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THE ROMAN TRAITOR: 
 
 OR, THE DAYS OF 
 
 CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 
 
 A TKUE TALE OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "CROMWELL," "MARMADUKE WYVIL/ BROTHERS," ETC. 
 
 Why not a Borgia or a Catiline ? POPE. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 This is one of the most powerful Eoman stories in the English language, and is 
 of itself sufficient to stamp the writer as a powerful man. The dark intrigues of the 
 days which Caesar, Sallust and Cicero made illustrious; when Cataline defied and 
 almost defeated the Senate ; when the plots which ultimately overthrew the Roman 
 Republic were being formed, are described in a masterly manner. The book deserves 
 a permanent position by the side of the great Bdlum Catalinarium of Sallust, and if 
 we mistake not will not fail to occupy a prominent place among those produced in 
 America. 
 
 T, B. PETERSON, NO. 102 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
 T. B. PETERSON, 
 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States, in 
 and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE CHARLES, 
 No. 9 Sansom Street. 
 
pSK 
 
 ir 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A FEW words are perhaps needed as an introduction to a 
 work of far more ambitious character, than any which I have 
 before attempted. In venturing to select a subject from the 
 history of Home, during its earlier ages, undeterred by the 
 failure or, at the best, partial success of writers far more emin 
 ent than I can ever hope to become, I have been actuated by 
 reasons, which, in order to relieve myself from the possible 
 charge of presumption, I will state briefly. 
 
 It has long been my opinion, then, that there lay a vast 
 field, rich with a harvest of material almost virgin, for the 
 romancer s use, in the history of classic ages. And this at a 
 period when the annals of every century and nation since the 
 Christian era have been ransacked, and reproduced, in endless 
 variety, for the entertainment of the hourly increasing reading 
 world, is no small advantage. 
 
 Again, I have fancied that I could discover a cause for the 
 imperfect success of great writers when dealing with classic 
 
 (iii) 
 ^572345 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 fiction, in the fact of their endeavoring to be too learned, of 
 their aiming too much at portraying Greeks and Romans, and 
 too little at depicting men, forgetful that under all changes of 
 custom, and costume, in all countries, ages, and conditions, 
 the human heart is still the human heart, convulsed by the 
 same passions, chilled by the same griefs, burning with the 
 same joys, and, in the main, actuated by the same hopes and 
 fears. 
 
 With these views, I many years ago deliberately selected 
 this subject, for a novel, which has advanced by slow steps to 
 such a degree of completeness as it has now attained. 
 
 Having determined on trying my success in classical fiction, 
 the conspiracy of Cataline appeared to me, a theme particu 
 larly well adapted for the purpose, as being an actual event 
 of vast importance, and in many respects unparalleled in 
 history ; as being partially familiar to every one, thoroughly 
 understood perhaps by no one, so slender are the authentic 
 documents concerning it which have come down to us, and so 
 dark and mysterious the motives of the actors. 
 
 It possessed, therefore, among other qualifications, as the 
 ground-work of a historical Romance, one almost indispensa 
 ble that of indistinctness, which gives scope to the exercise 
 of imagination, without the necessity of falsifying either the 
 truths or the probabilities of history. 
 
 Of the execution, I have, of course, nothing to say ; but 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 that I have sedulously avoided being overlearned ; that few 
 Latin words will be found in the work none whatsoever 
 in the conversational parts, and none but the names of ar 
 ticles which have no direct English appellation; and that 
 it is sufficiently simple and direct for the most unclassical 
 reader. 
 
 I hope that the costume, the manners of the people, and 
 the antiquarian details will be found sufficiently correct; 
 if they be not, it is not for want of pains or care ; for I have 
 diligently consulted all the authorities to which I could com 
 mand access. 
 
 To the history of the strange events related in this tale, 
 I have adhered most scrupulously ; and I believe that the 
 dates, facts, and characters of the individuals introduced, will 
 not be found in any material respect, erroneous or untrue ; 
 and here I may perhaps venture to observe, that, on reading 
 the most recently published lectures of Niebuhr, which 
 never fell in my way until very lately, I had the great 
 satisfaction of finding the view I have always taken of the 
 character and motives of Cataline and his confederates, con 
 firmed by the opinion of that profound and sagacious critic 
 and historian. 
 
 I will only add, that it is hardly probable that " the Roman 
 Traitor " would ever have been finished had it not been for 
 the strenuous advice of a friend, in whose opinion I have the 
 
 1* 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 utmost confidence, Mr. Benjamin, to whom some of the early 
 chapters were casually shown, two or three years ago, and 
 who almost insisted on my completing it. 
 
 It is most fitting, therefore, that it should be, as it is, 
 introduced to the world under his auspices; since but for his 
 favourable judgment, and for a feeling on my own part that 
 to fail in such an attempt would be scarce a failure, while 
 success would be success indeed, it would probably have 
 never seen the light of day ! 
 
 "With these few remarks, I submit the Roman Traitor to 
 the candid judgment of my friends and the public, some 
 what emboldened by the uniform kindness and encourage 
 ment which I have hitherto met ; and with some hope that 
 I may be allowed at some future day, to lay another romance 
 of the most famous, before the citizens of the youngest 
 republic. 
 
 THE CEDARS 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 CHAPTER PA(JB 
 
 I. THE MEN, . .9 
 
 II. THE MEASURES, 25 
 
 III. THE LOWERS, 37 
 
 IV. THE CONSUL, 51 
 
 V. THE CAMPUS, 69 
 
 VI. THE FALSE LOVE, . . . . .- . 89 
 
 VII. THE OATH, ....-.. . 108 
 
 VIII. THE TRUE LOVE, . . . . . .121 
 
 IX. THE AMBUSH, ....... 137 
 
 X. THE WANTON, 146 
 
 XI. THE RELEASE, ....... 166 
 
 XII. THE FORGE, 183 
 
 XIII. THE DISCLOSURE, 197 
 
 XIV. THE WARNINGS, 209 
 
 XV. THE CONFESSION, 223 
 
 XVI. THE SENATE, 235 
 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 I. THE OLD PATRICIAN, 3 
 
 II. THE CONSULAR COMITIA, . . . . . 12 
 
 III. THE PERIL, ........ 21 
 
 IV. THE CRISIS, 29 
 
 (7) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 V. THE ORATION, 38 
 
 VI. THE FLIGHT, 54 
 
 VII. THE AMBASSADORS, G5 
 
 VIII. THE LATIN VILLA, 75 
 
 IX. THE MULVIAN BRIDGE, 88 
 
 X. THE ARREST, ....... 101 
 
 XI. THE YOUNG PATRICIAN, . . . . .113 
 
 XII. THE ROMAN FATHER, 123 
 
 XIII. THE DOOM, 136 
 
 XIV. THE TULLIANUM, 150 
 
 XV. THE CAMP IN THE APPENINES, 158 
 
 XVI. THE WATCUTOWER OF USELLA, ... . 168 
 
 XVII. TIDINGS FROM HOME, 185 
 
 XVIII. THE RESCUE, . . . . . . . .192 
 
 XIX. THE EVE OF BATTLE, 205 
 
 XX. THE FIELD OF PISTORIA, .... 215 
 
 XXI. THE BATTLE, . .. . . . . .223 
 
 XXII. A NIGHT OF HORROR, . 233 
 
THE ROMAN TRAITOR; 
 
 OR, THE DAYS OB 
 
 CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 
 
 A TRUE TALE OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE MEN. 
 
 But bring me to the knowledge of ycur chiefs. 
 
 MARINO FALIERO. 
 
 MIDNIGHT was over Rome. The skies were dark and 
 lowering, and ominous of tempest ; for it was a sirocco, 
 and the welkin was overcast with sheets of vapory cloud, 
 not very dense, indeed, or solid, but still sufficient to inter 
 cept the feeble twinkling of the stars, which alone held 
 dominion in the firmament ; since the young crescent of 
 he moon had sunk long ago beneath the veiled horizon. 
 
 The air was thick and sultry, and so unspeakably op 
 pressive, that for above three hours the streets had been 
 entirely deserted. In a few houses of the higher class, 
 lights might be seen dimly shining through the casements 
 of the small chambers, hard beside the doorway, appropri 
 ated to the use of the Atriensis, or slave whose charge it 
 was to guard the entrance of the court. But, for the most 
 part, not a single ray cheered the dull murky streets, ex 
 cept that here and there, before the holy shrine, or vaster 
 and more elaborate temple of some one of Rome s hun 
 
10 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR. THE 
 
 dred gods, the votive lanthorns, though shorn of half their 
 beams by the dense fog-wreaths, burnt perennial. 
 
 The period was the latter time of the republic, a few 
 years after the fell democratic persecutions of the plebeian 
 Marius had drowned the mighty city oceans-deep in pa 
 trician gore ; after the awful retribution of the avenger 
 Sylla had rioted in the destruction of that guilty faction. 
 
 He who was destined one day to support the laurelled 
 diadem of universal empire on his bald brows, stood even 
 now among the noblest, the most ambitious, and the most 
 famous of the state ; though not as yet had he unfurled 
 the eagle wings of conquest over the fierce barbarian 
 hordes of Gaul and Germany, or launched his galleys on 
 the untried waters of the great Western sea. A dissipated, 
 spendthrift, and luxurious youth, devoted solely as it would 
 seem to the pleasure* of the table, or to intrigues with the 
 most fair and noble of Rome s ladies, he had yet, amid 
 those unworthy occupations, displayed such gleams of 
 overmastering talent, such wondrous energy, such deep 
 sagacity, and above all such uncurbed though ill-directed 
 ambition, that the perpetual Dictator had already, years 
 before, exclaimed with prescient wisdom, " In yon un- 
 zoned youth I perceive the germ of many a Marius." 
 
 At the same time, the magnificent and princely leader, 
 who was to be thereafter his great rival, was reaping that 
 rich crop of glory, the seeds of which had been sown al 
 ready by the wronged Lucullus, in the broad kingdoms of 
 the effeminate East. 
 
 Meanwhile, as Rome had gradually rendered herself, by 
 the exertion of indomitable valor, the supreme mistress of 
 every foreign power that bordered on the Mediterranean, 
 wealth, avarice, and luxury, like some contagious pesti 
 lence, had crept into the inmost vitals of the common 
 wealth, until the very features, which had once made her 
 famous, no less for her virtues than her valor, were utterly 
 obliterated and for ever. 
 
 Instead of a paternal, poor, brave, patriotic aristocracy, 
 she had now a nobility, valiant indeed and capable, but 
 dissolute beyond the reach of man s imagination, boundless 
 in their expenditures, reckless as to the mode of gaining 
 wherewithal to support them, oppressive and despotical 
 to their inferiors, smooth-tongued and hypocritical toward 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 11 
 
 eacri other, destitute equally of justice and compassion to 
 ward men, and of respect and piety toward the Gods ! 
 Wealth had become the idol, the god of the whole peo 
 ple ! Wealth and no longer service, eloquence, daring, 
 or integrity, was held the requisite for office. Wealth 
 now conferred upon its owner, all magistracies all guer 
 dons rank, power, command, consulships, provinces, 
 and armies. 
 
 The senate once the most grave and stern and just as 
 sembly that the world had seen was now, with but 
 a few superb exceptions, a timid, faithless, and licentious 
 oligarchy ; while name whilome so majestical and 
 mighty ! the people, the great Roman people, was but 
 a mob ! a vile colluvion of the offscourings of all climes 
 and regions Greeks, Syrians, Africans, Barbarians from 
 the chilly north, and eunuchs from tbtf vanquished Orient, 
 enfranchised slaves, and liberated gladiators a factious, 
 turbulent, fierce rabble ! 
 
 Such was the state of Rome, when it would seem that 
 the Gods, wearied with the guilt of her aggrandisement, 
 sick of the slaughter by which she had won her way to 
 empire almost universal, had judged her to destruction 
 had given her up to perish, not by the hands of any for 
 eign foe, but by her own ; not by the wisdom, conduct, 
 bravery of others, but by her own insanity and crime. 
 
 But at this darkest season of the state one hope was 
 left to Rome one safeguard. The united worth of 
 Cicero and Cato! The statesmanship, the eloquence, the 
 splendid and unequalled parts of the former ; the stem 
 self-denying virtue, the unchanged constancy, the resolute 
 and hard integrity of the latter; these, singular and seve 
 rally, might have availed to prop a falling dynasty unit 
 ed, might have preserved a world ! 
 
 The night was such as has already been described : 
 gloomy and lowering in its character, as was the aspect 
 of the political horizon, and most congenial to the fearful 
 plots, which were even now in progress against the lives 
 of Rome s best citizens, against the sanctity of her most 
 solemn temples, the safety of her domestic hearths, the 
 majesty of her inviolable laws, theA ery existence of her 
 institutions, of her empire, of herself as one among the 
 nations of the earth. 
 
12 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 Most suitable, indeed, was that dim murky night, most 
 favorable the solitude of the deserted streets, to the mea 
 sures of those parricides of the Republic, who lurked with 
 in her bosom, thirsty for blood, and panting to destroy. 
 Nor had they overlooked the opportunity. But a few days 
 remained before that on which the Consular elections, 
 fixed for the eighteenth of October, were to take place in 
 the Campus Martius whereat, it was already understood 
 that Sergius Cataline, frustrated the preceding year, by 
 the election of the great orator of Arpinum to his discom 
 fiture, was about once more to try the fortunes of himself 
 and of the popular faction. 
 
 It was at this untimely hour, that a man might have been 
 Been lurking beneath the shadows of an antique archway, 
 decorated with half-obliterated sculptures of the old Etrus 
 can school, in one of the narrow and winding streets 
 which, lying parallel to the Suburra, ran up the hollow 
 between the Viminal and Quirinal hills. 
 
 He was a tall arid well-framed figure, though so lean as 
 to seem almost emaciated. His forehead was unusually 
 high and narrow, and channelled with deep horizontal 
 lines of thought and passion, across which cut at right an 
 gles the sharp furrows of a continual scowl, drawing the 
 corners of his heavy coal-black eyebrows into strange 
 contiguity. Beneath these, situated far back in their caver 
 nous recesses, a pair of keen restless eyes glared out with 
 an expression fearful to behold a jealous, and unquiet, 
 ever-wandering glance so sinister, and ominous, and 
 above all so indicative of a perturbed and anguished spi 
 rit, that it could not be looked upon without suggesting 
 those wild tales, which speak of fiends dwelling in the 
 revivified and untombed carcasses of those who die in unre- 
 pented sin. His nose was keenly Roman; with a deep 
 wrinkle seared, as it would seem into the sallow flesh 
 from either nostril downward. His mouth, grimly com 
 pressed, and his jaws, for the most part, firmly clinched 
 together, spoke volumes of immutable and iron resolution ; 
 while all his under lip was scarred, in many places, with 
 the trace of wounds, inflicted beyond doubt, in some dread 
 paroxysm, by the very teeth it covered. 
 
 The dress which this remarkable looking individual 
 at that time wore, was the pcnula, as it was called; a 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 13 
 
 short, loose straight-cut overcoat, reaching a Ittle way be 
 low the knees, not fitted to the shape, but looped by wool 
 len frogs all down the front, with broad flaps to protect the 
 arms, and a square cape or collar, which at the pleasure 
 of the wearer could be drawn up so as to conceal all the 
 lower part of the countenance, or suffered to fall down up 
 on the shoulders. 
 
 This uncouth vestment, which was used only by men 
 of the lowest order, or by others solely when engaged in 
 long and toilsome journeys, or in cold wintry weather, was 
 composed of a thick loose-napped frieze or serge, of a dark 
 purplish brown, with loops andjftf&z, or frogs, of a dull 
 dingy red. 
 
 The wearer s legs were bare down to the very feet, 
 which were protected by coarse shoes of heavy leather, 
 fastened about the ancles by a thong, with a clasp of mar 
 vellously ill-cleaned brass. Upon his head he had ^.pcta- 
 iv/,9, or broad-brimmed hat of gray felt, fitting close to the 
 skull, with a long fall behind, not very unlike in form to 
 the south-wester of a modern seaman. This article of 
 dress was, like the penula, although peculiar to the infe 
 rior classes, oftentimes worn by men of superior rank, 
 when journeying abroad. From these, therefore, little or 
 no aid was given to conjecture, as to the station of the 
 person, who now shrunk back into the deepest gloom of 
 the old archway, now peered out stealthily into the night, 
 grinding his teeth and muttering smothered imprecations 
 against some one, who had failed to meet him. 
 
 The shoes, however, of rude, ill-tanned leather, of a form 
 and manufacture which was peculiar to the lowest arti- 
 zans or even slaves, were such as no man of ordinary 
 standing would under any circumstances have adopted. 
 Yet if these would have implied that the wearer was of 
 low plebeian origin, this surmise was contradicted by sev 
 eral rings decked with gems of great price and splendor 
 one a large deeply-engraved signet which were dis 
 tinctly visible by their lustre on the fingers of both his 
 hands. 
 
 His air and carriage too were evidently in accordance 
 with the nobility of birth implied by these magnificent 
 adornments, rather than with the humble station betoken 
 ed by the rest of his attire. ~ 
 
14 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 His motions were quick, irritable, and incessant ! His 
 pace, as he stalked to and fro in the narrow area of the arch 
 way, was agitated, and uneven. Now he would stride 
 off ten or twelve steps with strange velocity, then pause, 
 and stand quite motionless for perhaps a minute s space, 
 arid then again resume his walk with slow and faltering 
 gestures, to burst forth once again, as at the instigation of 
 some goading spirit, to the same short-lived energy and 
 speed. 
 
 Meantime, his color went and came ; he bit his lip, till 
 the blood trickled down his clean shorn chin ; he clinched 
 his hands, and smote them heavily together, and uttered 
 in a harsh hissing whisper the most appalling imprecations 
 on his own head- on him who had deceived him on 
 Rome, and all her myriads of inhabit ants on earth, and 
 sea, and heaven on everything divine or human ! 
 
 " The black plague light on the fat sleepy glutton ! 
 nay, rather all the fiends and furies of deep Erebus pur 
 sue me ! me !-= me, who was fool enough to fancy that 
 aught of bold design or manly daring could rouse up the 
 dull, adipose, luxurious loiterer from his wines his con 
 cubines his slumbers ! And now the dire ones hunt 
 him to perdition ! Now, the seventh hour of night hath 
 passed, and all await us at the house of Laeca ; and this 
 foul sluggard sottishly snores at home !" 
 
 While he was cursing yet, and smiting his broad chest, 
 and gnashing his teeth in impotent malignity, suddenly a 
 quick step became audible at a distance. The sound fell 
 on his ear sharpened by the stimulus of fiery passions and 
 of conscious fear, long ere it could have been* perceived 
 by any ordinary listener. 
 
 " Tis he," he said, " tis he at last but no f he 
 continued, after a pause of a second, during which he had 
 stooped, and laid his ear close to the ground, " no ! tis 
 too quick and light for the gross Cassius. By all the 
 gods! there are two ! Can he, then, have betrayed me? 
 No! no ! By heavens! he dare not !" 
 
 At the same time he started back into the darkest cor 
 ner of the arch, pulled up the cape of his cassock, and 
 slouched the wide-brimmed hat over his anxious linea 
 ments ; then pressing his body flat against the dusky 
 wall, to which the color of his garments was in some sort 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 15 
 
 assimilated, he awaited the arrival of the new-comers, 
 perhaps hoping that if foreign to his purpose they might 
 pass by him in the gloom. 
 
 As the footsteps now sounded nearer, he thrust his right 
 hand into the bosom of his cassock, and drew out a long 
 broad two-edged dagger, or stiletto ; and as he unsheathed 
 it, "Ready!" he muttered to himself, "ready for eith 
 er fortune !" 
 
 .Nearer and nearer came the footsteps, and the blent 
 sounds of the two were now distinctly audible one a 
 slow, listless tread, as of one loitering along, as if irresolute 
 whether to turn back or proceed ; the other a firm, rapid, 
 and decided step. 
 
 "Ha! it is well!" resumed the listener; "Cassiusit 
 is ; and with him comes Cethegus, though where they 
 have joined company I marvel." 
 
 And, as he spoke, he put his weapon back into his gir 
 dle, where it was perfectly concealed by the folds of the 
 penula. 
 
 "Ho! stand!" he whispered, as the two men whose 
 steps he had heard, entered the archway, " Stand, Friends 
 and Brethren." 
 
 "Hail, Sergius!" replied the foremost; a tall and 
 splendidly formed man, with a dark quick eye, and regu 
 lar features, nobly chiselled and in all respects such had 
 it not been for the bitter and ferocious sneer, which curl 
 ed his haughty lip, at every word as might be termed 
 eminently handsome. 
 
