Edvard Munch Madonna paintingAlbert Moore silver paintingRene Magritte The Blank Check painting
Give me a sword," I shouted. "I'll kill myself sooner."
Messalina came hurrying towards us. "For my sake, Claudius, do what they ask of you. For our child's sake! We'll all be murdered if you refuse. They've killed Caesonia already. And they took her little girl by the feet and bashed out her brains against a wall."
Emperor's isn't."
I made no more protests. What was the use of struggling against Fate? They hurried me out into the Great Court, singing the foolish hymn of hope composed at Caligula's accession, "Germanicus is come Again, To Free the City from her Pain." For I had the surname Germanicus too. They forced me to put on Caligula's golden oak-leaf chaplet, recovered from one of the looters. To steady myself I .had to cling tightly to the corporals' shoulders. The chaplet kept slipping over one ear. How foolish I felt. They say that I looked like a criminal being haled away to execution. Massed trumpeters blew the Imperial Salute.
The Germans came streaming towards us. They had just
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