory, or rather take to himself the greater share. He would not forego the pleasures of youth and the advantages of his great position unless he were constantly meditating upon some great design. Look to thyself, Augustus." Such insidious counsels she constantly offered to the jealous and cruel emperor, and they bore a deadly fruit. Suddenly the gallant young Cæsar was seized, transported to the gloomy fortress of Pola, imprisoned, and then murdered, by order of "the most Christian Emperor Constantine," "the favorite of God," "the defender of the faith," his father! Almost immediately the young Licinius was snatched from the arms of his mother, and put to death by the order of his uncle, Constantine, "the first Christian Emperor of Rome." "I have fortified my throne against all danger from Crispus Cæsar and the Arians," said Constantine unto himself. "The road to royal favor and to future power is opened for my splendid brood of Cæsars," murmured Fausta under her breath. "The Empress Fausta hath plotted against and murdered my gallant son Crispus, and my grandson Licinius, whom I loved. I will be revenged upon the cruel murderess or die!" was the unuttered comment of the Empress-mother Helena; and from that hour, with the slow, settled, and deliberate hatred of old age and hopeless sorrow, she sought for the life of Fausta. The world held its breath in horror at these fearful crimes, and hardly did the historians of that age dare to commit any account thereof unto posterity. But it was impossible for the officers of the Illyrian fortress, where Arius was imprisoned, to speak of such atrocities without some knowledge thereof coming to their quiet, intelligent prisoner. When he heard of the assassination of Crispus Cæsar and of Licinius, the only comment made by the stern, inflexible, incorruptible old heretic was this: "A council of Christ’s Church ought not to be oecumenical and barren; and the first one already beareth terrible but legitimate fruits."