 He wore his raven hair in long and flowing curls, which 
 hung quite down upon his shoulders a fashion that was 
 held in Rome to the last degree effeminate, indeed al 
 most infamous while his trim whiskers and close curly 
 beard reeked with the richest perfumes, impregnating the 
 atmosphere through which he passed with odors so strong 
 as to be almost overpowering. 
 
 His garb was that of a patrician of the highest order ; 
 though tinctured, like the arrangement of his hair, with 
 not a little of that soft luxurious taste which had, of latter 
 years, begun so generally to pervade Rome s young no 
 bility. His under dress or tunic, was not of that succinct 
 and narrow cut, which had so well become the sturdy 
 fathers of the new republic! but beside being wrought 
 
16 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 of the finest Spanish wool of snowy whiteness, with the 
 broad crimson facings indicative of his senatorial rank, 
 known as the laticlave fell in loose folds half way be 
 tween his knee and ancle. 
 
 It had sleeves, too, a thing esteemed unworthy of a man 
 and was fringed at the cuffs, aud round the hem, with 
 a deep passmenting of crimson to match the laticlave. 
 His toga of the thinnest and most gauzy texture, and 
 whiter even than his tunic, flowed in a series of classical 
 and studied draperies quite to his heels, where like the 
 tunic it was bordered by a broad crimson trimming. His 
 feet were ornamented, rather than protected, by delicate 
 buskins of black leather, decked with the silver sigma, in 
 its old crescent shape, the proud initial of the high term 
 senator. A golden bracelet, fashioned like a large ser 
 pent, exquisitely carved with horrent scales and forked 
 tail, was twined about the wrist of his right arm, with a 
 huge carbuncle set in the head, and two rare diamonds 
 for eyes. A dozen rings gemmed with the clearest bril 
 liants sparkled upon his white and tapering fingers ; in 
 which, to complete the picture, he bore a handkerchief of 
 fine Egyptian cambric, or Byssus as the Romans styled it, 
 embroidered at the edges in arabesques of golden thread. 
 
 His comrade was if possible more slovenly in his attire 
 than his friend was luxurious and expensive. He wore 
 no toga, and his tunic which, without the upper robe, 
 was the accustomed dress of gladiators, slaves, and such 
 as were too poor to wear the full and characteristic attire 
 of the Roman citizen was of dark brownish woollen, 
 threadbare, and soiled with spots of grease, and patched 
 in many places. His shoes were of coarse clouted lea 
 ther, and his legs were covered up to the knees by thongs 
 of ill-tanned cowhide rolled round them and tied at the 
 ancles with straps of the same material. 
 
 " A plague on both of you !" replied the person, who 
 had been so long awaiting them, in answer to their saluta 
 tion. " Two hours have ye detained me here ; and now 
 that ye have come, in pretty guise ye do come ! Oh ! by 
 the gods ! a well assorted pair. Cassiusmore filthy than 
 the vilest and most base tatterdemalion of the stews, and 
 with him rare Cethegus, a senator in all his bravery ! 
 Wise judgment ! excellent disguises ! I know not whe- 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 17 
 
 ther most to marvel at the insane and furious temerity of 
 
 this one, or at the idiotic foolery of that ! Well fitted are 
 
 ye both for a great purpose. And now may the dark 
 
 furies hunt you to perdition ! what hath delayed you V 
 
 " Why, what a coil is here", replied the gay Qethe- 
 
 gus, delighted evidently at the unsuppressed anger of his 
 
 confederate in crime, and bent on goading to yet more 
 
 "fiery wrath his most ungovernable temper. " Methinks, 
 
 pleasant Sergius, the moisture of this delectable night 
 should have quenched somewhat the quick flames of your 
 most amiable and placid humor ! Keep thy hard words, 
 
 1 prithee, Cataline, for those who either heed or dread 
 them. I, thou well knowest, do neither." 
 
 "Peace, peace! Cethegus; plague him no farther," 
 interrupted Cassius, just as the fierce conspirator, exclaim 
 ing in a deep harsh whisper, the one word " Boy !" 
 strode forth as if to strike him. " And thou, good Cata 
 line, listen to reason we have been dogged hitherward, 
 and so came by circuitous byeways !" 
 
 " Dogged, said ye dogged ] and by whom 1 doth the 
 slave live, who dared it *?" 
 
 " By a slave, as we reckon," answered Cassius, " for 
 he wore no toga ; and his tunic" 
 
 " Was filthy very filthy, by the gods ! most like thine 
 own, good Cassius," interposed Cethegus. But, in good 
 sooth, he was a slave, my Sergius. He passed us twice, 
 before I thought much of it. Once as we crossed the sa- 
 cred way after descending from the Palatine and once 
 again beside the shrine of Venus in the Cyprian street. The 
 second time he gazed into my very eyes, until he caught 
 my glance meeting his own, and then with a quick bound 
 ing pace he hurried onward." 
 
 "Tush!" answered Cataline, "tush! was that alii 
 the knave was a chance night-walker, and frightened ye ! 
 Ha ! ha ! by Hercules ! it makes me laugh frightened 
 the rash and overbold Cethegus !" 
 
 " It was not all!" replied Cethegus very calmly, "it 
 was not all, Cataline. And, but that we are joined here 
 in a purpose so mighty that it overwhelms all private in 
 terests, all mere considerations of the individual, you, my 
 good sir, should learn what it is to taunt a man with fear, 
 who fears not anything least of all thee ! But it was 
 2* 
 
18 THE ROMAN TRAITOR J OR, THE 
 
 not all. For as we turned from a side lane into the Wic 
 ked* street that scales the summit of the Esquiline, my 
 eye caught something lurking in the dark shadow cast 
 over an angle of the wall by a large cypress. I seized 
 the arm of Cassius, to check his speech" 
 
 " Ha ! did the fat idiot speak ? what said he V inter 
 rupted Cataline. 
 
 " Nothing," replied the other, " nothing, at least, of 
 any moment. Well, I caught Cassius by the arm, and 
 was in the act of pointing, when from the shadows of the 
 
 tree out sprang tftis self-same varlet, whereon I ". 
 
 " Rushed on him ! dragged him into the light ! and 
 smote him, thus, and thus, and thus ! didst thou not, excel 
 lent Cethegus ]" Cataline exclaimed fiercely in a hard 
 stern whisper, making three lounges, while he spoke, as 
 if with a stiletto. 
 
 " I did not any of these things," answered the other. 
 " And why not, I say, why not 1 why not V 1 cried 
 Cataline with rude impetuosity. 
 
 " That shall I answer, when you give me time," said 
 Cethegus, coolly. " Because when I rushed forth, he 
 fled with an exceeding rapid flight ; leaped the low wall 
 into the graveyard of the base Plebeians, and there among 
 the cypresses and overthrown sepulchres escaped me for 
 a while. I beat about most warily, and at length started 
 him up again from the jaws of an obscene and broken 
 catacomb. I gained on him at every step ; heard the 
 quick panting of his breath ; stretched out my left to grasp 
 him, while my right held unsheathed and ready the good 
 Btiletto that ne er failed me. And now now by the 
 great Jove ! his tunic s hem was fluttering in my clutch, 
 when my feet tripped over a prostrate column, that I was 
 hurled five paces at the least in advance of the fugitive ; 
 and when I rose again, sore stunned, and bruised, and 
 breathless, the slave had vanished." 
 
 " And where, I prithee, during this well-concerted 
 chase, was valiant Cassius ?" enquired Cataline, with a 
 hoarse sneering laugh. 
 
 " During the chase, I know not," answered Cethegus, 
 11 but when it was over, and I did return, I found him 
 
 * Yicus sceleratus. So called because Tullia therein drove her chariot 
 over her father s corpse. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 19 
 
 leaning on the wall, even in the angle whence the slave 
 fled on our approach." 
 
 " Asleep ! I warrant me by the great gods ! asleep !" 
 exclaimed the other; " but come! come, let us onwaid, 
 I trow we have been waited for and as we go, tell 
 me, I do beseech thee, what was t that Cassius said, when 
 the slave lay beside ye 1 " 
 
 " Nay, but I have forgotten some trivial thing or other 
 oh ! now I. do bethink me, he said it was a long walk 
 to Marcus Leeca s." 
 
 " Fool ! fool! Double and treble fool! and dost thou 
 call this nothing ] Nothing to tell the loitering informer 
 the very head and heart of our design ? By Erebus ! but 
 I am sick sick of the fools, with whom I am thus wret 
 chedly assorted ! "Well ! well ! upon your own heads be 
 it!" and instantly recovering his temper he walked on* 
 with his two confederates, now in deep silence, at a quick 
 pace through the deserted streets towards their perilous 
 rendezvous. 
 
 Noiseless, with stealthy steps, they hurried onward, 
 threading the narrow pass between the dusky hills, until 
 they reached a dark and filthy lane which turning at right 
 angles led to the broad thoroughfare of che more showy, 
 though by no means less ill-famed Suburra. Into this 
 they struck instantly, walking in single file, and keeping 
 as nearly as possible in the middle of the causeway. The 
 lane, which was composed of dwellings of the lowest or 
 der, tenanted by the most abject profligates, was dark as 
 midnight; for the tall dingy buildings absolutely inter 
 cepted every ray of light that proceeded from the murky 
 sky, and there was not a spark in any of the sordid case- 
 merits, nor any votive lamp in that foul alley. The only 
 glimpse of casual illumination, and that too barely serving 
 to render the darkness and the filth perceptible,* was the 
 faint streak of lustre where the Suburra crossed the far 
 extremity of the bye-path. 
 
 Scarce had they made three paces down the alley, ere 
 the quick eye of Cataline, for ever roving in search of 
 aught suspicious, caught the dim outline of a human 
 figure, stealing across this pallid gleam. 
 
 "Hist! hist!" he whispered in stern low tones, which 
 though inaudible at three yards distance completely filled 
 the ears of him to wh m they were addressed " hist ! 
 
20 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 hist ! Cethegus ; seest thou not seest thou not there 1 If it 
 be he, he scapes us not again ! out with thy weapon, 
 man, and strike at once, if that thou have a chance ; but if 
 riot, do thou go on with Cassius to the appointed place. 
 Leave him to me ! and say, I follow ye ! See ! he hath 
 slunk into the darkness. Separate ye, and occupy the 
 whole width of the street, while I dislodge him !" 
 
 And as he spoke, unsheathing his broad poignard, but 
 holding it concealed beneath his cassock,. he strode on 
 boldly, affecting the most perfect indifference, and even 
 insolence of bearing. 
 
 Meanwhile the half-seen figure had entirely disappeared 
 amid the gloom ; yet had the wary eye of the conspirator, 
 in the one momentary glance he had obtained, been able 
 to detect with something very near to certainty the spot 
 wherein the spy, if such he were, lay hidden. As he ap 
 proached the place whereat a heap of rubbish, the relics 
 of a building not long ago as it would seem consumed by 
 fire, projected far into the street seeing no sign whatever 
 of the man who, he was well assured, was not far distant, 
 he paused a little so as to suffer his companions to draw 
 near. Then as they came up with him, skilled in all deep 
 and desperate wiles, he instantly commenced a whispered 
 conversation, a tissue of mere nonsense, with here and 
 there a word of seeming import clearly and audibly pro 
 nounced. Nor was his dark manoeuvre unsuccessful ; for 
 as he uttered the word " Cicero," watching meanwhile the 
 heap of ruins as jealously as ever tiger glared on its des 
 tined prey, he caught a tremulous outline ; and in a se 
 cond s space, a small round object, like a man s head, was 
 protruded from the darkness, and brought into relief 
 against the brighter back ground. 
 
 Then then with all the fury all the lythe agile vigor, 
 all the unrivalled speed, and concentrated fierceness of 
 that tremendous beast of prey, he dashed upon his victim ! 
 But at the first slight movement of his sinewy form, the 
 dimly seen shape vanished ; impetuously he rushed on 
 among the piles of scattered brick and rubbish, and, ere he 
 saw the nature of the place, plunged down a deep descent 
 into the cellai of the ruin. 
 
 Lucky was it for Cataline, and most unfortunate for 
 Rome, that when the building fell, its fragments had cho 
 ked three parts of the depth of that subterranean vault ; 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATAL1NE. 21 
 
 so that it was but from a height of three or four feet at 
 the utmost, that the fierce desperado was precipitated ! 
 
 Still, to a man less active, the accident might have been 
 serious, but with instinctive promptitude, backed by a 
 wonderful exertion of muscular agility, he writhed his 
 body even in the act of falling so that he lighted on his 
 feet ; and, ere a second had elapsed after his fall, was ex 
 tricating himself from the broken masses of cement and 
 brickwork, and soon stood unharmed, though somewhat 
 stunned and shaken, on the very spot which had been oc 
 cupied scarcely a minute past by the suspected spy. 
 
 At the same point of time in which the conspirator fell, 
 the person, whosoever he was, in pursuit of whom he had 
 plunged so heedlessly into the ruins, darted forth from his 
 concealment close to the body and within arm s length of 
 the fierce Cethegus , whose attention was for the moment 
 distracted from his watch by the catastrophe which had 
 befallen his companion. Dodging by a quick movement 
 so quick that it seemed almost the result of instinct so 
 to elude the swift attempt of his enemy to arrest his pro 
 gress, the spy was forced to rush almost into the arms of 
 Cassius. 
 
 Yet this appeared not to cause him any apprehension ; 
 for he dashed boldly on, till they were almost front to 
 front ; when, notwithstanding his unwieldy frame and in 
 activity of habit, spurred into something near to energy 
 by the very imminence of peril, the worn-out debau 
 chee bestirred himself as if to seize him. 
 
 If such, however, were his intention, widely had he 
 miscalculated his own powers, and fatally underrated the 
 agility and strength of the stranger a tall, thin, wiry man, 
 well nigh six feet in height, broad shouldered.^and deep 
 chested, and thin flanked, and limbed like a Greek Athlete, 
 
 On he dashed ! on right on ! till they stood face to 
 face ; and then with one quick blow, into which, as it seem 
 ed, he put but little of his strength, he hurled the burly 
 Cassius to the earth, and fled with swift and noiseless 
 steps into the deepest gloom. Perceiving on the instant 
 the necessity of apprehending this now undoubted spy, 
 the fiery Cethegus paused not one instant to look after 
 his discomfited companions ; but rushed away on the tra 
 ces of the fugitive, who had perhaps gained, at the very 
 
22 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 utmost, a dozen paces start of him, in that wild midnight 
 race that race for life and death. 
 
 The slave, for such from his dark tunic he appeared to 
 oe, was evidently both a swift and practised runner ; and 
 well aware how great a stake was on his speed he now 
 strained every muscle to escape, while scarce less fleet, 
 and straining likewise every sinew to the utmost, Cethc- 
 gus panted at his very heels. 
 
 Before, however, they had run sixty yards, one swifter 
 than Cethegus took up the race ; and bruised although 
 he was, and stunned, and almost breathless when he start 
 ed, ere he had overtaken his staunch friend, which he did 
 in a space wonderfully brief, he seemed to have shaken 
 off every ailment, and to be in the completest and most 
 firm possession of all his wonted energies. As he caught 
 up Cethegus, he relaxed somewhat of his speed, and ran 
 on by his side for some few yards at a sort of springy 
 trot, speaking the while in a deep whisper, 
 
 " Hist !" he said, " hist ! I am more swift of foot 
 than thou, and deeper winded. Leave me to deal with 
 this dog ! Back thou, to him thou knowest of; sore is he 
 hurt, I warrant me. Comfort him as thou best mayest, 
 and hurry whither we were now going. Tis late even 
 now too late, I fear me much, and doubtless we are 
 waited for. I have the heels of this same gallowsbird, that 
 can I see already ! Leave me to deal with him, and an 
 he tells tales on us, then call me liar !" 
 
 Already well nigh out of breath himself, while the en 
 durance of the fugitive seemed in nowise affected, and 
 aware of the vast superiority of his brother conspirator s 
 powers to his own, Cethegus readily enough yielded to his 
 positive and reiterated orders, and turning hastily back 
 ward, gathered up the bruised and groaning Cassius, and 
 led him with all speed toward the well-known rendezvous 
 in the house of Lceca. 
 
 Meanwhile with desperate speed that headlong race 
 continued; the gloomy alley was passed through; the 
 wider street into which it debouched, vanished beneath 
 their quick beating footsteps ; the dark and shadowy arch, 
 wherein the chief conspirator had lurked, was threaded 
 at full speed; and still, although he toiled, till the sweat 
 dripped from every pore like gouts of summer rain, al- 
 
DAYS OF CICERQ, CATO AND CATALINE. 23 
 
 though he plied each limb, till every over-wrought sinew 
 seemed to crack, the hapless fugitive could gain no ground 
 on his inveterate pursuer; who, cool, collected and un 
 wearied, without one drop of perspiration on his dark 
 sallow brow, without one panting sob in his deep breath, 
 followed on at an equable and steady pace, gaming not 
 any thing, nor seeming to desire to gain any thing, while 
 yet within the precincts of the populous and thickly-set 
 tled city. 
 
 But now they crossed the broad Virbian street. The 
 slave, distinctly visible for such, as he glanced by a bright 
 ly decorated shrine girt by so many brilliant lamps as 
 shewed its tenant idol to have no lack of worshippers, 
 darted up a small street leading directly towards the Es- 
 quilrno. 
 
 " Now ! now !" lisped Cataline between his hard-set 
 teeth, " now he is mine, past rescue !" 
 
 Up the dark filthy avenue they sped, the fierce pur 
 suer now gaining on the fugitive at every bound ; till, had 
 he stretched his arm out, he might have seized him ; till 
 his breath, hot and strong, waved the disordered elf-locks 
 that fell down upon the bare neck of his flying victim. And 
 now the low wall of the Plebeian burying ground arose 
 before them, shaded by mighty cypresses and overgrown 
 with tangled ivy. At one wild bound the hunted slave 
 leaped over it, into the trackless gloom. At one wild 
 bound the fierce pursuer followed him. Scarcely a yard 
 asunder they alighted on the rank grass of that charnel 
 grove ; and not three paces did they take more, ere Cata 
 line had hurled his victim to the earth, and cast himself 
 upon him ; choking his cries for help by the compression 
 of his sinewy fingers, which grasped with a tenacity little 
 inferior to that of an iron vice the miserable wretch s 
 gullet. 
 
 He snatched his poniard from his sheath, reared it on 
 high with a well skilled and steady hand ! Down it came, 
 noiseless and unseen. For there was not a ray of light to 
 flash along its polished blade. Down it came with almost 
 the speed and force of the electric fluid. A deep, dull, 
 heavy sound was heard, as it was plunged into the yield 
 ing flesh, and the hot gushing blood spirted forth in a 
 quick jet into the very face and mouth of the fell mur- 
 
24 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 derer. A terrible convulsion, a fierce writhing spasm 
 followed so strong, so muscularly powerful, that the 
 stern gripe of Cataline was shaken from the throat of his 
 victim, and from his dagger s hilt ! 
 
 In the last agony the murdered man cast off his slayer 
 from his breast ; started erect upon his feet ! tore out, 
 from the deep wound, the fatal weapon which had made 
 it ; hurled it far far as his remaining strength permitted 
 into the rayless night ; burst forth into a wild and 
 yelling cry, half laughter and half impi ecation ; fell 
 headlong to the earth which was no more insensible than 
 he, what time he struck it, to any sense of mortal pain or 
 sorrow and perished there alone, unpitied and unaided. 
 
 " HABET ! he hath it !" muttered Catalirie, quoting the 
 well-known expression of the gladiatorial strife ; " he 
 hath it ! but all the plagues of Erebus, light on it my 
 good stiletto lies near to him in the swart darkness, to tes 
 tify against me ; nor by great Hecate ! is there one chance 
 to ten of finding it. Well ! be it so !" he added, turning 
 upon his heel, " be it so, for most like it hath fallen in 
 the deep long grass, where none will ever find it ; and if 
 they do, I care not !" 
 
 And with a reckless and unmoved demeanor, well 
 pleased with his success, and casting not one retrospective 
 thought toward his murdered victim, not one repentant 
 sigh upon his awful crime, he too hurried away to join 
 his dread associates at their appointed meeting. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MEASURES. 
 
 For what then do they pause ? 
 
 An hour to strike. 
 
 MARINO FALIERO. 
 
 THE hours of darkness had already well nigh passed , 
 and but for the thick storm-clouds and the drizzling rain, 
 some streaks of early dawn might have been seen on the 
 horizon, when at the door of Marcus Laeca, in the low 
 grovelling street of the Scythemakers strange quarter 
 for the residence of a patrician, one of the princely Por- 
 cii the arch-conspirator stood still, and glared around 
 with keen suspicious eyes, after his hurried walk. 
 
