“You look as if you were roughly treated,” he said. “Who unloosed your bonds? Maximian?”

Dacius swore a purple oath. “Don’t tell me you were taken in by that playacting just now.”

“Of course not. My guess is that the legions turned against Maximian, after they saw me in the chariot this afternoon and learned that I am alive.”

“The Twentysecond, your old command, was first. I was still in my cell, but I’ll wager the old fox realized the dogs were too close and sent your wife and child to bargain with you for his life.”

“Tell me exactly what happened.”

“About a month ago a courier came to Arles with word that you had been killed. He said he had been caught by the enemy and his papers taken away, but he’d managed to escape. I was so grieved that I failed to question him myself. When Maximian moved to seize the throne, it occurred to me that the message might be false, but by then the courier had disappeared. Soon after that, I was arrested.”

“How did you manage to get word to me from prison?”

“A decurion among the guards owed me a favor; I saved his skin once when he was in training at Nicomedia and broke a rule. What are you going to do with Maximian?”

“I shall make him my pensioner.” Constantine’s voice had a grim note. “To one as ambitious as he is, that should be punishment enough.”

“Death would be more merciful,” Dacius agreed. “But I’ll have him watched just the same. Even a dead scorpion can sting, if you step on his tail hard enough.”

Maximian at Arles

After the treachery of Maximian at Arles and the humiliating necessity for Constantine to reclaim part of his own kingdom by force, some months were required to assert again his full authority there. Pockets of resistance, which had caught fire during the brief rebellion, had to be put down by force and, though Constantine would have preferred to move to Treves, his presence in the south was required for some time.

Fausta was pregnant with their second child now and kept much to her quarters because she did not like others to see her swollen condition. She slept in a room adjoining Constantine’s own chamber and he was surprised one night, upon his return from a four days’ journey of inspection in southern Gaul, when she came into his room as he was preparing for bed. He saw that she had been weeping and went at once to take her in his arms.

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