“The elemental order there she drew, And Jove’s high dwellings; there you saw The needle tell how ancient Chaos grew To harmony and law; “How Nature set in order due and rank Her atoms, raised the light on high, And to the middle place the weightier sank; There lustrous shone the sky, “The heavens were pink with flame, the ocean rolled, The great world hung in mid suspense. Each was of diverse hue; she worked in gold The starry fires intense, “Bade ocean flow in purple, and the shore With gems upraised. Divinely wrought, The threads embossed to swelling billows bore Strange likeness; you had thought “They dashed the seaweed on the rocks, or crept Hoarse murmuring thro’ the thirsty sands. Five zones, she added. In mid place she kept With red distinct the lands “Leaguered with burnings; all the region showed Scorched into blackness, and the thread Dry as with sunshine that eternal glowed; On either hand were spread “The realms of life, lapt in a milder breath Kindly to men; and next appear, On this extreme and that, dull lands of death: She made them dark and drear “With year-long frost, and saddened all the hue With endless winter; last she showed What seats her sire’s grim brother holds; nor knew The fated dark abode.”(58) CHAPTER XXV. CONSULTATION. The next morning the Count invited the Imperial messenger to a private conference. His daughter and Carna were present, as was also Claudian. “You have the latest news,” the Count began. “Pray let us have them. Here we know nothing. But tell us first how you got here. It was noticed that you did not hoist the standard till you were within the Haven. You did not, I suppose, think it a safe flag to sail under.” “Well,” replied the messenger, “I thought it better to have no flag at all. But, to tell the truth, the Labarum is not just now exactly the best passport in the world.” “You crossed from Gaul, I suppose?” the Count went on. “How are matters there?” “Constantine, with the legions he brought from here, and those that have joined him since, is pretty well master of the country, and of Spain too.” “And what is the Emperor doing? Did he let these provinces go without a struggle? Spain was the first province that Rome ever had, and Gaul was the second. None, I take it, have been so steadily profitable, and now we are to lose them.” He rose from his seat, and walked up and down the room in an agitation which he could not conceal. “And the only man who could keep the Empire together is gone; butchered, as if he were a criminal!” The messenger said nothing to this outburst. He went on, “I believe his Majesty proposes to admit Constantine to a share of the Imperial honours, to make him Cæsar of Gaul and Spain.”