 It was, however, yet as black as midnight ; nor in that 
 wretched and base suburb, tenanted only by poor labo 
 rious artizans, was there a single artificial light to relieve 
 the gloom of nature. 
 
 The house of Lasca ! How little would the passer-by 
 who looked in those days on its walls, decayed and moss- 
 grown even then, and mouldering how little would he 
 have imagined that its fame would go down to the latest 
 ages, imperishable through its owner s infamy. 
 
 The house of Leeca ! The days had been, while Rome 
 was yet but young, when it stood far aloof in the gay 
 green fields, the suburban villa of the proud Porcian 
 house. Time passed, and fashions changed. Low streets 
 and squalid tenements supplanted the rich fields and 
 fruitful orchards, which had once rendered it so pleasant 
 an abode. Its haughty lords abandoned it for a more 
 stately palace nigh the forum, and for long years it had 
 
 3 
 
26 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 remained tenantless, voiceless, desolate. But dice, and 
 wine, and women, mad luxury and boundless riot, had 
 brought its owner down to indigence, and infamy and sin. 
 
 The palace passed away from its inheritor. The ruin 
 welcomed its last lord. 
 
 And here, meet scene for orgies such as it beheld, 
 Rome s parricides were wont to hold their murderous as 
 semblies. 
 
 With a slow stealthy tread, that woke no echo, Cata- 
 line advanced to the door. There was no lamp in the 
 cell of the atriensis; no sign of wakefulness in any of the 
 casements ; yet at the first slight t;:p upon the stout oak 
 en pannel, although it was scarce louder than the plash of 
 the big raindrops from the eaves, another tap responded 
 to it from within, so faint that it appeared an echo of the 
 other. The rebel counted, as fast as possible, fifteen ; and 
 then tapped thrice as he had done before, meeting the 
 same reply, a repetition of his own signal. After a mo 
 ment s interval, a little wicket opened in the door, and a 
 low voice asked " Who ]" In the same guarded tone 
 the answer was returned, " Cornelius." Again the voice 
 asked, " Which 1" and instantly, as Cataline replied, 
 " the third," the door flew open, and he entered. 
 
 The Atrium, or wide hall in which he stood, was all in 
 utter darkness ; there was no light on the altar of the 
 Penates, which was placed by the impluviwn a large 
 shallow tank of water occupying the centre of the hall in 
 all Roman houses nor any gleam from the toblinuin* r 
 closed gallery beyond, parted by heavy curtains from the 
 audience chamber. 
 
 There were no stars to glimmer through the opening 
 in the roof above the central tank, yet the quick eye of 
 the conspirator perceived, upon the instant, that two 
 strong men with naked swords, their points within a 
 hand s breadth of his bosom, stood on each side the door 
 way. 
 
 The gate was closed as silently as it had given him en 
 trance ; was barred and bolted ; and till then no word 
 was interchanged. When all, however, was secure, a 
 deep rich voice, suppressed into a whisper, exclaimed 
 " Sergius 1" " Ay !" answered Cataline. " Come on ! 
 and without farther parley they stole into the most secret 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 27 
 
 chambers of the house, fearful as it appeared of the sounds 
 of their own footsteps, much more of their own voices. 
 
 Thus with extreme precaution, when they had travers 
 ed several chambers, among which were an indoor tricli 
 nium, or dining parlor, and a vast picture gallery, groping 
 their way along in utter darkness, they reached a small 
 square court, surrounded by a peristyle or colonnade, 
 containing a dilapidated fountain. Passing through this, 
 they reached a second dining room, where on the central 
 table they found a small lamp burning, and by the aid oi 
 this, though still observing the most scrupulous silence, 
 quickly attained their destination a low and vaulted cham 
 ber entirely below the surface of the ground, accessible 
 only by a stair defended by two doors of unusual thick 
 ness. 
 
 That was a fitting place for deeds of darkness, councils 
 of desperation, such as they held, who met within its 
 gloomy precincts. The moisture, which dripped con 
 stantly from its groined roof of stone, had formed stalac 
 tites of dingy spar, whence the large gouts plashed heavi 
 ly on the damp pavement ; the walls were covered with 
 green slimy mould ; the atmosphere was close and foetid, 
 and so heavy that the huge waxen torches, four of which 
 stood in rusty iron candelabra, on a large slab of granite, 
 burned dim and blue, casting a faint and ghastly light on 
 lineaments so grim and truculent, or so unnaturally excited 
 by the dominion of all hellish passions, that they had little 
 need of anything extraneous to render them most hideous 
 and appalling. There were some twenty-five men pre 
 sent, variously clad indeed, and of all ages, but evidently 
 though many had endeavoured to disguise the fact by 
 poor and sordid garments all of the higher ranks. 
 
 Six or eight were among them, who feared not, nor 
 were ashamed to appear there in the full splendor of their 
 distinctive garb as Senators, prominent among whom was 
 the most rash and furious of them all, Cethegus. 
 
 He, at the moment when the arch-conspirator, accompa 
 nied by Leeca and the rest of those who .had admitted 
 him, entered the vault, was speaking with much energy 
 and even fierceness of manner to three or four who stood 
 apart a little from the rest with their backs to the door, 
 listening with knitted brows, clenched hands, and lips 
 
* , 
 28 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 compressed and bloodless, to his tremendous imprecations 
 launched at the heads of all who were for any, even the 
 least, delay in the accomplishment of their dread scheme 
 of slaughter. 
 
 One among them was a large stately looking personage, 
 somewhat inclined to corpulence, but showing many a sign 
 of giant strength, and vigor unimpaired by years or hab 
 it. His head was large but well shaped, with a broad 
 and massive forehead, and an eye keen as the eagle s 
 when soaring in his pride of place. His nose was promi 
 nent, but rather aquiline than Roman. His mouth, wide 
 and thick-lipped, with square and fleshy jaws, was the 
 worst featnre in his face, and indicative of indulged sen 
 suality and fierceness, if not of cruelty combined with the 
 excess of piide. 
 
 This man wore the plain toga and white tunic of a pri 
 vate citizen ; but never did plebeian eye and lip flash with 
 such concentrated haughtiness, curl with so fell a sneer, 
 as those of that fallen consular, of that degraded senator, 
 the haughtiest and most ambitious of a race never defi 
 cient in those qualities, he who, drunk with despairing 
 pride, and deceived to his ruin by the double-tongued 
 Sibylline prophecies, aspired to be that third Cornelius, 
 who should be master of the world s mistress, Rome. 1 
 
 The others were much younger men, for Lentulus was 
 at that period already past his prime, and these two 
 more especially who looked mere boys had scarcely 
 reached youth s threshold ; though their pale withered 
 faces, and brows seared deeply by the scorching brand of 
 evil passions, showed that in vice at least, if not in years, 
 they had lived long already. 
 
 Those two were senators in their full garniture, the sons 
 of Servius Sylla, both beautiful almost as women, with 
 soft and feminine features, and long curled hair, and lips 
 of coral, from which in flippant and affected accents fell 
 words, and breathed desires, that would have made the 
 blood stop and turn stagnant at the heart of any one, not 
 utterly polluted and devoid of every humane feeling. 
 
 This little knot seemed fierce for action, fiery and pant 
 ing with that wolfish thirst, to quench which blood must 
 flow. But all the rest seemed dumb, and tongue-tied, and 
 crest-fallen. The sullenness of fear brooded on every other 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 29 
 
 face. The torpor of despairing crime, already in its own 
 fan.cy baffled and detected, had fallen on every other heart. 
 For, at the farther end of the room, whispering to his 
 trembling hearers dubious and dark suspicions, with ter 
 ror on his tongue, stood Cassius, exaggerating the adven 
 tures of the night. 
 
 Such was the scene, when Cataline stalked into that 
 bad conclave. The fires of hell itself could send forth no 
 more blasting glare, than shot from his dark eyes, as he be 
 held, and read at half a glance their consternation. Bitter 
 and blighting was the sneer upon his lip, as he stood 
 motionless, gazing upon them for a little space. Then 
 flinging his arm on high and striding to the table he dashed 
 his hand upon it, that it rang and quivered to the blow. 
 
 " What are ye ?" he said slowly, in tones that thrilled 
 to every heart, so piercing was their emphasis. " Men ? 
 No, by the Gods ! men rush on death for glory ! Women 1 
 They risk it, for their own, their children s, or their lover s 
 safety ! Slaves 1 Nay ! even these things welcome it for 
 freedom, or meet it with revenge ! Less then, than men ! 
 than women, slaves, or beasts ! Perish like cattle, if ye 
 will, unbound but unresisting, all* armed, but unavenged! 
 And ye great Gods ! I laugh to see your terror- 
 blanched, blank visages. I laugh, but loathe in laughing ! 
 The destined dauntless sacrificers, who would imbue your 
 knives in senatorial, consular gore ! kindle your altars on 
 the downfallen Capitol! and build your temples on the 
 wreck of Empire ! Ha! do you start 1 and does some 
 touch of shame redden the sallow cheeks that courage had 
 left bloodless r ( and do ye grasp your daggers, and rear 
 your drooping heads 1 are ye men, once again 1 Why 
 should ye not ] what do ye see, what hear, whereat to fal 
 ter 1 W 7 hat oracle, what portent 1 Now, by the Gods ! 
 methought they spoke of victory and glory. Once more, 
 what do ye fear, or wish ] What, in the name of Hecate 
 and Hades ! What do ye wait for V 
 
 " A leader!" answered the rash Cethegus, excited now 
 even beyond the bounds of ordinary rashness. " A day, 
 a place, a signal !" 
 
 " Have them, then, all," replied the other, still half 
 scornfully. "Lo ! I am here to lead ; the field of Mars 
 will give a place ; the consular elections an occasion ; the 
 blood of Cicero a signal !" 
 
30 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 "Be it so!" instantly replied Cethegus ; "be it so! 
 thou hast spoken, as the times warrant, boldly ; and upon 
 my head be it, that our deeds shall respond to thy daring 
 words, with equal daring !" 
 
 And a loud hum of general assent succeeded to his stir 
 ring accents ; and a quick fluttering sound ran through the 
 whole assemblage , as every man, released from the con 
 straint of deep and silent expectation, altered his posture 
 somewhat, and drew a long breath at the close. But the 
 conspirator paused not. He saw immediately the effect 
 which had been made upon the minds of all, by what had 
 passed. He perceived the absolute necessity of following 
 that impulse up to action, before, by a revulsion no less 
 sudden than the late change from despondency to fierce 
 ness, their minds should again subside into the lethargy of 
 doubt and dismay. 
 
 " But say thou, Sergius," he continued, "how shall it 
 be, and who shall strike the blow that is to seal Rome s 
 liberty, our vengeance V 1 
 
 " First swear we !" answered Cataline. " Laeca, the 
 eagle, and the bowl !" 
 
 " Lo ! they are here my Sergius," answered the master 
 of the house, drawing aside a piece of crimson drapery, 
 which covered a small niche or recess in the wall, and dis-^ 
 playing by the movement a silver eagle, its pinions wide 
 extended, and its talons grasping a thunderbolt, placed on 
 a pedestal, under a small but exquisitely sculptured 
 shrine of Parian marble. Before the image there stood 
 a votive lamp, fed by the richest oils, a mighty bowl of 
 silver half filled with the red Massic wine, and many pa- 
 terce, or sacrificial vessels of a yet richer metal. 
 
 " Hear, bird of Mars, and of Quirinus" cried Cataline, 
 without a pause, stretching his hands toward the glitter 
 ing effigy " Hear thou, and be propitious ! Thou, who 
 didst all-triumphant guide a yet greater than Quirinus to 
 deeds of might and glory ; thou, who wert worshipped 
 by the charging shout of Marius, and consecrated by the 
 gore of Cimbric myriads ; thou, who wert erst enshrined 
 on the Capitoline, what time the proud patricians veiled 
 their haughty crests before the conquering plebeian ; thou. 
 who shalt sit again sublime upo n those ramparts, meet 
 aery for thine unvanquishect pinion ; shalt drink again liba- 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 31 
 
 tions, boundless libations of rich Roman life-blood, hot 
 from patrician hearts, smoking from every kennel ! Hear 
 and receive our oaths listen and be propitious !" 
 
 He spoke, and seizing from the pedestal a sacrificial 
 knife, which lay beside the bowl, opened a small vein in 
 his arm, and suffered the warm stream to gush into the 
 wine. While the red current was yet flowing, he gave 
 the weapon to Cethegus, and he did likewise, passing it 
 in his turn to the conspirator who stood beside him, and 
 he in like manner to the next, till each one in his turn 
 had shed his blood into the bowl, which now mantled 
 to the brim with a foul and sacrilegious mixture, the rich 
 est vintage of the Massic hills, cm died with human gore. 
 
 Then filling out a golden goblet for himself, " Hear, God 
 of war," cried Cataline, " unto whose minister and omen 
 we offer daily worship ; hear, mighty Mars, the homicide 
 and the avenger ; and thou, most ancient goddess, hear, 
 Nemesis ! and Hecate, and Hades ! and all ye powers of 
 darkness, Furies and Fates, hear ye ! For unto ye we 
 swear, never to quench the torch ; never to sheath the 
 brand ; till all our foes be prostrate, till not one drop 
 shall run in living veins of Rome s patricians ; till not one 
 hearth shall warm ; one roof shall shelter ; till Rome shall 
 be like Carthage, and we, like mighty Marius, lords and 
 spectators of her desolation ! We swear ! we taste the 
 consecrated cup ! and thus may his blood flow, who shall, 
 for pity or for fear, forgive or fail or falter his own blood, 
 and his wife s, and that of all his race forever ! May vul 
 tures tear their eyes, yet fluttering with quick vision ; may 
 wolves tug at their heart-strings, yet strong with vigor 
 ous life ; may infamy be their inheritance, and Tartarus 
 receive their spirits !" 
 
 And while he spoke, he sipped the cup of horror with 
 unreluctant lips, and dashed the goblet with the residue 
 over the pedestal and shrine. And there was not one 
 there who shrank from that foul draught. With ashy 
 cheeks indeed, but knitted brows, and their lips reeking 
 red with the abomination, but fearless and unfaltering, 
 they pledged in clear and solemn tones, each after each, 
 that awful imprecation, and cast their goblets down, that 
 the floor swam in blood ; and grasped each others hands, 
 sworn comrades from that hour even to the gates of hell, 
 

 32 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 A long and impressive silence followed. For 
 heart there, even of the boldest, recoiled as it were for a 
 moment on itself, not altogether in regret or fear, much 
 less in anything approaching to compunction or remorse ; 
 but in a sort of secret horror, that they were now in 
 volved beyond all hope of extrication, beyond all possibi 
 lity of turning back or halting ! And Cataline, endowed 
 with almost superhuman shrewdness, and himself quite 
 immovable of purpose, perceived the feelings that actua 
 ted all the others which he felt not, nor cared for and 
 called on Lseca to bring wine. 
 
 "Wine, comrades," he exclaimed, "pure, generous, no 
 ble wine, to wash away the rank drops from our lips, that 
 are more suited to our blades ! to make our veins leap 
 cheerily to the blythe inspiration of the God ! and last, not 
 least, to guard us from the damps of this sweet chamber, 
 which alone of his bounteous hospitality our Porcius has 
 vouchsafed to us !" And on the instant, the master for 
 they dared trust no slaves bore in two earthen vases, one 
 of strong Chian from the Greek Isle of the Egean, the oth 
 er of Falernian, the fruitiest and richest of the Italian 
 wines, not much unlike the modern sherry, but having still 
 more body, and many cyathi, or drinking cups ; but he 
 brought in no water, wherewith the more temperate an 
 cients were wont to mix their heady wines, even in so 
 great a ratio as nine to one of the generous liquor. 
 
 " Fill now ! fill all !" cried Cataline, and with the word 
 he drained a brimming cup. " Rare liquor this, my Mar 
 cus," he continued; " whence had st thou this Falernian ? 
 tis of thine inmost brand, I doubt not. In whose con 
 sulship did it imbibe the smoke V 
 
 " The first of Caius Marius." 
 
 " Forty-four years, a ripe age," said Cethegus, "but 
 twill be better forty years hence. Strange, by the Gods ! 
 that of the two best things on earth, women and wine, 
 the nature should so differ. The wine is crude still, whn 
 the girl is mellow ; but it is ripe, long after she is " 
 
 " Rotten, by Venus !" interposed Caeparius, swearing 
 the harlot s oath ; " Rotten, and in the lap of Lamia !" 
 
 " But heard ye not," asked Cataline, " or hearing, did 
 ye not accept the omen ! in whose first Consulship this 
 same Falernian jar was sealed ]" 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 33 
 
 " Marius! By Hercules! an omen ! oh, may it turn out 
 well !" exclaimed the superstitious Lentulus. 
 
 "Sayest thou, my Sura ? well! drink we to the omen, 
 and may we to the valour and the principles of Marius 
 unite the fortunes of his rival of all-triumphant Sylla!" 
 
 A burst of acclamations replied to the happy hit, ani 
 seeing now his aim entirely accomplished, Cataline. check 
 ed the revel; their blood was up; no fear of chilling 
 counsels ! 
 
 " Now then," he said, " before we drink like boon com 
 panions, let us consult like men ; there is need now of 
 counsel ; that once finished" 
 
 " Fulvia awaits me," interrupted Cassius, " Fulvia, 
 worth fifty revels !" 
 
 " And me Semperonia," lisped the younger and more 
 beautiful of the twin Sylla. 
 
 " Meanwhile," exclaimed Autronius, " let us compre 
 hend, so shall we need no farther meetings each of which 
 risks the awakening of suspicion, and it may well be of dis 
 covery. Let us now comprehend, that, when the time 
 comes, we may all perform our duty. Speak to us, there 
 fore, Sergius." 
 
 No farther exhortation was required ; for coolly the 
 conspirator arose to set before his desperate companions, 
 the plans which he had laid so deeply, that it seemed 
 scarcely possible that they should fail ; and not a breath or 
 whisper interrupted him as he proceeded. 
 
 " Were I not certain of the men," he said, " to whom I 
 speak, I could say many things that should arouse you, so 
 that you should catch with fiery eagerness at aught that 
 promised a more tolerable position. I could recount the 
 luxuries of wealth which you once knew ; the agonies of 
 poverty beneath which, to no purpose, you lie groaning. 
 1 could point out your actual inability to live, however 
 basely deprived of character and credit devoid of any 
 relics of your fortunes ! weighed to the very earth by 
 debts, the interest alone of which has swallowed up your 
 
 Eatrimonies, and gapes even yet for more ! fettered by 
 ail-bonds, to fly which is infamy, and to abide them ruin ! 
 shunned, scorned, despised, and hated, if not feared by all 
 men. I could paint, to your very eyes, ourselves in rags 
 or fetters ! our enemies in robes of office, seated on curule 
 

 34 
 
 chairs, swaying the fate of nations, dispensing by a nod the 
 wealth of plundered provinces ! I could reverse the pic 
 ture. But, as it is, your present miseries and your past 
 deeds dissuade me. Your hopelessness and daring, your 
 wrongs and valor, your injuries and thirst of vengeance, 
 warn me, alike, that words are weak, and exhortation 
 needless. Now understand with me, how matters stand. 
 The stake for which we play, is fair before your eyes : 
 learn how our throw for it is certain. The consular elec 
 tions, as you all well know, will be held, as proclaimed 
 already, on the fifteenth day before the calends of Novem 
 ber. My rivals are Sulpicius, Muraena, and Silanus. An- 
 tonius and Cicero will preside the first, my friend ! a 
 bold and noble Roman ! He waits but an occasion to de 
 clare for us. Now, mark me. Caius Manlius you all do 
 know the man, an old and practised soldier, a scar-seamed 
 veteran of Sylla, will on that very day display yon eagle 
 to twenty thousand men, well armed, and brave, and des 
 perate as ourselves, at Fiesole. Septimius of Camerinum 
 writes from the Picene district, that thirty thousand slaves 
 will rise there at his bidding ; while Cains Julius, sent to 
 that end into Apulia, has given out arms and nominated 
 leaders to twice five thousand there. Ere this, they have 
 received my mandate to collect their forces, and to march 
 on that same day toward Rome. Three several armies, 
 to meet which there is not one legion on this side of Cisal 
 pine Gaul ! What, then, even if all were peace in Rome, 
 what then could stand against us 1 But there shall be that 
 done here, here in the very seat and heart, as I may say, 
 of Empire, that shall dismay and paralyse all who would 
 else oppose us. Cethegus, when the centuries are all as 
 sembled in the field of Mars, with fifteen hundred gladia 
 tors well armed and exercised even now, sets on the guard 
 in the Janiculum, and beats their standard down. Then, 
 while all is confusion, Statilius and Gabinius. with their 
 households, whom, his work done, Cethegus will join 
 straightway will fire the city in twelve several places, 
 break open the prison doors, and crying " Liberty to 
 slaves!" and " Abolition of all debts!" rush diverse 
 throughout the streets, still gathering numbers as they go. 
 Meanwhile, with Lentulus and Cassius, the clients of your 
 houses being armed beneath their togas with swords and 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 85 
 
 breast-plates, and casques ready 1o be donned, I will make 
 sure of Cicero and the rest. Havoc, and slaughter, and 
 flames every where will make the city ours. Then ye, 
 who have no duty set, bear, and -mark this: always to kill 
 is to do something ! the more, and nobler, so much the 
 better deed! Remembering this, that sons have ready 
 access to their sires, who for the most part are their bit 
 terest foes ! and that to spare none we are sworn how, 
 and how deeply, it needs not to remind you. More words 
 are bootless, since to all here it must be evident that these 
 things, planned thus far with deep and prudent council, 
 once executed with that dauntless daring, which alone 
 stands for armor, and for weapons, and, by the Gods ! for 
 bulwarks of defence, must win us liberty and glory, more 
 over wealth, arid luxury, and power, in which names is 
 embraced the sum of all felicity. Therefore, now, I exhort 
 you not; for if the woes which you would shun, the prizes 
 which you shall attain, exhort you not, all words of man, 
 all portents of the Gods, are dumb, and voiceless, and in 
 vain ! Mark the day only, and remember, that if not ye, 
 at least your sires were Romans and were men !" 
 
