Florus, disposed by nature to be harsh in dealing with the people under his rule, seemed to receive a tacit if not direct encouragement from Polemo; at any rate, he never left the king’s presence without a determination to adopt new methods of repression, even though by so doing he should run the risk of losing the favor of Berenice. It seemed almost as if Polemo had set himself to counteract her influence; and in truth Florus, swayed first by one and then by the other, had vacillated strangely between right-doing and wrong-doing. His own natural disposition, however, inclined him to follow the sinister suggestions of Polemo, to such an extent as to make his procuratorship more infamous in character than any that had preceded it. Florus had often wondered what was the attitude of Polemo’s mind towards Berenice, but on this point he could never quite satisfy himself. When he had ventured, not without some diffidence, to intimate his intention of wooing the king’s one-time wife, Polemo smiled, bidding him succeed--if he could! And after that, whenever the two met, Polemo never failed to inquire, not without a suggestion of sarcasm, how the other’s suit was progressing. He did the like on the present occasion. “May her own Jewish devil, whom they call Satan, carry her off to Tartarus,” was Florus’ elegant rejoinder. “Ah! stands the case so? I thought ’twould have that ending. ’Twere unwomanly of her to accept the love of a man already wedded, especially as she herself----” Florus wondered what was coming next, but Polemo had checked himself as if about to say too much. “I came not, however, to talk of Berenice,” he continued, “but of your own desperate position.” “A position for which you are in some measure responsible,” said Florus. “Nay, this secret league with robber Zealots is a folly all your own. I have advocated severity, but unfortunately your severities have never gone far enough for my purpose.” _His_ purpose? thought Florus. Did he think, then, to govern Judæa through him? It would seem so. “Your shafts have galled the animal merely without causing him to turn and fight.” “Be plainer with me.” “My desire has been to see the Jews rise in revolt by reason of the harshness of your administration. Your timid leniency has foiled my aim. The Jews have _not_ risen.” Florus grew secretly angry to think that he had been a tool alternately to Polemo and Berenice, the more so as he had succeeded in giving satisfaction to neither. “’Twere better to carry out my policy. To goad the Jews into rebellion is now your only hope of salvation. Your harsh dealing in the past will then have some justification. You can plead that the character of the people forced you against your will to be severe. Repressive measures are required by a people always on the verge of breaking out into war. Their revolt at this juncture will serve as a cloak to cover your former misdeeds.”