Helena entered the apartment at a most exciting moment. For
there, facing her portly old father, whose clouded face bespoke
his troubled mind, stood her trimly-built young cousin Carausius
the admiral, bronzed with his long exposure to the sea-blasts, a
handsome young viking, and, in the eyes of the hero-loving Helen,
very much of a hero because of his acknowledged daring and his
valorous deeds.

Neither man seemed to have noticed the sudden entrance of the
girl, so deep were they in talk.

"I tell thee, uncle," the hot-headed admiral was saying, "it is
beyond longer bearing. This new emperor--this Diocletian--who is
he to dare to dictate to a prince of Britain? A foot-soldier of
Illyria, the son of slaves, and the client of three coward
emperors; an assassin, so it hath been said, who from chief of
the domestics, hath become by his own cunning Emperor of Rome,
And now hath he dared to accuse me--me, a free Briton and a Roman
citizen as well, a prince and the son of princes, with having
taken bribes from these German pirates whom I have vanquished. He
hath openly said that I, Carausius the admiral, have filled mine
own coffers while neglecting the revenues of the state. I will
not bear it. I am a better king than he, did I but have my own
just rights, and even though he be Diocletian the Emperor, he
needeth to think twice before he dare accuse a prince of Britain
with bribe-taking and perjury."

"True enough, good nephew," said King Coel, as the admiral strode
up and down before him, angrily playing with the hilt of his
short Roman sword, "true enough, and I too have little cause to