 " Bravely, my Sergius, hast thou spoken, and well 
 done !" cried at once several voices of the more prominent 
 partisans. 
 
 " By the Gods ! what a leader !" whispered Longinua 
 Cassius to his neighbor. 
 
 " Fabius in council," cried Cethegus, " Marcellus in the 
 field!" 
 
 " Moreover, fellow-soldiers," exclaimed Lentulus, "hear 
 this : although he join not with us now, through policy, 
 Antonius, the Consul, is in heart ours, and waits but for* 
 the first success to declare himself for the cause in armc. 
 Crassus, the rich Caesar, the people s idol have heard 
 our counsels, and approve them. The first blow struck, 
 their influence, their names, their riches, and their popu 
 larity, strike with us trustier friends, by Pollux ! and 
 more potent, than fifty thousand swordsmen !" 
 
 A louder and more general burst of acclamation and 
 applause than that which had succeeded Cataline s ad 
 dress, burst from the lips of all, as those great names drop 
 ped from the tongue of Lentulus ; and one voice cried 
 aloud it was the voice of Curius, intoxicated as it were 
 with present triumph 
 
36 THE ROMAN TRAITOR ; OR, THE 
 
 " By all the Gods ! Rome is our own ! our own, even 
 now, to portion out among our friends, our mistresses, our 
 slaves !" 
 
 " Not Rome but Rome s inheritance, the world !" ex 
 claimed another. " If we win, all the universe is ours 
 and see how small the stake ; when, if we fail" 
 
 " By Hades, we ll not fail !" Cataline interrupted him, 
 in his deep penetrating tones. " We cannot, and we will 
 not ! and now, for I wax somewhat weary, we will break 
 up this conclave. We meet at the comitia !" 
 
 " And the Slave 1" whispered Cethegus, with an inqui 
 ring accent, in his ear " the Slave, my Sergius V 
 
 " Will tell no tales of us," replied the other, with a 
 hoarse laugh, " unless it be to Lamia." 
 
 Thus they spoke as they left the house ; and ere the day 
 had yet begun to glimmer with the first morning twilight 
 so darkly did the clouds still muster over the mighty 
 city went on their different ways toward their several 
 homes, unseen, and, as they fondly fancied, unsuspected. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE LOVERS. 
 
 Fair lovers, ye are fortunately met. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DBEAM. 
 
 ON the same night, and almost at the same hour of the 
 night, wherein that dreadful conclave was assembled at 
 the house of Laeca, a small domestic group, consisting in 
 deed only of three individuals, was gathered in the tabli- 
 num, or saloon, of an elegant though modest villa, situate 
 in the outskirts of the city, fronting the street that led 
 over the Mulvian bridge to the ^Emilian way, and having 
 a large garden communicating in the rear with the plebeian 
 cemetery on the Esquiline. 
 
 It was a gay and beautiful apartment, of small dimen 
 sions, but replete with all those graoeful objects, those 
 manifold appliances of refined taste and pleasure, for 
 which the Romans, austere and poor no longer, had, since 
 their late acquaintance with Athenian polish and Oriental 
 uxury, acquired a predilection ominous, as their sterner 
 atriots fancied, of personal degeneracy and national de- 
 ay. 
 
 Divided from the hall of reception by thick soft curtains, 
 woven from the choice wool of Calabria, and glowing with 
 the richest hues of the Tyrian crimson ; and curtained with 
 hangings of the same costly fabric around the windows, 
 both of which with the doorway opened upon a peristyle : 
 that little chamber wore an air of comfort, that charmed 
 the eye more even than its decorations. Yet these were 
 of no common order ; for the floor was tesselated in rare; 
 patterns of mosaic work, showing its exquisite devices and 
 bright colors, where they were not concealed by a foot 
 stool of embroidered tapestry. The walls were portioned 
 
 4 
 
38 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 out into compartments, each framed by a broad border of 
 gilded scroll-work on a crimson ground, and containing an 
 elaborately finished fresco painting ; which, could they have 
 been seen by any critical eye of modern days, would have 
 set at rest for ever the question as to the state of this art 
 among the ancients. The subject was a favorite one with 
 all artists of all ages, from the world-famous Iliad : tLe 
 story of the goddess-born Achilles. Here tutored by the 
 wise Centaur, Chiron, in horsemanship and archery, and 
 all that makes a hero ; here tearing off the virgin mitre, to 
 don the glittering casque proffered, with sword and buck 
 ler, among effeminate wares, by the disguised Ulysses ; 
 there wandering in the despondent gloom of injured pride 
 along the stormy sea, meet listener to his haughty sorrows, 
 while in the distance, turning her tearful eyes back to her 
 lord, Briseis went unwilling at the behest of the unwilling 
 heralds. Again he was presented, mourning with frantic 
 grief over the corpse of his beloved Patroclus grief that 
 called up his Nereid mother from the blue depths of her 
 native element ; and, in the last, chasing with unexampled 
 speed the flying Hector, who, stunned and destined by the 
 Gods to ruin, dared not await his onset, while Priam veil 
 ed his face upon the ramparts, and Hecuba already tore 
 her hair, presaging the destruction of Troy s invincible 
 unshaken column.* 
 
 A small wood fire blazed cheerfully upon the hearth, 
 round which were clustered, in uncouth attitudes of old 
 Etruscan sculpture, the grim and grotesque figures of the 
 household Gods. Two lamps of bronze, each with four 
 burners, placed on tall candelabra exquisitely carved rn 
 the same metal, diffused a soft calm radiance through the 
 room, accompanied by an aromatic odor from the perfumed 
 vegetable oil which fed their light. Upon a circular table 
 of dark-grained citrean wood, inlaid with ivory and silver, 
 were several rolls of parchment and papyrus, the books of 
 the day, some of them splendidly emblazoned and illumi 
 nated; a lyre of tortoiseshell, and near to it the slender 
 plectrum by which its cords were wakened to melody. 
 Two or three little flasks of agate and of onyx containing 
 some choice perfumes, a Tuscan vase full of fresh-gathered 
 flowers, and several articles yet more decidedly feminine, 
 
 * Tjou*; a/inxGi 1 (idrQnC)r\ xtot a. PINDAR 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 39 
 
 were scattered on the board ; needles, and thread of var 
 ous hues, and twine of gold and silver, and some embroi 
 dery, half finished, and as it would seem but that instant 
 laid aside. Such was the aspect of the saloon wherein 
 three persons were sitting on that night ; who, though they 
 were unconscious, nay, even unsuspicious of the existence 
 of conspiracy and treason, were destined, ere many days 
 should elapse, to be involved in its desperate mazes ; to 
 act conspicuous parts and undergo strange perils, in the 
 dread drama of the times. 
 
 They were of different years and sex one, a magnifi 
 cent and stately matron, such as Rome s matrons were when 
 Rome was at the proudest, already well advanced in years, 
 yet still possessing not merely the remains of former 
 charms, but much of real beauty, and that too of the no 
 blest and most exalted order. Her hair, which had been 
 black in her youth as the raven s wing, was still, though 
 mixed with many a line of silver, luxuriant arid profuse 
 as ever. Simply and closely braided over her broad and 
 intellectual temples, and gathered into a thick knot behind, 
 it displayed admirably the contour of her head, and suited 
 the severe and classic style of her strictly Roman features. 
 The straight-cut eye-brows, the clear and piercing eye, the 
 aquiline nose, and the firm thin lips, spoke worlds of cha 
 racter and decision ; yet that which might have otherwise 
 seemed stern and even harsh, was softened by a smile of 
 singular sweetness, and by a lighting up of the whole coun 
 tenance, which at times imparted to those high features an 
 expression of benevolence, gentle and feminine in the ex 
 tern e. 
 
 Her stature was well suited to the style of her linea 
 ments ; majestically tall and stately, and though attenuated 
 something by the near approach of old age, preserving still 
 the soft and flowing outlines of a form, which had in youth 
 been noted for roundness and voluptuous symmetry. 
 
 She wore the plain white robes, bordered and zoned 
 with crimson, of a patrician lady, but save one massive sig 
 net on the third finger of her right hand she had no gem or 
 ornament whatever ; and as she sat a little way aloof from 
 her younger companions, drawing the slender threads with 
 many a graceful motion from the revolving distaff into the 
 basket by her side, she might have passed for her, whose 
 
40 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 proud prayer, that she might be known not as the daughter 
 of the Scipios but as the mother of the Gracchi, was but 
 too fatally fulfilled in the death-earned celebrity of those 
 her boasted jewels. 
 
 The other lady was smaller, slighter, fairer, and altoge 
 ther so different in mien, complexion, stature, and expres 
 sion, that it was difficult even for those who knew them 
 well to believe that they were a mother and her only child. 
 For even in her flush of beauty, the elder lady, while in 
 the full splendor of Italian womanhood, must ever have 
 been calculated to inspire admiration, not all unmixed with 
 awe, rather than tenderness or love. The daughter, on the 
 other hand, was one whose every gesture, smile, word, 
 glance, bespoke that passion latent in itself, which it awa 
 kened in the bosom of all beholders. 
 
 Slightly above the middle stature, and with a waist of 
 scarce a span s circumference, her form was exquisitely 
 full and rounded ; the sweeping outlines of her snow-white 
 and dimpled arms, bare to the shoulders, and set off by ma 
 ny strings of pearl, which were themselves scarcely whiter 
 than the skin on which they rested ; the swan-like curva 
 ture of the dazzling neck ; the wavy and voluptuous deve 
 lopment of her bust, shrouded but not concealed by the 
 plaits of her white linen stola, fastened on either shoulder 
 by a clasp of golden fillagree, and gathered just above her 
 hips by a gilt zone of the Grecian fashion ; the small and 
 shapely foot, which peered out with its jewelled sandal 
 under her gold-fringed draperies ; combined to present to 
 the eye a very incarnation of that ideal loveliness, which 
 haunts enamored poets in their dreams, the girl just burst 
 ing out of girlhood, the glowing Hebe of the soft and sun 
 ny south. But if her form was lovely, how shall the pen of 
 mortal describe the wild romantic beauty of her soul- 
 speaking features. The rich redundancy of her dark au 
 burn hair, black where the shadows rested on it as the 
 sable locks of night, but glittering out wherever a wander 
 ing ray glanced on its glossy surface like the bright tresses 
 of Aurora. The broad and marble forehead, the pencilled 
 brows, and the large liquid eyes fraught with a. mild and 
 lustrous languor; the cheeks, pale in their wonted mood 
 as alabaster, yet eloquent at times with warm and passion 
 ate blushes. The lips, redder than aught on earth which 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 41 
 
 shares both hue and softness ; and, more than all, the deep 
 and indescribable expression which genius prints on every 
 lineament of those, who claim that rarest and most godlike 
 of endowments. 
 
 She was a thing to dream of, not describe ; to dream of 
 in some faint and breathless eve of early summer, beside 
 the margin of some haunted streamlet, beneath the shade 
 of twilight boughs in which the fitful breeze awakes that 
 whispering melody, believed by the poetic ancients to be the 
 chorus of the wood-nymph; to dream of and adore even 
 as she was adored by him who sat beside her, and watch 
 ed each varying expression, that swept across her speaking 
 features ; and hung upon each accent of the low silvery 
 voice, as if he feared it were the last to which his soul 
 should thrill responsive. 
 
 He was -a tall and powerful youth of twenty-four or five 
 years; yet, though his limbs were sinewy and lithe, and 
 though his deep round chest, thin flanks, and muscular 
 shoulders gave token of much growing strength, it was 
 still evident that, his stature having been prematurely gain 
 ed, he lacked much of that degree of power of which 
 his frame gave promise. For though his limbs were well 
 formed they were scarcely set, or furnished, as we should 
 say in speaking of an animal ; and the strength, which he 
 in truth possessed, was that of elasticity and youthful vi 
 gor, capable rather of violent though brief exertion, than that 
 severe and trained robustness, which can for long continu 
 ous periods sustain the strongest and most trying labor. 
 
 His hair was dark and curling his eye bright, clear, 
 and penetrating; yet was its glance at times wavering and 
 undetermined, such as would indicate perhaps a want of 
 steadiness of purpose, not of corporeal resolution, for that 
 was disproved by one glance at the decided curve of his 
 bold clean-cut mouth, and the square outlines of his mas 
 sive jaw, which seemed almost to betoken fierceness. 
 There was a quick short flash at times, keen as the fal 
 con s, in the unsteady eye, that told of energy enough with 
 in and stirring spirit to prompt daring deeds, the momenta- 
 ly irresolution conquered. There was a frank and cheery 
 smile that oftentimes belied the auguries drawn from the 
 other features ; and, more than all, there was a tranquil 
 sweet expression, which now and then pervaded the whole 
 
42 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 countenance, altering for the better its entire character, 
 and betokening more mind and deeper feelings, than would 
 at first have been suspected from his aspect. . 
 
 His dress was the ordinary tunic -of the day, of plain 
 white woollen stuff, belted about the middle by a girdle, 
 which contained his ivory tablets, and the metallic pencil 
 used for writing on their waxed surface, together with his 
 handkerchief and purse ; but nothing bearing the semblance 
 of a weapon, not so much even as a common knife. His 
 legs and arms were bare, his feet being protected merely 
 by sandals of fine leather having the clasps or fibulae of 
 gold ; as was the buckle of his girdle, and one huge signet 
 ring, which was his only ornament. 
 
 His toga, which had been laid aside on entering the sa 
 loon, as was the custom of the Romans in their own fam 
 ilies, or among private friends, hung on the back of an arm 
 ed chair; of ample size and fine material, but undistinguish 
 ed by the marks of senatorial or equestrian rank. Such 
 was the aspect, such the bearing of the youth, who might 
 be safely deemed the girl s permitted suitor, from his 
 whole air and manner, as he listened to the soft voice of 
 his beautiful mistress. For as they sat there side by side, 
 perusing from an illuminated scroll the elegies of some 
 long-perished, long-forgotten poet, now reading audibly 
 the smooth and honeyed lines, now commenting with play 
 ful criticism on the style, or carrying out with all the fer 
 vor and romance of young poetical temperament the half 
 obscure allusions of the bard, no one could doubt that they 
 were lovers ; especially if he marked the calm and well- 
 pleased smile that stole from time to time across the proud 
 features of that patrician lady ; who, sitting but a little way 
 apart, watched while she reeled off skein after skein of 
 the fine Byssine flax in silence the quiet happiness of the 
 young pair. 
 
 Thus had the evening passed, not long nor tediously to 
 any of the party; and midnight was at hand ; when there 
 entered from the atrium a grey-headed slave bearing a 
 tray covered with light refreshments fresh herbs, endive 
 and mallows sprinkled with snow, ripe figs, eggs and an 
 chovies, dried grapes, and cakes of candied honey ; while 
 two boys of rare beauty followed, one carrying a flagon of 
 Chian wine diluted with snow water, the other a platter 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 43 
 
 richly chased in gold covered with cyathi, or drinking cups, 
 some of plain chrystal, some of that unknown myrrhine 
 fabric,* which i s believed by many scholars to have been 
 highly vitrified and half-transparent porcelain. 
 
 A second slave brought in a folded stand, like a camp 
 stool in shape, on which the tray was speedily deposited, 
 while on a slab of Parian marble, near which the two boys 
 took their stand, the wine and goblets were arranged in 
 glittering order. 
 
 So silently, however, was all this done, that, their pre 
 parations made, the elder slaves had retired with a deep 
 genuflexion, leaving the boys only to administer at that un 
 ceremonious banquet, ere the young couple, whose backs 
 were turned towards the table, perceived the interruption. 
 
 The brilliant smile, which has been mentioned, beamed 
 from the features of the elder lady, as she perceived how 
 thoroughly engrossed, even to the unconsciousness of any 
 passing sound, they were, whom, rising for the purpose, 
 and laying by her work, she now proceeded to recall to 
 sublunary matters. 
 
 "Paullus," she said, "and you, my Julia, ye are un 
 conscious how the fleeting hours have slipped away. The 
 night hath far advanced into the third watch. I would not 
 part ye needlessly, nor over soon, especially when you 
 must so soon perforce be severed; but we must not forget 
 how long a homeward walk awaits our dear Arvina. 
 Come, then, and partake some slight refreshment, before 
 you say farewell. 
 
 "How thoughtless in me, to have detained you thus, and 
 with a mile to walk this murky and unpleasant night 
 They say, too, that the streets are dangerous of late, haunt 
 ed by dissolute night-revellers that villain Clodius and 
 his infamous co-mates. I tremble like a leaf if I but meet 
 them in broad day and what if you should fall in with 
 them, when flushed with wine, and ripe for any outrage]" 
 
 "Fie! dear one, fie!" answered the young man with a 
 smile " a sorry soldier wouldst thou make of me, who am 
 within so short a space to meet the savages of Pontus, un 
 der our mighty Pompey ! There is no danger, Julia, here 
 in the heart of Rome ; and my stout freedman Thrasea 
 
 * That it was such, can scarce be doubted, from the line of Martial % 
 " Myrrheaque in Parthis pocula cocta focis." 
 
44 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 awaits me with his torch. Nor is it so far either to my 
 house, for those who cross, as I shall do, the cemetery on 
 the Esquiline. Tis but a step across the sumptuous Ca- 
 rince to the Caelian." 
 
 " But surely, surely, Paul," exclaimed the lovely girl, 
 laying her hand upon his arm, " thou wouldst not cross 
 that fearful burying-ground, haunted by all things awful 
 and obscene, thus at the dead of night. Oh ! do not, 
 dearest," she continued, " thou knowest not what wild 
 terrible tales are rife, of sounds and sights unnatural and 
 superhuman, encountered in those loathsome precincts. 
 Tis a mere tempting of the Dark Ones, to brave the hor 
 rors of that place !" 
 
 " The Gods, my Julia," replied the youth unmoved by 
 her alarm, "the Gods are never absent from their votaries, 
 so they be innocent and pure of spirit. For me! I am 
 unconscious of a wilful fault, and fear not anything." 
 
 " Well said, Paullus Arvina," exclaimed the elder lady, 
 "and worthily of your descent from the Caecilii" for 
 from that noble house his family indeed derived its ori 
 gin. "But, although 1," she added, "counsel you not to 
 heed our Julia s girlish terrors, I love you not to walk 
 by night so slenderly accompanied. Ho ! boy, go sum 
 mon me the steward, and bid him straightway arm four 
 of the Thracian slaves." 
 
 " No ! by the Gods, Hortensia !" the young man inter 
 rupted her, his whole face flushing w r ith excitement, 
 " you do shame to my manhood, by your caution. There 
 is in truth no shadow of danger. Besides," he added, 
 laughing at his own impetuosity, " I shall be far beyond 
 the Esquiline ere excellent old Davus could rouse those 
 sturdy knaves of yours, or find the armory key ; for lo ! 
 I will but tarry to taste one cup of your choice of Chian 
 to my Julia s health, and then straight homeward. Have 
 a care, my fair boy, that flagon is too heavy to be lifted 
 safely by such small hands as thine, and its contents too 
 precious to be wasted. Boh ! that s well done ; thou lt 
 prove a second Ganymede ! Health, Julia, and good dreams 
 may all fair things attend thee, until we meet again." 
 
