“It is never treason to make sure a country will be governed properly. If Constantius dies without signing the order, I shall acclaim you Caesar myself. You can be sure the army will follow.” Constantius died during the night without gaining consciousness. Constantine was at his bedside and afterwards took the Bishop of Eboracum aside. “I beg you to pray to your god for my father’s soul, sir,” he said. “If there is any ”
“No Christian would accept pay for such a prayer. Actually, we have been praying for the Emperor ever since illness struck him.” He gave Constantine a probing look. “Are you going to continue his policies, now that you are ruler here?”
“Your people need fear no harm at my hands,” Constantine promised. “Was my father a Christian, sir?”
Eborius shook his head. “I was hoping he would let himself be baptized before he died, but he said he had sworn allegiance to the Empire in the name of Jupiter, so he could not renounce it and continue to rule. All Christians in Britain will be glad to learn that you are to succeed your father.”
“Then you agree that I should?”
“It was his will. All of us heard it and will testify to it.”
In final tribute to his father, Constantine himself put the torch to the dry wood of the traditional funeral pyre and stood rigidly erect until the flames began to die down.
Dacius touched his elbow
“The troops are awaiting your orders.” Dacius touched his elbow, then added, “Your duty is to the future now, not to the past.”
Dacius and Eumenius had worked out very carefully the sequence of events that would take place after the funeral. Constantine now fell into step beside Dacius and marched toward the platform bearing the imperial colors which had been erected at the edge of the field, where the cremation had taken place in the sight of a large crowd of people. As he mounted the steps leading up to the platform, a hush fell over the massed ranks of the army on either side of the pyre and the sea of heads and upturned faces of the people crowding the rest of the field.
“On behalf of myself and my family, I thank you for the honor you have done my father in death,” Constantine said to the crowd. “He loved this land to which his rule brought peace and security. We shall all miss him, but we know he died happy in the knowledge that the struggle in the north is over and that peace once again reigns throughout the land.”
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