 " And when shall that be, Paul," whispered his mis 
 tress, a momentary flush shooting across brow, neck, and 
 bosom, as she spoke, and leaving her, a second afterward, 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 45 
 
 even paler than her wont, between anxiety and fear, and 
 the pain even of this temporary parting " when shall 
 that be 1 to-morrow V 
 
 " Surely, to-morrow ! fairest," he replied, clasping her 
 little hand with a fond pressure, " unless, which may the 
 Gods avert ! anything unforeseen prevent me. Give me 
 my toga, boy," he added, " and see if Thrasea waits, and 
 if his torch be lighted." 
 
 " Bid him come hither, Geta," Hortensia interposed, 
 addressing the boy as he left the room, " and tell old 
 Davus to accompany him, bringing the keys of the peris 
 tyle and of the garden gate. So shalt thou gain the Es 
 quiline more easily." 
 
 Her orders were obeyed as soon as they were spoken, 
 and but few moments intervened before the aged steward, 
 and the freedman with his staff and torch, the latter so 
 prepared by an art common to the ancients as to set 
 almost any violence of wind or rain at defiance, stood wait 
 ing their commands. 
 
 Familiar and kind words were interchanged between 
 those high-born ladies and the trustworthy follower of 
 young Arvina. For those were days, when no cold eti 
 quette fettered the freedom of the tongue, and when no 
 rank, how stately or how proud soever, induced austerity 
 of bearing or haughtiness toward inferiors ; and these con 
 cluded, greetings, briefer but far more warm, followed be 
 tween the master and his intended bride. 
 
 " Sweet slumbers, Julia, and a happy wakening attend 
 you! Farewell, Hortensia; both of ye farewell!" and 
 passing into the colonnade through the door which Davus 
 had unlocked, he drew the lappet of his toga over his head 
 after the fashion of a hood to shield it from the drizzling 
 rain for, except on a journey, the hardy Romans never 
 wore any hat or headgear and hastened with a firm and 
 regular step along the marble peristyle. This portico, or 
 rather piazza, enclosed, by a double row of Tuscan 
 columns, a few small flower beds, and a fountain springing 
 high in the air from the conch of a Triton, and falling back 
 into a large shell of white marble, which it was so contrived 
 as to keep ever full without at any time overflowing. 
 
 Beyond this was a summer triclinium or dining room 
 facing the north, and provided with the three-sided couch, 
 
46 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 from which it took its name, embracing a circular table. 
 Through this they passed into a smaller court adorned like 
 the other by a jet d eau, surrounded by several small 
 boudoirs and bed chambers luxuriously decorated, which 
 were set apart to the use of the females of the family, and 
 guarded night and day by the most trusty of the slaves. 
 
 Hence a strong door gave access to a walled space, 
 throughout the length of which on either hand ran a long 
 range of offices, and above them the dormitories of the 
 slaves, with a small porter s lodge or guard room by the 
 gate, opening on the orchard in the rear. 
 
 Therein were stationed the four Thracians, mentioned 
 by Hortensia, whose duty it was to keep watch alternately 
 over the safety of the postern, although the key was not 
 entrusted to their charge ; and he, whose watch it was, 
 started up from a bench on which he had been stretch 
 ed, and looked forth torch in hand at the sound of ap 
 proaching footsteps. Seeing, however, who it was, and 
 that the steward attended him, he lent his aid in opening 
 the postern, and reverently bowed the knee to Arvina, as 
 he departed from the hospitable villa. 
 
 The orchard through which lay his onward progress, 
 occupied a considerable extent of ground, laid out in ter 
 races adorned with marble urns and statues, long bowery 
 walks sheltered by vine- clad trellices, and rows of fruit 
 trees interspersed with many a shadowy clump of the rich 
 evergreen holm-oak, the tufted stone-pine, the clustering 
 arbutus, and smooth-leaved laurestinus. This lovely spot 
 was separated from the plebeian cemetery only as has 
 been said already by a low wall ; and therefore in those 
 days of universal superstition, the lower orders and the 
 slaves, and many too of their employers, would have es 
 chewed it as a place ominous of evil, if not unsafe and 
 perilous. 
 
 The mind of Paul, however, if not entirely free from 
 any touch of superstitious awe, which at that period of the 
 world would have been a thing altogether unnatural and 
 impossible, was at least of too firm a mould to shake at 
 mere imaginary terrors ; and he strode on, lighted by his 
 torch-bearer, through the dark mazes of the orchard, with 
 all his thoughts engrossed by the pleasant, reminiscences 
 of the past evening. Thoughtless, however, as he was, 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 47 
 
 and bold, he yet recoiled a step, and the blood rushed 
 tumultuously to his heart, as a loud yelling cry, protracted 
 strangely, and ending in a sound midway between a 
 groan and a burst of horrid laughter, rose awfully upon 
 the silent night ; and it required an effort to man his 
 heart against a feeling, which crept through him, nearly 
 akin to fear. 
 
 But with the freedman Thrasea it was a very different 
 matter, for he shook so rauch with absolute terror, that he 
 had well nigh dropped the torch ; while, drawing nearer to 
 his master s side, with teeth that chattered as if in an ague 
 fit, and a face deserted by every particle of color, he be 
 sought him in faltering accents, " by all the Gods ! to turn 
 back instantly, lest evil might come of it !" 
 
 His entreaties were, however, of no avail with the 
 brave youth, who in a moment had shaken off his tran 
 sitory terror, and was now resolute, not only to proceed 
 on his homeward route, but to investigate the cause and 
 meaning of the outcry. 
 
 " Silence !" he said, somewhat sternly, in answer to the 
 reiterated prayers of the trembling servitor, " Silence ! 
 and follow, idiot ! That was no superhuman voice no yell 
 of nightly lemures, but the death-cry, if I err not more 
 widely, of some frail mortal like ourselves. There may 
 be time, however, yet to save him, and I so truly marked 
 the quarter whence it rose, that I doubt not we may dis 
 cover him. Advance the light ; lo ! we are at the wall. 
 Lower thy torch now, that I may undo the wicket. Give 
 me thy club and keep close at my heels bearing the flam 
 beau high !" 
 
 And with the words he strode out rapidly into the 
 wide desolate expanse of the plebeian grave yard. It 
 was a broad bleak space, comprising the whole table land 
 and southern slope of the Esquiline hill, broken with 
 many deep ravines and gulleys, worn by the wintry rains, 
 covered with deep rank grass and stunted bushes, with 
 here and there a grove of towering cypresses, or dark 
 funereal yews, casting a deeper shadow over the gloomy 
 solitude. So rough and broken was the surface of the 
 ground, so numerous the low mounds which alone cov 
 ered the ashes of the humbler dead, that they were long 
 in reaching the vicinity of the spot where that fell deed 
 
48 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 had been done so recently. When they had come, how 
 ever, to the foot of the descent, where it swept gently 
 downward to the boundary wall, the young man took 
 the torch from his attendant, and waving it with a slow 
 movement to and fro, surveyed the ground with close and 
 narrow scrutiny. He had not moved in this manner 
 above a dozen paces, before a bright quick flash seemed 
 to shoot up from the long thick herbage as the glare of 
 the torch passed over it. Another step revealed the na 
 ture and the cause of that brief gleam ; a ray had fallen 
 full on the polished blade of Cataline s stiletto, which lay, 
 where it had bee-n cast by the expiring effort of the vic 
 tim, hilt downward in the tangled weeds. 
 
 He seized it eagerly, but shuddered, as he beheld the 
 fresh dark gore curdling on the broad steel, and clotted 
 round the golden guard of the rich weapon. 
 
 "Ha!" he exclaimed, "lam right, Thrasea. Foul 
 murder hath been done here ! Let us look farther." 
 
 Several minutes now were spent in searching every foot 
 of ground, and prying even into the open vaults of sever 
 al broken graves ; for at first they had taken a wrong di 
 rection in the gloom. Quickly, however, seeing that he 
 was in error, Arvina turned upon his traces, and was al 
 most immediately successful ; for there, scarce twenty feet 
 from the spot where he had found the dagger, with his 
 grim gory face turned upward as if reproachfully to the 
 dark quiet skies, the black death-sweat still beaded on 
 his frowning brow, and a sardonic grin distorting his pale 
 lips, lay the dead slave. Flat on his back, with his arms 
 stretched out right and left, his legs extended close togeth 
 er to their full length, he lay even as he had fallen ; for 
 not a struggle had convulsed his limbs after he struck the 
 earth ; life having actually fled while he yet stood erect, 
 battling with all the energies of soul and body against 
 man s latest enemy. The bosom of his gray tunic, rent 
 asunder, displayed the deep gash which had let out the 
 spirit, whence the last drops of the thick crimson life- 
 blood were ebbing with a slow half-stagnant motion. 
 
 On this dread sight Paul was still gazing in that mo 
 tionless and painful silence, with which the boldest cannot 
 fail to look upon the body of a fellow creature from which 
 the immortal soul has been reluctantly and forcefully ex- 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 49 
 
 pelled, when a loud cry from Thrasea, who, having lagged 
 a step or two behind, was later in discovering the corpse, 
 aroused him from his melancholy stupor. 
 
 "Alas ! alas ! ah me !" cried the half-sobbing freedman, 
 "my friend, my more than friend, my countryman, my 
 kinsman, Medon !" 
 
 " Ha! dost thou recognize the features 1 didst thou know 
 him who lies so coldly and inanimately here before us?" 
 cried the excited youth, " whose slave was he ] speak, 
 Thrasea, on thy life ! this shall be looked to straightway; 
 and, by the Gods! avenged." 
 
 " As I would recognize mine own in the polished brass, 
 as I do know my father s sister s son ! for such was he, who 
 lies thus foully slaughtered. Alas! alas! my countryman ! 
 wo ! wo ! for thee, my Medon ! Many a day, alas ! many 
 a happy clay have we two chased the elk and urns by the 
 dark-wooded Danube ; the same roof covered us ; the same 
 board fed ; the same fire warmed us ; nay ! the same fatal 
 battle-field robbed both of liberty and country. Yet were 
 the great Gods merciful to the poor captives. Thy father 
 did buy me, Arvina, and a few years of light and pleasant 
 servitude restored the slave to freedom. Medon was pur 
 chased by the wise consul, Cicero, arid was to have receiv 
 ed his freedom at the next Saturnalia. Alas ! and wo is 
 me, he is now free forever from any toils on earth, from 
 any mortal master." 
 
 " Nay ! weep not so, my Thrasea," exclaimed the gene 
 rous youth, laying his left hand with a friendly pressure on 
 the freedman s shoulder, "thou shalt have all means to do 
 all honor to his name ; all that can now be done by mor 
 tals for the revered and sacred dead. Aid me now to re 
 move the body, lest those who slew him may return, and 
 carry off the evidences of their crime." 
 
 Thus speaking 1 , he thrust the unlighted end of the torch 
 into the ground, and lifting up the shoulders of the carcase, 
 while Thrasea raised the feet, bore it away a hundred 
 yards or better, and laying it within the open arch-way of 
 an old tomb, covered the mouth with several boughs torn 
 from a neighboring cypress. 
 
 Then satisfied that it would thus escape a nearer search 
 than it was likely would be made bv the murderers, when 
 
50 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 they should find that it had been removed, he walked away 
 very rapidly toward his home. 
 
 Before he left the burial ground, however, he wiped the 
 dagger carefully in the long grass, and hid it in the bosom 
 of his tunic. 
 
 No more words were exchanged the master buried in 
 deep thought, the servant stupified with grief and terror 
 until they reached the house of Paullus, in a fair quarter 
 of the town, near to the street of Carinae, the noblest and 
 most sumptuous in Rome. 
 
 A dozen slaves appeared within the hall, awaiting the 
 return of their young lord, but he dismissed them all ; 
 and when they had departed, taking a small night lamp, 
 and ordering Thrasea to waken him betimes to-morrow, 
 that he might see the consul, he bade him be of good 
 cheer, for that Medon s death should surely be avenged, 
 since the gay dagger would prove a clue to the detection 
 of his slayer. Then, passing into his own chamber, he 
 soon lost all recollection of his hopes, joys, cares, in the 
 sound sleep of innocence and youth. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 51 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE CONSUL. 
 
 Therefore let him be Consul ; The Gods give 
 Him joy, and make him good friend to the people. 
 
 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 THE morning was yet young, when Paullus Arvina, 
 leaving his mansion on the Cselian hill by a postern door, 
 so to avoid the crowd of clients who even at that early 
 hour awaited his forth-coming in the hall, descended the 
 gentle hill toward the splendid street called Carinae, from 
 some fanciful resemblance in its shape, lying in a curved 
 hollow between the bases of the Esquiline, Caelian, and 
 Palatine mounts, to the keel of a galley. 
 
 This quarter of the city was at that time unquestionably 
 the most beautiful in Rome, although it still fell far short 
 of the magnificence it afterward attained, when the favour 
 ite Mecaenas had built his splendid palace, and laid out his 
 unrivalled gardens, on the now woody Esquiline ; and it 
 would have been difficult indeed to conceive a view more 
 sublime, than that which lay before the eyes of the young pa 
 trician, as he paused for a moment on the highest terrace of 
 the hill, to inhale the breath of the pure autumnal morning. 
 
 The sun already risen, though not yet high in the east, 
 was pouring a flood of mellow golden light, through the 
 soft medium of the half misty atmosphere, over the varied 
 surface of the great city, broken and diversified by many 
 hills and hollows ; and bringing out the innumerable col 
 umns, arches, and aqueducts, that adorned almost every 
 street and square, in beautiful relief. 
 
 The point at which the young man stood, looking di 
 rectly northward, was one which could not be excelled, if it 
 
52 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 indeed could be equalled for the view it commanded, em 
 bracing nearly the whole of Rome, which from its com 
 manding height, inferior only to the capitol, and the 
 Quirinal hill, it was enabled to overlook. 
 
 Before him, in the hollow at his feet, on which the 
 morning rays dwelt lovingly, streaming in through the 
 deep valley to the right over the city walls, lay the long 
 street of the Carinae, the noblest and most sumptuous of 
 Rome, adorned with many residences of the patrician order, 
 and among others, those of Pompey, Caesar, and the great 
 Latin orator. This broad and noble thoroughfare, from its 
 great width, and the long rows of marble columns, which 
 decked its palaces, all glittering in the misty sunbeams, 
 shewed like a waving line of light among the crowded 
 tuildings of the narrower ways, that ran parallel to it along 
 the valley and up the easy slope of the Caelian mount, with 
 the Minervium, in which Arvina stood, leading directly 
 downward to its centre. Beyond this sparkling line, rose the 
 twin summits Oppius and Cispius, of the Esquiline hill, still 
 decked with the dark foliage of the ancestral groves of 
 oak and sweet-chesnut, said to derive their origin from 
 Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, and green with 
 the long grass and towering cypresses of the plebeian ceme 
 tery, across which the young man had come home, from 
 the villa of his lady-]ove, but a few hours before. 
 
 Beyond the double hill-tops, a heavy purple shadow in 
 dicated the deep basin through which ran the ill-famed 
 Suburra, and the " Wicked-Street", so named from the tra 
 dition, that therein Tullia compelled her trembling chari 
 oteer to lash his reluctant steeds over the yet warm body 
 of her murdered father. And beyond this again the lofty 
 ridge of the Quirinal mount stood out in fair relief with all 
 its gorgeous load of palaces and columns ; and the great 
 temple of the city s founder, the god Romulus Quirinus; and 
 the stupendous range of walls and turrets, along its north 
 ern verge, flashing out splendidly to the new-risen sun. 
 
 So lofty was the post from which Paullus gazed, as he 
 overlooked the mighty town, that his eye reached even 
 beyond the city-walls on the Quirinal, and passing over the 
 broad valley at its northern base, all glimmering with un 
 certain lights and misty shadows, rested upon the Collis 
 Hortulorum, or mount of gardens, now called Monte Pincio, 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 53 
 
 which was at that time covered, as its name indicates, with 
 rich and fertile shrubberies. The glowing hues of these 
 could be distinctly made out, even at this great distance, by 
 the naked eye. For it must be remembered that there was in 
 those days no sea-coal to send up its murky smoke-wreaths, 
 blurring the bright skies with its inky pall ; no factories 
 with tall chimnies, vomiting forth, like mimic Etnas, their 
 pestilential breath, fatal to vegetable life. Not a cloud 
 hung over the great city ; and the charcoal, sparingly used 
 for cookery, sent forth no visible fumes to shroud the day 
 light. So that, as the thin purplish haze was dispersed by 
 the growing influence of the sunbeams, every line of the 
 far architecture, even to the carved friezes of the thousand 
 temples, and the rich foliage of the marble capitals could be 
 observed, distinct and sharp as in a painted picture. 
 
 Nor was this all the charm of the delicious atmosphere; 
 for so pure was it, that the odours of that flowery hill, 
 wafted upon the wings of the light northern breeze, blent 
 with the coolness which they caught from the hundreds of 
 clear fountains, plashing and glittering in every public 
 place, came to the brow of the young noble, more like the 
 breath of some enchanted garden in the far-famed Hes- 
 perides, than the steam from the abodes of above a mil 
 lion of busy mortals. 
 
 Before him still, though inclining a little to the left hand, 
 Jay a broader hollow, presenting the long vista of the sa 
 cred way, leading directly to the capitol, and thence to the 
 Campus Martius, the green expanse of which, bedecked 
 with many a marble monument and brazen column, and 
 already studded with quick moving groups, hurling the 
 disc and javelin, or reining the fierce war-horse with strong 
 Gaulish curbs, lay soft and level for half a league in length, 
 till it was bounded far away by a gleaming reach of the 
 blue Tiber. 
 
 Still to the left of this, uprose the Palatine, the earliest 
 settled of the hills of Rome, with the old walls of Romulus, 
 and the low straw-built shed, wherein that mighty son of 
 Mars dwelt when he governed his wild robber-clan ; and 
 the bidental marking the spot where lightning from the 
 monarch of Olympus, called on by undue rites, consumed 
 Hostilius and his house ; were still preserved with rever 
 ential Worship, and on its eastern peak, the time-honoured 
 fihrine of Stator Jove. c * 
 
54 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 The ragged crest of this antique elevation concealed, it 
 is true, from sight the immortal space below, once occupi 
 ed by the marsh of the Velabrum, but now filled by the 
 grand basilicae and halls of Justice surrounding the great 
 Roman forum, with all their pomp of golden shields, and 
 monuments of mighty deeds performed in the earliest ages; 
 but it was far too low to intercept the view of the grand 
 Capitol, and the Tarpeian Rock. 
 
 The gilded gates of bronze and the gold-plated roof of 
 the vast national temple gold-plated at the enormous 
 cost of twenty-one thousand talents, the rich spoil of Car 
 thage the shrine of Jupiter Capitoline, and Juno, and 
 Minerva, sent back the sun-beams in lines too dazzing to 
 be borne by any human eye ; and all the pomp of statues 
 grouped on the marble terraces, and guarding the ascent 
 of the celebrated hundred steps, glittered like forms of 
 indurated snow. 
 
 Such was the wondrous spectacle, more like a fairy show 
 than a real scene of earthly splendour, to look on which 
 Arvina paused for one moment with exulting gladness, 
 before descending toward the mansion of the consul. Nor 
 was that mighty panorama wanting in moving crowds, and 
 figures suitable to the romantic glory of its scenery. 
 
 Here, through the larger streets, vast herds of cattle were 
 driven in by mounted herdsmen, lowing and trampling to 
 ward the forum ; here a concourse of men, clad in the 
 graceful toga, the clients of some noble house, were has 
 tening along to salute their patron at his morning levee ; 
 there again, danced and sang, with saffron colored veils 
 and flowery garlands, a band of virgins passing in sacred 
 pomp toward some favourite shrine ; there in sad order 
 swept along, with mourners and musicians, with womon 
 wildly shrieking and tearing their long hair, and players and 
 buffoons, and liberated slaves wearing the cap of freedom, 
 a funeral procession, bearing the body of some young vic 
 tim, as indicated by the morning hour, to the funereal pile 
 beyond the city walls ; and far off, filing in, with the spear 
 heads and eagles of a cohort glittering above the dust 
 wreaths, by the Flaminian way, the train of some ambassa 
 dor or envoy, sent by submissive monarchs or dependent 
 states, to sue the favour and protection of the great Roman 
 people. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 55 
 
 The blended sounds swept up, in a confused sonorous 
 murmur, like the sea ; the shrill cry of the water-carriers, 
 and the wild chant of the choral songs, and the keen clang 
 our of the distant trumpets ringing above the din, until the 
 ears of the youth, as well as his eyes, were filled with pre 
 sent proofs of his native city s grandeur ; and his whole 
 soul was lapped in the proud conscious joy, arising from 
 the thought that he too was entitled to that boastful name, 
 higher than any monarch s style, of Roman citizen. 
 
 " Fairest and noblest city of the universe," cried the en 
 thusiastic boy, spreading his arms abroad over the glorious 
 view, which, kindling all the powers of his imaginative 
 mind, had awakened something of awe and veneration, 
 " long may the everliving gods watch over thee ; long may 
 they guard thy liberties intact, thy hosts unconquered ! 
 long may thy name throughout the world be synonimous 
 with all that is great, and good, and glorious ! Long may 
 the Roman fortune and the Roman virtue tread, side by 
 side, upon the neck of tyrants ; and the whole universe 
 stand mute and daunted before, the presence of the sove 
 reign people." 
 
 "The sovereign slaves!" said a deep voice, with a 
 strangely sneering accent, in his ear ; and as he started in 
 amazement, for he had not imagined that any one was 
 near him, Cataline stood at his elbow. 
 
 Under the mingled influence of surprise, and bashfulness 
 at being overheard, and something not very far removed 
 from alarm at the unexpected presence -of one so famed 
 for evil deeds as the man beside him, Arvina recoiled a 
 pace or two, and thrust his hand into the bosom of his 
 toga, disarranging its folds for a moment, and suffering the 
 eye of the conspirator to dwell on the hilt of a weapon, 
 which he recognized instantly as the stiletto he had lost 
 in the struggle with the miserable slave on the Esquiline. 
 
 No gleam in the eye of the wily plotter betrayed his 
 intelligence ; no show of emotion was discoverable in his 
 dark paleness ; but a grim smile played over his lips for a 
 moment, as he noted, not altogether without a sort of se 
 cret satisfaction, the dismay caused by his unexpected 
 presence. 
 
 " How now," he said jeeringly, before the smile had yet 
 vanished from his ill-omened face " what aileth the bold 
 
56 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 Paullus, that he should start, like an unruly colt scared by 
 a shadow, from the approach of a friend 1" 
 
 "A friend," answered the young man in a half doubtful 
 tone, but instantly recovering himself, " Ha! Cataline, I 
 was surprised, and scarce saw who it was. Thou art abroad 
 betimes this morning. Whither so early ] but what 
 saidst thou about slaves ]" 
 
 " I thought thou didst not know me," replied the other, 
 " and for the rest, I am abroad no earlier than thou, 
 and am perhaps bound to the same place with thee !" 
 
 " By Hercules ! I fancy not," said Paullus. 
 
 " Wherefore, I pray thee, not 1 ?" Who knoweth ] Per 
 chance I go to pay my vows to Jupiter upon the capitol ! 
 perchance," he added with a deep sneer, " to salute our 
 most eloquent and noble consul !" 
 
 A crimson flush shot instantly across the face and tem 
 ples of Arvina, perceiving that he was tampered with, and 
 sounded only ; yet he replied calmly arid with dignity, 
 " Thither indeed, go I ; but I knew not that thou wert in 
 BO much a friend of Cicero, as to go visit him." 
 
 " Men sometimes visit those who be not their friends," 
 answered the other. " I never said he was a friend to 
 me, or I to him. By the gods, no ! I had lied else." 
 
 " But what was that," asked the youth, moved, by an 
 inexplicable curiosity and excitement, to learn something 
 more of the singular being with whom chance had brought 
 him into contact, " which thou didst say but now con 
 cerning slaves 1"* 
 
 " That all these whom we see before us, and around us, 
 and beneath us, are but a herd of slaves ; gulled and vain 
 glorious slaves!" 
 
 " The Roman people ?" exclaimed Paullus, every tone 
 of his voice, every feature of his fine countenance, ex 
 pressing his unmitigated horror and astonishment. " The 
 great, unconquered Roman people ; the lords of earth 
 and sea, from frosty Caucasus to the twin rocks of Her 
 cules ; the tramplers on the necks of kings ; the arbiters 
 of the whole world! The Roman people, slaves ?" 
 
 " Most abject and most wretched !" 
 
 " To whom then V cried the young man, much excited, 
 " to whom am I, art thou, a slave ? For we are also of 
 the Roman people V 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 57 
 
 " The Roman people, and thou, as one of them, and I, 
 Paullus Csecilius, are slaves one and all ; abject and base 
 and spirit-fallen slaves, lacking the courage even to spurn 
 against our fetters, to the proud tyrannous rich aris 
 tocracy." 
 
 " By the Gods ! we are of it." 
 
 " But not the less, for that, slaves to it !" answered Cata 
 line ! See ! from the lowest to the highest, each petty 
 pelting officer lords it above the next below him ; and if 
 the tribunes for a while, at rare and singular moments, up 
 lift a warning cry against the corrupt insolence of the pa 
 trician houses, gold buys them back into vile treasonable 
 silence ! Patiicians be we, and not slaves, sayest thou 1 
 Come tell me then, did the patrician blood of the grand 
 Gracchi preserve them from a shameful doom, because 
 they dared to speak, as free-born men, aloud and freely 1 
 Did his patrician blood save Fulvius Flaccus ] Were 
 Publius Antonius, arid Cornelius Sylla, the less ejected 
 from their offices, that they were of the highest blood in 
 Rome ; the lawful consuls by the suffrage of the people ] 
 Was I, the heir of Sergius Silo s glory, the less forbidden 
 even to canvass for the consulship, that my great grand- 
 sire s blood was poured out, like water, upon those fields 
 that witnessed Rome s extremest peril, Trebia, and the 
 Ticinus, and Thrasymene and Cannee 1 Was Lentulus, the 
 noblest of the noble, patrician of the eldest houses, a con 
 sular himself, expelled the less and stricken from the rolls 
 of the degenerate senate, for the mere whining of a mawk 
 ish wench, because his name is Cornelius 1 Tush, Tush ! 
 these be but dreams of poets, or imaginings of children ! 
 the commons be but slaves to the nobles ; the nobles to 
 the senate ; the senate to their creditors, their purchasers, 
 their consuls ; the last at once their tools, and their ty 
 rants ! Go, young man, go. Salute, cringe, fawn upon 
 your consul ! Nathless, for thou hast mind enough to 
 mark and note the truth of what I tell thee ; thou wilt 
 think upon this, and perchance one day, when the time 
 shall have come, wilt speak, act, strike, for freedom !" 
 
 And as he finished speaking, he turned aside with a 
 haughty gesture of farewell ; and wrapping his toga close 
 ly about his tall person, stalked away slowly in the direc 
 tion neither of the capitol nor of the consul s house ; turn- 
 
58 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ing his head neither to the right hand nor to the left ; and 
 taking no more notice of the person to whom he had been 
 speaking, than if he had not known him to be there, and 
 gazing toward him half-bewildered in anxiety and wonder! 
 
 "Wonderful ! by the Gods!" he said at last. " Truly 
 he is a wonderful man, and wise withal ! 1 fain would 
 know if all that be true, which they say of him his bitter 
 ness, his impiety, his blood-thirstiness ! By Hercules ! 
 he speaks well ! and it is true likewise. Yea ! true it is, 
 that we, patricians, and free, as we style ourselves, may 
 not speak any thing, or act, against our order ; no ! nor 
 indulge our private pleasures, for fear of the proud cen 
 sors ! Is this, then, freedom 1 True, we are lords abroad; 
 our fleets, our hosts, everywhere victorious ; and not one 
 land, wherein the eagle has unfurled her pinion, but bows 
 before the majesty of Rome but yet is it, is it, indeed, 
 true, that we are but slaves, sovereign slaves, at home ?" 
 
 The whole tenor of the young man s thoughts was al 
 tered by the few words, let fall for that very purpose by 
 the arch traitor. Ever espying whom he might attach to 
 his party by operating on his passions, his prejudices, his 
 weakness, or his pride ; a most sagacious judge of human 
 nature, reading the character of every man as it were in 
 a written book, Cataline had long before remarked young 
 Arvina. He had noted several points of his mental 
 constitution, which he considered liable to. receive such 
 impressions as he would his proneness to defer to the 
 thoughts of others, his want of energetic resolution, and 
 not least his generous indignation against every thing that 
 savored of cruelty or oppression. He had resolved to ope 
 rate on these, whenever he might .find occasion; and 
 should he meet success in his first efforts, to stimulate his 
 passions, minister to his voluptuous pleasures, corrupt his 
 heart, and make him in the end, body and soul, his own. 
 
 Such were the intentions of the conspirator, when he 
 first addressed Paullus. His desire to increase the strength 
 of his party, to whom the accession- of any member how 
 ever humble of the great house of Caecilii could not 
 fail to be useful, alone prompting him in the first in 
 stance. But, when he saw by the young man s startled 
 aspect that he was prepossessed against him, and had 
 listened probably to the damning rumors which were 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 59 
 
 rife everywhere concerning him, a second motive was 
 added, in his pride of seduction and sophistry, by which 
 he was wont to boast, that he could bewilder the strong 
 est minds, and work them to his will. When by the ac 
 cidental disarrangement of Arvina s gown, and the dis 
 covery of his own dagger, he perceived that the intended 
 victim of his specious arts was probably cognizant in 
 some degree of his last night s crime, a third and stronger 
 cause was added, in the instinct of self-preservation. And 
 as soon as he found out that Paullus was bound for the 
 house of Cicero, he considered his life, in some sort, 
 staked upon the issue of his attempt on Arvina s princi 
 ples. 
 
 No part could have been played with more skill, or 
 with greater knowledge of his character whom he ad 
 dressed. He said just enough to set him thinking, and 
 to give a bias and a colour to his thoughts, without giv 
 ing him reason to suspect ihat he had any interest in the 
 matter ; and he had withdrawn himself in that careless 
 and half contemptuous manner, which naturally led the 
 young man to wish for a renewal of the subject. 
 
 Arid in fact Paul, while walking down the hill, toward 
 the house of the Consul, was busied in wondering why 
 Cataline had left so much unsaid, departing so abruptly ; 
 and in debating with himself upon the strange doctrines 
 which he had then for the first time heard broached. 
 
 It was about the second hour of the Roman day, cor 
 responding nearly to eight o clock before noon as the 
 winter solstice was now passed when Arvina reached 
 the magnificent dwelling of the Consul in the Carinae at 
 the angle of the Casrolian place, hard by the foot of the 
 Sacred Way. 
 
 This splendid building occupied a whole insula, as it 
 was called, or space between four streets, intersecting 
 each other at right angles ; and was three stories in 
 height, the two upper supported by columns of marble, 
 with a long range of glass windows, at that period an 
 unusual and expensive luxury. The doors stood wide 
 open ; arid on either hand the vestibule were arranged the 
 lictors leaning upon their fasces, while the whole space of 
 the great Corinthian hall within, lighted from above, and 
 adorned with vast black pillars of Lucullean marble, was 
 
60 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 crowded with the white robes of the consul s plebeian 
 clients tendering their morning salutations ; not unmixed 
 with the crimson fringes and broad crimson facings of 
 senatorial visitors. 
 
 Many were there with gifts of all kinds ; countrymen 
 from his Sabine farm and his Tusculan retreat, some 
 n ringing lambs ; some cages full of doves ; cheeses, and 
 bowls of fragrant honey ; and robes of fine white linen 
 the produce of their daughters looms; for whom per 
 chance they were seeking dowers at the munificence of 
 their noble patron ; artizans of the city, with toys or. 
 pieces of furniture, lamps, writing cases, cups or vases of 
 rich workmanship ; courtiers with manuscripts rarely illu 
 minated, the work of their most valuable slaves ; travellers 
 with gems, and bronzes, offerings known to be esteemed 
 beyond all others by the high-minded lover of the arts, 
 and unrivalled scholar, to whom they were presented. 
 
 These presents, after being duly exhibited to the patron 
 himself, who was seated at the farther end of the hall, 
 concealed from the eyes of Paullus by the intervening 
 crowd, were consigned to the care of the various slaves, or 
 freedmen, who stood round their master, and borne away 
 according to their nature, to the storerooms and offices, or 
 to the library and gallery of the consul ; while kind 
 words and a courteous greeting, and a consideration most 
 ample and attentive even of the smallest matters brought 
 before him, awaited all who approached the orator ; 
 whether he came empty handed, or full of gifts, to require 
 an audience. 
 
 After a little while, Arvina penetrated far enough 
 through the crow r d to command a view of the consul s 
 seat ; and for a time he amused himself by watching his 
 movements and manner toward each of his visitors, 
 perhaps not altogether without reference to the conversa 
 tion he had recently held with Catiline ; and certainly not 
 without a desire to observe if the tales he had heard of 
 shameless bribery and corruption, as practiced by many 
 of the great officers of the republic, had any confirmation 
 in the conduct of Cicero. 
 
 But he soon saw that the courtesies of that great and 
 virtuous man were regulated neither by the value of the 
 gifts offered, nor by the rank of the visitors ; and that his 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 61 
 
 personal predilections even were not allowed to interfere 
 with the division of his time among all worthy of his no 
 tice. 
 
 Thus he remarked that a young noble, famed for his 
 dissoluteness and evil courses, although he brought an ex 
 quisite sculpture of Praxiteles, was received with the 
 most marked and formal coldness, and his gift, which could 
 not be declined, consigned almost without eliciting a glance 
 of approbation, to the hand of a freedman ; while, the 
 next moment, as an old white-headed countryman, plainly 
 and almost meanly clad, although with scrupulous clearili- 
 -ness, approached his presence, the consul rose to meet 
 him ; and advancing a step or two took him affectionately 
 by the hand, and asked after his family by name, and lis 
 tened with profound consideration to the garrulous narra 
 tive of the good farmer, who, involved in some petty liti 
 gation, had come to seek the advice of his patron ; until 
 he sent him away happy and satisfied with the promise of 
 his protection. 
 
 By and by his own turn arrived ; and, although he was 
 personally unknown to the orator, and the assistance of 
 the nomenclator, who stood behind the curule chair, was 
 required before he was addressed by name, he was re 
 ceived with the utmost attention ; the noble house to 
 which the young man belonged being as famous for its 
 devotion to the common weal, as for the ability and virtue 
 of its sons. 
 
 After a few words of ordinary compliment, Paullus 
 proceeded to intimate to his attentive hearer that his object 
 in waiting at his levee that morning was to communicate 
 momentous information. The thoughtful eye of the great 
 -orator brightened, and a keen animated expression came 
 over the features, which had before worn an air almost of 
 lassitude ; and he asked eagerly 
 
 " Momentous to the Republic to Rome, my good 
 friend ]" for all his mind was bent on discovering the 
 plots, which he suspected even now to be in process 
 against the state. 
 
 " Momentous to yourself, Consul," answered Arvina. 
 
 " Then will it wait," returned the other, with a slight 
 look of disappointment, " and 1 will pray you to remain, 
 until I have spoken with all my friends here. It will not 
 
 <5 
 
62 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 be very long, for I have seen nearly all the known faces. 
 If you are, in the mean time, addicted to the humane arts, 
 Davus here will conduct you to my library, where you 
 shall find food Tor the mind ; or if you have not break 
 fasted, my Syrian will shew you where some of my youth 
 ful friends are even now partaking a slight meal." 
 
 Accepting the first offer, partly perhaps from a sort of 
 pardonable hypocrisy, desiring to make a favourable im 
 pression on the great man, with whom he had for the 
 first time spoken, Arvina followed the intelligent and civil 
 freedman to the library, which was indeed the favourite 
 apartment of the studious magistrate. And, if he half re 
 pented, as he went by the chamber wherein several youths 
 of patrician birth, one or two of whom nodded to him as 
 he passed, were assembled, conversing merrily and jesting 
 around a well spread board, he ceased immediately to 
 regret the choice he had made, when the door was thrown 
 open, and he was ushered into the shrine of Cicero s lite 
 rary leisure. 
 
 The library was a small square apartment ; for it must 
 be remembered that books at this time being multiplied 
 by manual labor only, and the art being comparatively 
 rare and very costly, the vast collections of modern times 
 were utterly beyond the reach of individuals ; and a few 
 scores of volumes were more esteemed than would be as 
 many thousands now, in these days of multiplying presses 
 and steam power. But although inconsiderable in size, 
 not being above sixteen feet square, the decorations of the 
 apartment were not to be surpassed or indeed equalled by 
 anything of modern splendor; for the walls,* divided into 
 compartments by mouldings, exquisitely carved and over 
 laid with burnished gilding, were set with panels of thick 
 plate glass glowing in all the richest hues of purple, 
 ruby, emerald, and azure, through several squares of which 
 the light stole in, gorgeously tinted, from the .peristyle, 
 there being no distinction except in this between the win 
 dows and the other compartments of the wainscot, if it 
 
 * It must not be imagined that this is fanciful. Rooms were fitted up 
 in this manner, and termed camera vitrea, and the panels vitrete quadrature. 
 But a few years later than the period of the text, B C. 58, M ^milius 
 Scaurus built a theatre capable of containing 80.000 persons, the scena of 
 which, composed of three stories, had one, the central, made entirely of 
 colored glass in this fashion. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 63 
 
 may be so styled; and of the ceiling, which was finished in 
 like manner with slabs of stained glass, between the inter 
 secting beams of gilded scroll work. 
 
 The floor was of beautiful mosaic, partially covered by 
 a foot-cloth woven from the finest wool, and dyed purple 
 with the juice of the cuttle-fish ; and all the furniture cor 
 responded, both in taste and magnificence, to the other de 
 corations of the room. A circular table of cedar wood, 
 inlaid with ivory and brass, so that its value could not have 
 fallen far short of ten thousand sesterces*, stood in the 
 centre of the floor-cloth; with a bisellium, or double settle, 
 wrought in bronze, and two beautiful chairs of the same 
 material not much dissimilar in form to those now used. 
 And, to conclude, a bookcase of polished maple wood, one 
 of the doors of which stood open, displayed a rare collec 
 tion of about three hundred volumes, each in its circular 
 case of purple parchment, having the name inscribed in 
 letters of gold, silver, or vermilion. 
 
 A noble bust in bionze of the Phidian Jupiter, with the 
 sublime expanse of brow, the ambrosian curls and the 
 beard loosely waving, as when he shook Olympus by his 
 nod, and the earth trembled and the depth of Tartarus, 
 stood on a marble pedestal facing the bookcase ; and on 
 the table, beside writing materials, leaves of parchment, an 
 ornamental letter-case, a double inkstand and several reed 
 pens, were scattered many gems and trinkets ; signets and 
 rings engraved in a style far surpassing any effort of the 
 modern graver, vases of onyx and cut glass, and above all, 
 the statue of a beautiful boy, holding a lamp of bronze sus 
 pended by a chain from his left hand, and in his right the 
 needle used to refresh the wick. 
 
 Nurtured as he had been from his youth upward among 
 the magnate s of the land, accustomed to magnificence and 
 luxury till he had almost fancied that the world had no 
 thing left of beautiful or new that he had not witnessed, 
 Paul stood awhile, after the freedman had departed, gazing 
 with mute admiration on the richness and taste displayed 
 in all the details of this the scholar s sanctum. The very 
 atmosphere of the chamber, filled with the perfume of the 
 
 * About 90 sterling. See Pliny Hist. Nat. 13, 16, for a notice of this 
 very table, which was preserved to his time. 
 
64 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 cedar wood employed as a specific against the ravages o 
 the moth and bookworm, seemed to the young man redo 
 lent of midnight learning ; and the superb front of the pre 
 siding god, calm in- the grandeur of its ineffable benignity, 
 who appeared to nis excited fancy to smile serene protec 
 tion on the pursuits of the blameless consul, inspired him 
 with a. sense of awful veneration, that did not easily or 
 quickly pass away. 
 
 For some moments, as he gradually recovered the elas 
 ticity of his spirits, he amused himself by examining the 
 exquisitely wrought gems on the table; but after a little 
 while, when Cicero came not, he crossed the room quietly 
 to the bookshelves, and selecting a volume of Homer, drew 
 it forth from its richly embossed case, and seating himself 
 on the bronze settle with his back toward the door, had 
 soon forgotten where he was, and the grave business which 
 brought him thither, in the sublime simplicity of the blind 
 rhapsodist. 
 
 An hour or more elapsed thus ; yet Paul took no note 
 of time, nor moved at all except to unroll with his right 
 hand tli lower margin of the parchment as he read, while 
 with the left he rolled up the top ; so that nearly the same 
 space of the manuscript remained constantly before his 
 eyes, although the reader was continually advancing in the 
 poem. 
 
 At length the door opened noiselessly, and with a silent 
 foot, shod in the light slippers which the Romans always 
 wore when in the house, Cicero entered the apartment. 
 
 The consul was at this time in the very prime of intel 
 lectual manhood, it having been decreed* about a century 
 before, that no person should be elected to that highest 
 office of the state, who should not have attained his forty- 
 third year. He was a tall and elegantly formed man, with 
 nothing especially worthy of remark in his figure, if it 
 were not that his neck was unusually long arid slender, 
 though not so much so as to constitute any drawback to 
 his personal appearance, which, without being what would 
 exactly be termed handsome, was both elegant and grace 
 ful. 
 
 * By the Lex annalis, E. C. 180, passed at the instance of the tribune L. 
 V. Tappulus. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 65 
 
 His features were not, indeed, very bold or striking ; 
 but intellect was strongly and singularly marked in every 
 line of the face ; and the expression, calm, thoughtful, 
 and serene, though it had not the quick and restless play 
 of ever-varying lights and shadows which belongs to the 
 quicker and more imaginative temperaments among men 
 of the highest genius, could not fail to impress any one 
 with the conviction, that the mind which informed it must 
 be of eminent capacity, and depth, and power. 
 
 He entered, as I have said, silently ; and although there 
 was nothing of stealthiness in his gait, which being very 
 light and slow was yet both firm and springy, nor any of 
 that cunning in his manner which is so often coupled to a 
 prowling footstep, he yet advanced so noiselessly over the 
 soft floor-cloth, that he stood at Arvina s elbow, and over 
 looked the page in which he was reading, before the young 
 man was aware of his vicinity. 
 
 "Ha !" he exclaimed, after standing a moment, and ob 
 serving with a soft pleasant smile the abstraction of his 
 visitor, " so thou readest Greek, and art thyself a poet." 
 
 " A little of the first, my consul," replied Arvina, ari 
 sing quickly to his feet, with the ingenuous blood rushing 
 to his brow at the detection. "But wherefore shouldst 
 thou believe me the second V 
 
 11 We statesmen," answered the consul, " are wont to 
 study other men s characters, as other men are wont to 
 study books ; and I have learned by practice to draw quick 
 conculsions from small signs. But in this instance, the light 
 in your eye, the curl of your expanded nostril, the half 
 frown on your brow, and the flush on your cheek, told me 
 beyond a doubt that you are a poet. And you are so, 
 young man. I care not whether you have penned as yet 
 an elegy, or no nevertheless, you are in soul, in temper 
 ament, in fantasy, a poet. Do you love Homer 1" 
 
 " Beyond all other writers I have ever met, in my small 
 course of reading. There is a majesty, a truth, an ever 
 burning fire, lustrous, yet natural and most beneficent, 
 like the sun s glory on a summer day, in his immortal 
 words, that kindles and irradiates, yet consumes not the 
 soul ; a grand simplicity, that never strains for effect ; a 
 sweet pathos, that elicits tears without evoking them ; a 
 melody that flows on, like the harmony of the eternal sea, 
 
THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 or, if we may call fancy to our aid, the music of the spheres, 
 telling us that like these the blind bard sang, because song 
 was his nature was within, and must out not bound by 
 laws, or measured by pedantic rules, but free, unfettered, 
 and spontaneous as the billows, which in its wild and 
 many-cadenced sweep it most resembles." 
 
 " Ah ! said I not," replied Cicero, " that you were a 
 poet ] And you have been discoursing me most eloquent 
 poetry; though not attuned to metre, rythmical withal, and 
 full of fancy. Ay ! and you judge aright. He is the 
 greatest, as the first of poets ; and surpassed all his follow 
 ers as much in the knowledge of the human heart with its 
 ten thousands of conflicting passions, as in the structure of 
 the kingly verse, wherein he delineated character as never 
 man did, saving only he. But hold, Arvina. Though I 
 rould willingly spend hours with thee in converse on this 
 topic, the state has calls on me, which must be obeyed. 
 Tell me, therefore, I pray you, as shortly as may be, what 
 is the matter you would have me know. Shortly, I pray 
 you, for my time is short, and my duties onerous and ma 
 nifold." 
 
 Laying aside the roll, which he had still held open du 
 ring that brief conversation, and laying aside with it his 
 enthusiastic and passionate manner, the young man now 
 stated, simply and briefly, the events of the past night, the 
 discovery of the murdered slave, and the accident by 
 which he had learned that he was the consul s property ; 
 and in conclusion, laid the magnificently ornamented dag 
 ger which he had found, on the board before Cicero; ob 
 serving, that the weapon might give a clue to poor Me- 
 don s death. 
 
 Cicero was moved deeply moved, not simply, as Ar 
 vina fancied, by sorrow for the dead, but by something ap 
 proaching nearly to remorse. He started up from the 
 chair, which he had taken when the youth began his tale, 
 and clasping his hands together violently, strode, rapidly 
 to and fro the small apartment. 
 
 " Alas, and wo is me, poor Medon ! Faithful wert thou, 
 and true, and very pleasant to mine eyes ! Alas ! that 
 thou art gone, and gone too so wretchedly ! And wo is 
 me, that I listened not to my own apprehensions, rather 
 than to thy trusty boldness, Alas ! that I suffered thee to 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 67 
 
 go, for they have murdered thee ! ay, thine own zeal be 
 trayed thee ; but by the Gods that govern in Olympus, 
 they shall rue it!" 
 
 After this burst of passion he became more cool, and, 
 resuming his seat, asked Paullus a few shrewd and perti 
 nent questions concerning the nature of the ground where 
 on he had found the corpse, the traces left by the mortal 
 struggle, the hour at which the discovery was made, and 
 many other minute points of the same nature ; the an? wers 
 to which he noted carefully on his waxed tablets. When 
 he had made all the inquiries that occurred to him, he read 
 aloud the answers as he had set them down, and^ asked if 
 he would be willing at any moment to attest l9fe" truth of 
 those things. 
 
 " At any moment, and most willingly, my consul," the 
 youth replied. " I would do much myself to find out the 
 murderers and bring them to justice, were it only for my 
 poor freedman Thrassa s sake, who is his cousin-german.* 
 
 " Fear not, young man, they shall be brought to justice," 
 answered Cicero. " In the meantime do thou keep silence, 
 nor say one word touching this to any one that lives. 
 Carry the dagger with thee ; wear it as ostentatiously as 
 may be perchance it shall turn out that some one may 
 claim or recognise it. Whatever happeneth, let me know 
 privately. Thus far hast thou done well, and very wisely : 
 go on as thou hast commenced, and, hap what hap, count 
 Cicero thy friend. But above all, doubt not I say, doubt 
 not one moment, that as there is One eye that seeth all 
 things in all places, that slumbereth not by day nor sleep- 
 eth in the watches of night, that never waxeth weak at any 
 time or weary as there is One hand against which no 
 panoply can arm the guilty, from which no distance can 
 protect, nor space of time secure him, so surely shall they 
 perish miserable who did this miserable murder, and their 
 souls rue it everlastingly beyond the portals of the grave, 
 which are but the portals of eternal life, and admit all men 
 to wo or bliss, for ever and for ever !" 
 
 He spoke solemnly and sadly ; and on his earnest face 
 there was a deep and almost awful expression, that held 
 Arvina mute and abashed, he knew not wherefore ; and 
 when the great man had ceased from speaking, he made a 
 silent gesture of salutation and withdrew, thus gravely 
 
68 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 warned, scarce conscious if the statesman noted his depar 
 ture ; for he had fallen into a deep reverie, and was per 
 haps musing on the mysteries yet unrevealed of the im 
 mortal soul, so totally careless did he now appear of all 
 sublunary matters. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 09 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CAMPUS. 
 
 Equee ipso melior Bellerophonte, 
 
 Neque pugno neque segni pede v ictus, 
 
 bimul unctos Tibeririis humeros lavit in undis. 
 
 HORACE. OD. III. 12. 
 
 " WHAT ho ! my noble Patillus," exclaimed a loud and 
 cheerful voice, " whither afoot so early, and with so grave 
 a face V 
 
 Arvina started ; for so deep was the impression made 
 on his mind by the last words of Cicero, that he had pass 
 ed out into the Sacred Way, and walked some distance 
 down it, toward the Forum, in deep meditation, from 
 which he was aroused by the clear accents of the merry 
 speaker. 
 
 Looking up with a smile as he recognised the voice, he 
 saw two young men of senatorial rank for both wore the 
 crimson laticlave on the breast of their tunics on horse 
 back, followed by several slaves on foot, who had overta 
 ken him unnoticed amid the din and bustle which had 
 drowned the clang of their horses feet on the pavement. 
 
 " Nay, I scarce know, Aurelius !" replied the young 
 man, laughing; " I thought I was going home, but it seems 
 that my back is turned to my own house, and I am going 
 toward the market-place, although the Gods know that I 
 have no business with the brawling lawyers, with whom it 
 is alive by this time." 
 
 "Come with us, then," replied the other; " Aristius. 
 here, arid I, have made a bet upon our coursers speed. 
 
70 
 
 He fancies his Numidian can outrun my Gallic beauty. 
 Come with us to the Campus ; and after we have settled 
 this grave matter, we will try the quinquertium* or a foot 
 race in armor, if you like it better, or a swim in the Tiber, 
 until it shall be time to go to dinner." 
 
 " How can I go with you, seeing that you are well 
 mounted, and I afoot, and encumbered with my gown 1 
 You must consider me a second Achilles to keep up with 
 your fleet coursers, clad in this heavy toga, which is a 
 worse garb for running than any panoply that Vulcan 
 ever wrought." 
 
 " We will alight," cried the other youth, who had not 
 yet spoken, " and give our horses to die boys to lead be 
 hind us ; or, hark you, why not send Geta back to your 
 house, and let your slaves bring down your horse too 1 If 
 they make tolerable speed, coming down by the back of 
 the Ccelian, and thence beside the Aqua Crabra\ to the 
 Carmental gate, they may overtake us easily before we 
 reach the Campus. Aurelius has some errand to perform 
 near the Forum, which will detain us a few moments lon 
 ger. What say you V 
 
 " He will come, he will come, certainly," cried the 
 other, springing down lightly from the back of his beauti 
 ful courser, which indeed merited the eulogium, as well as 
 the caresses which he now lavished on it, patting his favor 
 ite s high-arched neck, and stroking the soft velvet muz 
 zle, which was thrust into his hand, with a low whinnying 
 neigh of recognition, as he stood on the raised foot path, 
 holding the embroidered rein carelessly in his hand. 
 
 " I will," said Arvina, " gladly ; I have nothing to hin 
 der me this morning ; and for some days past I have been 
 detained with business, so that I have not visited the cam 
 pus, or backed a horse, or cast a javelin by Hercules ! 
 not since the Ides, I fancy. You will all beat me in the 
 field, that is certain, and in the river likewise. But come, 
 
 * The Qmnqitertium, the same as the Greek Pentathlon, was a conflict 
 in five successive exercises leaping, the discus, the foot race, throwing 
 the spear, and wrestling. 
 
 f The Aqua Crabra was a small stream flowing into the Tiber from the 
 south-eastward, now called Maranna. It entered the walls near the Ca- 
 puan gate, and passing through the vallis Murcia between the Aventine 
 and Palatine hills, where it supplied the Circus Maximus with water for 
 the naumachia, fell into the river above the Palatine bridge. 
 
DAYS Or CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 71 
 
 Fuscus Aristius, if it is to be as you have planned it, 
 lump down from your Numidian, and let your Geta ride 
 him up the hill to my house. I would have asked Aure- 
 lius, but he will let no slave back liis white NOTUS." 
 
 " Not I, by the twin horsemen ! nor any free man either 
 plebeian, knight, or noble. Since first I bought him of 
 the blue-eyed Celt, who wept in his barbarian fondness 
 for the colt, no leg save only mine has crossed his back, 
 nor ever shall, while the light of day smiles on Aurelius 
 Victor." 
 
 Without a word Fuscus leaped from the back of the 
 fine blood-bay barb he bestrode, and beckoning to a con 
 fidential slave who followed him, " Here," he said, " Geta, 
 take Xanthus, and ride straightway up the Minervium to 
 the house of Arvina ; thou knowest it, beside the Alban 
 Mansions, and do as he shall command you. Tell him, 
 my Paullus." 
 
 " Carry this signet, my good Geta," said the young 
 man, drawing off the large seal-ring which adorned his 
 right hand, and giving it to him, " to Thrasea, my trusty 
 freedman, and let him see that they put the housings and 
 gallic wolf-bit on the black horse Aufidus, and bring him 
 thou, with one of my slaves, down the slope of Scaurus, 
 and past the Great Circus, to the Carmental Gate, where 
 thou wilt find us. Make good speed, Geta." 
 
 " Ay, do so," interposed his master, " but see that thou 
 dost not blow Xanthus ; thou wert better be a dead slave, 
 Geta, than let me find one drop of sweat on his flank. 
 Nay ! never grin, thou hang-dog, or I will have thee given 
 to my Congers* ; the last which came out of the fish pond 
 were but ill fed ; and a fat German, such as thou, would 
 be a rare meal for them." 
 
 The slave laughed, knowing well that his master was 
 but jesting, mounted the horse, and rode him at a gentle 
 trot, up the slope of the Caelian hill, from which Arvina 
 had but a little while before descended. In the mean 
 time, Aristius gave the rein of his dappled grey to one of 
 
 * Ti e Murcena Helena, which we commonly translate Lamprey, was a 
 sub-genus of the Conger ; it was the most prized of all the Roman fish, 
 And grew to the weight of twenty-five or thirty pounds. The value set 
 
 rthem was enormous ; and it is said that guilty slaves were occasion- 
 thrown into iheir slews, to fatten ihese voracious dainties. 
 
72 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 his followers, desiring him to be very gentle with him, and 
 the three young men sauntered slowly on along the Sacred 
 Way toward the Forum, conversing merrily arid interchang 
 ing many a smile arid Salutation with those whom they 
 met on their road. 
 
 Skirting the base of the Palatine hill, they passed the 
 old circular temple of Remus to the right hand, and the 
 most venerable relic of Rome s infancy, the Ruminal Fig 
 tree, beneath which the she-wolf was believed to have 
 given suck to the twin progeny of Mars and the hapless 
 Ilia. A little farther on, the mouth of the sacred grotto 
 called Lupercal, surrounded with its shadowy grove, the 
 favourite haunt of Pan, lay to their left; and fronting 
 them, the splendid arch of Fabius, surnamed Allobrox for 
 his victorious prowess against that savage tribe, gave en 
 trance to the great Roman Forum. 
 
 Immediately at their left hand as they entered the arch 
 way, was the superb Comitium, wherein the Senate were 
 wont to give audience to foreign embassies of suppliant 
 nations, with the gigantic portico, three columns of which 
 may still be seen to testify to the splendor of the old city, 
 in the far days of the republic. Facing them were the 
 steps of the Asylum, with the Mamertine prison and the 
 grand fagade of the temple of Concord to the right and 
 left; and higher above these the portico of the gallery of 
 records, and higher yet the temple of the thundering 
 Jupiter, and glittering above all, against the dark blue 
 sky, the golden dome, and white marble columns "of the 
 great capitol itself. Around in all directions were basi 
 licas, or halls of justice ; porticoes filled with busy law 
 yers ; bankers shops glittering with their splendid wares, 
 and bedecked with the golden shields taken from the 
 Sammies ; statues of the renowned of ages, Accius Nae- 
 vius, who cut the whetstone with the razor ; Horatius 
 Codes on his thunders tricken pedestal, halting on one knee 
 from the wound w r hich had not hindered him from swim 
 ming the swollen Tiber ; Claelia the hostage on her brazen 
 steed ; and many another, handed down inviolate from the 
 days of the ancient kings. Here was the rostrum, beaked 
 with the prows of ships, a fluent orator already haranguing 
 the assembled people from its platform there, the seat 
 of the city Praetor, better known as the Putcal Libonis, 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. to 
 
 with that officer in session on his curule chair, his six 
 lictors leaning on their fasces at his back, as he promulgated 
 ^is irrevocable edicts. "* 
 
 It was a grand sight, surely, and one to gaze on which 
 51 en of the present day would do and suffer much ; and 
 udge themselves most happy if blessed with one momen 
 tary glance of the heart, as it were, of the old world s 
 mistress. But these young men, proud as they were, 
 and boastful of the glories of their native Rome, had 
 looked too often on that busy scene to be attracted by 
 the gorgeousness of the place, crowded with buildings, 
 the like of which the modern world knows not, arid 
 thronged with nations of every region of the earth, each 
 in his proper dress, each seeking justice, pleasure, profit, 
 fame, as it pleased him, free, and fearless, and secure of 
 property and person. Casting a brief glance over it, they 
 turned short to the left, by a branch of the Sacred Way, 
 which led, skirting the market place, between the Comi- 
 tium, or hall of the ambassadors, and the abrupt declivity 
 of the Palatine, past the end of the Atrium of Liberty, 
 and the cattle mart, toward the Carmental gate. 
 
 " Methought you said, my Fuscus, that our Aurelius had 
 some errand to perform in the Forum ; how is this, is it 
 a secret ?" inquired Paullus, laughing. 
 
 " No secret, by the Gods !" said Aurelius, " it is but to 
 buy a pair of spurs in Volero s shop, hard by Vesta s 
 shrine." 
 
 "He, will need them," cried Fuscus, "he will need 
 them, I will swear, in the race." 
 
 " Not to beat Xanthus," said Aurelius ; " but oh ! 
 Jove ! walk quickly, I beseech you ; how hot a steam of 
 cooked meats and sodden cabbage, reeks from the door of 
 yon cook-shop. Now, by the Gods ! it well nigh sickened 
 me ! Ha ! Volero," he exclaimed, as they reached the 
 door of a booth, or little shop, with neat leathern curtains 
 festooned up in front, glittering with polished cutlery 
 and wares of steel and. silver, to a middle aged man, who 
 was busy burnishing a knife within, " what ho ! my 
 Volero, some spurs I want some spurs ; show me some 
 of your sharpest and brightest." 
 
 " I have a pair, noble Aurelius, which I got only yes 
 terday in trade with a turbaned Moor from the deserts 
 
74 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 beyond Cyrenaica. By Mulciber, my patron god ! the 
 fairest pair my eyes ever looked upon. Right loath was 
 the swart barbarian to let me have them, but hunger, 
 hunger is a great tamer of your savage ; and the steam 
 of good Furbo s cook-shop yonder was suggestive oi 
 savory chops and greasy sausages and and in short, 
 Aurelius, I got them at a bargain." 
 
 While he was speaking, he produced the articles in 
 question, from a strong brass-bound chest, and rubbing 
 them on his leather apron held them up for the inspec 
 tion of the youthful noble. 
 
 " Truly," cried Victor, catching them out of his hand, 
 " truly, they are good spurs." 
 
 " Good spurs ! good spurs !" cried the merchant, half 
 indignantly, "I call them splendid, glorious, inimitable! 
 Only look you here, it is all virgin silver ; and observe, 
 I beseech you, this dragon s neck and the sibilant head 
 that holds the rowels; they are wrought to the very life 
 with horrent scales, and erected crest ; beautiful ! beauti 
 ful ! and the rowels too of the best Spanish steel that 
 was ever tempered in the cold Bilbilis. Good spurs in 
 deed ! they are well worth three aurei* But 1 will 
 keep them, as I meant to do at first, for Caius Ceesar ; 
 he will know what they are worth, and give it too. 1 
 
 "Didst ever hear so pestilent a knave 1" said Victor, 
 laughing ; " one would suppose I had disparaged the 
 accursed things! But, as I said before, they are goo d 
 spurs, and I will have them; but I will not give thee 
 three aurei, master Volero ; two is enough, in all con 
 science ; or sixty denarii at the most. Ho ! Davus, Da- 
 vus ! bring my purse, hither, Davus," he called to his 
 slaves without ; and, as the purse-bearer entered, he con 
 tinued without waiting for an answer, " Give Volero two 
 aurei, and ten denarii, and take these spurs." 
 
 " No ! no !" exclaimed Volero, " you shall not no ! 
 by the Gods ! they cost me more than that !" 
 
 "Ye Gods! what a lie ! cost thee and to a barbarian! 
 I dare be sworn thou didst not pay him the ten denarii 
 alone." 
 
 * The aureus was a gold coin, as the name implies, worth twenty-five 
 denarii, or about seventeen shillings and nine pence sterling. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 75 
 
 " By Hercules ! I did, though," said the other, " and 
 thou shouldst not have them for three aurei either, but that 
 it is drawing near the Calends of November, and I have 
 moneys to pay then." 
 
 " Sixty-five I will give thee sixty-five denarii !" 
 
 " Give me my spurs ; what, art thou turning miser in 
 thy youth, Aurelius ?" 
 
 " There, give him the gold, Davus ; he is a regular 
 usurer. Give him three aurei, and then buckle these to 
 my heel. Ha ! that is well, my Paullus, here come your 
 fellows with black Aufidus, and our friend Geta on the 
 Numidian. They have made haste, yet not sweated Xan- 
 thus either. Aristius, your groom is a good one ; I never 
 saw a horse that shewed his keeping or condition better. 
 Now then, Arvina, doff your toga, you will not surely ride 
 in that." 
 
 "Indeed I will not," replied Paullus, " if master Volero 
 will suffer me to leave it here till my return." 
 
 " Willingly, willingly ; but what is this ]" exclaimed the 
 cutler, as Arvina unbuckling his toga and suffering it to 
 drop on the ground, stood clad in his succinct and snow- 
 white tunic only, girded about him with a zone of purple 
 leather, in which was stuck the sheathless dirk of Cataline. 
 " What is this, noble Paullus, that you carry at your belt, 
 with no scabbard ] If you go armed, you should at least 
 go safely. See, if you were to bend your body somewhat 
 quickly, it might well be that the keen point would rend 
 your groin. Give it me, I can fit it with a sheath in a 
 moment." 
 
 " I do not know but it were as well to do so," answered 
 Paullus, extricating the dagger from his belt, " if you will 
 not detain us a long time." 
 
 " Not even a short time!" said the cutler, " give it to 
 me, I can fit it immediately." And he stretched out his 
 hand and took it ; but hardly had his eye dwelt on it, for 
 a moment, when he cried, " but this is not yours this is 
 where got you this, Arvina 1" 
 
 " Nay, it is nought to thee ; perhaps I bought it, per 
 haps it was given to me ; do thou only fit it with a scab 
 bard." 
 
 " Buy it thou didst not, Paullus, I ll be sworn ; and I 
 
76 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 think it was never given thee ; and, see, see here, what is 
 this ? there has been blood on the blade !" 
 
 " Folly !" exclaimed the young man, tnrning first very 
 red and then pale, so that his comrades gazed on him with 
 wonder, " folly, I say. It is not blood, but water that has 
 dimmed its shine ; and how knowest thou that 1 did not 
 buy it]" 
 
 "How do I know it? thus," answered the artizan, 
 drawing from a cupboard under his counter, a weapon 
 precisely the facsimile in every respect of that in his 
 hand : " There never were but two of these made, and I 
 made them ; the scabbard of this will fit that ; see how 
 the very chased work fits !" I sold this, but not to you, 
 Arvina; and I do not believe that it was given to you." 
 
 " Filth that thou art, and carrion !" exclaimed the young 
 man fiercely, striking his hand with violence upon the 
 counter, " darest thou brave a nobleman 1 I tell thee, I 
 doubt not at all that there be twenty such in every cutler s 
 shop in Rome ! but to whom did st thou sell this, that 
 thou art so certain ?" 
 
 " Paullus Caecilius," replied the mechanic gravely but 
 respectfully, "I brave no man, least of all a patrician ; 
 but mark my words I did sell this dagger ; here is my 
 own mark on its back; if it was given to thee, thou must 
 needs know the giver ; for the rest, this is blood that has 
 dimmed it, and not water ; you cannot deceive me in the 
 matter; and I would warn you, youth, noble as you are, 
 and plebeian I, that there are laws in Rome, one of them 
 called CORNELIA DE SICARIIS, which you were best take 
 care that you know not more nearly. Meantime, you can 
 take this scabbard if you will," handing to him, as ho 
 spoke, the sheath of the second weapon ; " the price is 
 one sestertium ; it is the finest silver, chased as you see, 
 and overlaid with pure gold." 
 
 "Thou hast the money," returned Paullus, casting 
 down on the counter several golden coins, stamped with a 
 helmed head of Mars, and an eagle on the reverse, grasp 
 ing a thunderbolt in its talons " and the sheath is mine. 
 Then thou wilt not disclose to whom it was sold V 
 
 " Why should I, since thou knowest without telling 1" 
 
 " Wilt thou, or not 1" 
 
 " Not to thee, Paullus." 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 77 
 
 " Then will I find some one, to whom thou wilt fain dis 
 close it !" he answered haughtily. 
 
 " And who may that be, I beseech you ]" asked the 
 mechanic, half sneeringly. " For my part, I fancy you 
 will let it rest altogether ; some one was_ hurt with it last 
 night, as you and he, we both know, can tell if you will ! 
 But I knew not that you were one of his men." 
 
 There was an insolent sneer on the cutler s face that 
 galled the young nobleman to the quick ; and what was 
 yet more annoying, there was an assumption of mutual in 
 telligence and equality about him, that almost goaded the 
 patrician s blood to fury. But by a mighty effort he sub 
 dued his passion to his will ; and snatching up the weapon 
 returned it to his belt, left the shop, and springing to the 
 saddle of his beautiful black horse, rode furiously away. 
 It was not till he reached the Carmental Gate, giving 
 egress from the city through the vast walls of Cyclopean 
 architecture, immediately at the base of the dread Tar- 
 peian rock, overlooked and commanded by the outworks 
 and turrets of the capitol, that he drew in his eager horse, 
 and looked behind him for his friends. But they were not 
 in sight; and a moment s reflection told him that, being 
 about to start their coursers on a trial of speed, they would 
 doubtless ride gently over the rugged pavement of the 
 crowded streets. 
 
 He doubted for a minute, whether he should turn back 
 to meet them, or wait for their arrival at the gate, by which 
 they must pass to gain the campus ; but the fear of missing 
 them, instantly induced him to adopt the latter course, and 
 he sat for a little space motionless on his well-bitted and 
 obedient horse beneath the shadow of the deep gate-way. 
 
 Here his eye wandered around him for awhile, taking 
 note indeed of the surrounding objects, the great temple 
 of Jupiter Stator on the Palatine ; the splendid portico of 
 Catuhis, adorned with the uncouth and grisly spoils of the 
 Cimbric hordes slaughtered on the plains of Vercellae ; the 
 house of Scaurus, toward which a slow wain tugged by 
 twelve powerful oxen was even then dragging one of the 
 pondrous columns which rendered his hall for many years 
 the boast of Roman luxury ; and on the other tall build 
 ings that stood every where about him ; although in truth 
 he scarce observed what for the time his eye dwelt upon. 
 
 
78 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 At length an impatient motion of his horse caused him 
 to turn his face toward the black precipice of the huge 
 rock at whose base he sat, and in a moment it fastened 
 upon his mind with singular vividness singular, for he 
 had paused fifty times upon that spot before, without ex 
 periencing such feelings that he was on the very pave 
 ment, which had so often been bespattered with the blood 
 of despairing traitors. The noble Manlius, tumbled from 
 the very rock, which his single arm had but a little while 
 before defended, seemed to lie there, even at his feet, 
 mortally maimed and in the agony of death, yet even so 
 too prouJ to mix one groan with the curses he poured 
 forth against Rome s democratic rabble. Then, by a not 
 inapt transition, the scene changed, and Caius Marcius was 
 at hand, with the sword drawn in his right, that won him 
 the proud name of Coriolanus, and the same rabble that 
 had hurled Caius Manlius down, yelling arid hooting "to 
 the rock with him ! to the rock !" but at a safe and respect 
 ful distance ; their factious tribunes goading them to out 
 rage and new riot. 
 
 It was strange that these thoughts should have occurred 
 so clearly at this moment to the excited mind of the young 
 noble ; and he felt that it was strange himself; and would 
 have banished the ideas, but they would not away ; and 
 he continued musing on the inconstant turbulence of the 
 plebeians, and the unerring doom which had overtaken 
 every one of their idols, from the hands of their own par- 
 tizans, until his companions at length rode slowly up the 
 street to join him. 
 
 There was some coldness in the manner of Aristius 
 Fuscus, as they met again, and even Aurelius seemed 
 surprised and not well pleased ; for they had in truth been 
 conversing earnestly about the perturbation of their friend 
 at the remarks of the artizan, and the singularity of his 
 conduct in wearing arms at all ; and he heard Victor say 
 just before they joined company 
 
 " No ! that is not so odd, Fuscus, in these times. It 
 was but two nights since, as I was coming home some 
 thing later than my wont from Terentia s, that I fell in 
 with Clodius reeling along, frantically drunk and furious, 
 with half a dozen torch-bearers before, and half a score 
 wolfish looking gladiators all armed with blade and buck- 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 79 
 
 ler, and all half-drunk, behind him. I do assure you that 
 I almost swore I would go out no more without wea 
 pons." 
 
 " They would have done you no good, man," said Aris- 
 tius, " if some nineteen or twenty had set upon you. But 
 an they would, I care not ; it is against me law, and no 
 good citizen should carry them at all." 
 
 " Carry arms, T suppose you mean, Aristius," interrupt 
 ed Paullus boldly. " Ye are talking about me, I fancy 
 is it not so]" 
 
 " Ay, it is," replied the other gravely. " You were 
 disturbed not a little at what stout Volero said." ^^ 
 
 " I was, I was," answered Arvina very quickl^l" be 
 cause I could not tell him ; and it is not pleasant to be 
 suspected. The truth is that the dagger is not mine at all, 
 and that it is blood that was on it ; for last night but lo !" 
 he added, interrupting himself, " I was about to speak out, 
 and tell you all ; and yet my lips are sealed." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear it," said Aristius, " I do not like 
 mysteries ; and this seems to me a dark one !" 
 
 " It is as dark as Erebus," said Paullus eagerly, " and 
 as guilty too ; but it is not my mystery, so help me the 
 god of good faith and honour !" 
 
 " That is enough said ; surely that is enough for you, 
 Aristius," exclaimed the warmer and more excitable Au- 
 relius. 
 
 " For you it may be," replied the noble youth, with a 
 melancholy smile. " You are a boy in heart, my Aurelius, 
 and overflow so much with generosity and truth that you 
 believe all others to be as frank and candid. I alas ! 
 have grown old untimely, and, having seen what I have 
 seen, hold men s assertions little worth." 
 
 The hot blood mounted fiercely into the cheek of Paul 
 lus ; and, striking his horse s flank suddenly with his heel, 
 he made him passage half across the street, and would 
 have seized Aristius by the throat, had not their comrade 
 interposed to hinder him. 
 
 " You are both mad, I believe ; so mad that all the 
 hellebore in both the Anticyras could not cure you. Thou, 
 Fuscus, for insulting him with needless doubts. Thou, 
 Paullus, for mentioning the thing, or shewing the dagger 
 at all, if you did not choose to explain." 
 
80 THE ROMAN TRAITOR J OR, THE 
 
 "I do choose to explain," replied Caecilius, " but I can 
 not; I have explained it all to Marcus Tullius." 
 
 " To Cicero," exclaimed Aristius. " Why did you not 
 say so before 1 I was wrong, then, I confess my error; 
 if Cicero be satisfied, it must needs be all well." 
 
 " That name of Cicero is like the voice of an oracle to 
 Fuscus ever !" said Aurelius Victor, laughing. " I believe 
 he thinks the new man from Arpinum a very god, de 
 scended from Olympus !" 
 
 " No ! not a God," replied Aristius Fuscus, " only the 
 greatest work of God, a wise and virtuous man, in an 
 age wl^h has few such to boast. But come, let us ride 
 on arJrconclude our race ; and thou, Arvina, forget what 
 I said ; I meant not to wrong thee." 
 
 " I have forgotten," answered Paullus ; and, with the 
 word, they gave their horses head, and cantered onward 
 for the field of Mars. 
 
 The way for some distance was narrow, lying between 
 the fortified rock of the Capitol, with its stern lines of im 
 memorial ramparts on the rigbt hand, and on the left 
 the long arcades and stately buildings of the vegetable 
 mart, on the river bank, now filled with sturdy peasants, 
 from the Sabine country, eager to sell their fresh green 
 herbs ; and blooming girls, from Tibur and the banks of 
 Anio, with garlands of flowers, and cheeks that outvied 
 their own brightest roses. 
 
 Beyond these, still concealing the green expanse of the 
 level plain, and the famous river, stood side by side three 
 temples, sacred to Juno Matuta, Piety, and Hope ; each 
 with its massy colonnade of Doric or Corinthian, or Ionic 
 pillars ; the latter boasting its frieze wrought in bronze ; 
 and that of Piety, its tall equestrian statue, so richly gilt 
 arid burnished that it gleamed in the sunlight as if it 
 were of solid gold. 
 
 Onward they went, still at a merry canter, their generous 
 and high mettled coursers fretting against the bits which 
 restrained their speed, and their young hearts elated and 
 bounding quickly in their bosoms, with the excitement of 
 the gallant exercise ; and now they cleared the last wind 
 ing of the suburban street, and clothed in its perennial 
 verdure, the wide field lay outspread, like one sheet of 
 emerald verdure, before them, with the bright Tiber flash- 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 81 
 
 ing to the sun in many a reach and ripple, and the gay 
 slope of the Collis Hortulorum, glowing with all its ter 
 raced gardens in the distance. 
 
 A few minutes more brought them to the Flaminian way, 
 whereon, nearly midway the plain, stood the diribitorium, 
 or pay-office of the troops ; the porticoes of which were 
 filled with the soldiers of Metellus Creticus, and Quintus 
 Marcius Rex, who lay with their armies encamped on the 
 low hills beyond the river, waiting their triumphs, and for 
 bidden by the laws to come into the city so long as they 
 remained invested with their military rank. Around this 
 stately building were many colonnades, and opeifc, build 
 ings adapted to the exercises of the day, when winter 
 or bad weather should prevent their performance in the 
 open mead, and stored with all appliances, and instru 
 ments required for the purpose ; and to these Paullus and 
 his friends proceeded, answering merely with a nod or 
 passing jest the salutations of many a helmed centurion 
 and gorgeous tribune of the soldiery. 
 
 A grand Ionic gateway gave them admittance to the 
 hippodrome, a vast oval space, adorned with groups of 
 sculpture and obelisks and columns in the midst ; on 
 some of which were affixed inscriptions commemorative 
 of great feats of skill or strength or daring ; while others 
 displayed placards announcing games or contests to take 
 place in future, and challenges of celebrated gymnasts 
 for the cestus fight, the wrestling match, or the foot 
 race. 
 
 Around the outer circumference were rows of seats, 
 shaded by plane trees overrun with ivy, and there were 
 already seated many young men of noble birth, chatting 
 together, or betting, with their waxed tablets and their 
 styli* in their hands, some waiting the commencement of 
 the race between Fuscus and Victor, others watching 
 with interest the progress of a sham fight on horseback 
 between two young men of the equestrian order, denoted 
 by the narrow crimson stripes on their tunics, who were 
 careering to and fro, armed with long staves and circular 
 bucklers, in all the swift and beautiful movements of the 
 mimic combat. 
 
 * The stylus was a pointed motallic pencil used for tracing letters on 
 the waxen surface of the tabi&.. 
 
82 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 Among those most interested in this spectacle, the eye 
 of Arvina fell instantly on the tall and gaunt form of Ca 
 tiline, who stood erect on one of the marble benches, ap 
 plauding with his hands, and now and then shouting a 
 word of encouragement to the combatants, as they wheeled 
 by him in the mazes of their half angry sport. .It was 
 not long, however, before their strife was brought to a 
 conclusion ; for, almost as the friends entered, the hind 
 most horseman of the two made a thrust at the other, 
 which taking effect merely on the lower rim of his anta 
 gonist s parma, glanced off* under his outstretched arm, 
 and made the striker, in a great measure, lose his balance. 
 As .quick as light, the other wheeled upon him, feinted a 
 pass at his breast with the point of the staff ; and then, as 
 he lowered his shield to guard himself, reversed the 
 weapon with a swift turn of the wrist, dealt him a heavy 
 blow with the trunchon on the head ; and then, while the 
 whole place rang with tumultuous plaudits, circled entire 
 ly round him to the left, and delivered his thrust with such 
 effect in the side, that it bore his competitor clear out of 
 the saddle. 
 
 "Euge! Euge ! well done," shouted Catiline in ecs 
 tasy ; " by Hercules ! I never saw in all my life better 
 skirmishing. It is all over with Titus Varus !" 
 
 And in truth it was all over with him ; but not in the 
 sense which the speaker meant : for, as he fell, the horses 
 came into collision, and it so happened that the charger 
 of the conqueror, excited by the fury of the contest, laid 
 hold of the other s neck with his teeth, and almost tore 
 away a piece of the muscular flesh at the very moment 
 when the rider s spur, as he fell, cut a long- gash in his 
 flank. 
 
 With a wild yelling neigh, the tortured brute yerked 
 out his heels viciously ; and, as ill luck would have it, both 
 took effect on the person of his fallen master, one striking 
 him a terrible blow on the chest, the other shattering his 
 collar bone and shoulder. 
 
 A dozen of the spectators sprang down from the seats 
 and took him up before Paullus could dismount to aid 
 him ; but, as they raised him from the ground, his eyes 
 were already glazing. 
 
 " Marcius has conquered me," he muttered in tones of 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 83 
 
 deep mortification, unconscious, as it would seem, of his 
 agony, and wounded only by the indomitable Roman 
 pride ; and with the words his jaw dropped, and his last 
 strife was ended. 
 
 " The fool !" exclaimed Cataline, with a bitter sneer; 
 " what had he got to do, that he should ride against Caius 
 Marcius, when he could not so much as keep his saddle, 
 the fool!" 
 
 " He is gone !" cried another ; " game to the last, brave 
 Varus!" 
 
 " He came of a brave race," said a third ; " but he rode 
 badly !" 
 
 " At least not so well as Marcius," replied yet a fourth ; 
 " but who does ] To be foiled by him does not argue bad 
 riding." 
 
 " Who does 1 why Paullus, here," cried Aurelius Vic 
 tor ; " I ll match him, if he will ride, for a thousand ses 
 terces ten thousand, if you will." 
 
 " No ! I ll not bet about it. I lost by this cursed chance," 
 answered the former speaker ; " but Varus did not ride 
 badly, I maintain it !" he added, with the steadiness of a 
 discomfited partisan. 
 
 " Ay ! but he did, most pestilently," interposed Cati 
 line, almost fiercely ; " but come, come, why don t they 
 carry him away ? we are losing all the morning." 
 
 " I thought he was a friend of yours, Sergius," said 
 another of the bystanders, apparently vexed at the heart- 
 lessness of his manner. 
 
 " Why, ay ! so he was," replied the conspirator ; " but 
 he is nothing now : nor can my friendship aught avail 
 him. It was his time and his fate ! ours, it may be, will 
 come to-morrow. Nor do I see at all wherefore our sports 
 should not proceed, because a man has gone hence. Fifty 
 men every day die somewhere, while we are dining, drink 
 ing, kissing our mistresses or wives ; but do we stop for 
 that 1 Ho ! bear him hence, we will attend his funeral, 
 when it shall be soever ; and we will drink to his memory 
 to-day. What comes next, comrades V 
 
 Arvina, it is true, was for a moment both shocked and 
 disgusted at the heartless and unfeeling tone ; but few if 
 any of the others evinced the like tenderness ; for it must 
 be remembered, in the first place, that the Romans, inured 
 
84 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 to sights of blood and torture daily in the gladiatorial fights 
 of the arena, were callous to human Buffering, and care 
 less of human life at all times ; and, in the second, that 
 Stoicism was the predominant affectation of the day, not 
 only among the rude and coarse, but among the best and 
 most virtuous citizens of the republic. Few, therefore, 
 left, the ground, when the corpse, decently enveloped in 
 the toga he had worn when living, was borne homewards ; 
 except the involuntary homicide, who could not even at 
 that day in decency remain, and a few of his most intimate 
 associates, who covering their faces in the lappets of their 
 gowns, followed the bearers in stern and silent sorrow. 
 
 Scarcely then had the sad procession threaded the marble 
 archway, before Catiline again asked loudly and imperi 
 ously, 
 
 " What is to be the next, I pray you 1 are we to sit 
 here like old women by their firesides, croaking and whim 
 pering till dinner time 1" 
 
 "No! by the gods," cried Amelius, " we have a race 
 to come off, which I propose to win. Fuscus Aristius here, 
 and I we will start instantly, if no one else has the 
 ground." 
 
 " Away with you then," answered the other; "come 
 sit by me, Arvina, I would say a word with you." 
 
 Giving his horse to one of his grooms, the young man 
 followed him without answer ; for although it is true that 
 Catiline was at this time a marked man and of no favor 
 able reputation, yet squeamishness in the choice of asso 
 ciates was never a characteristic of the Romans ; and per 
 sons, the known perpetrators of the most atrocious crimes, 
 so long as they were uhconvicted, mingled on terms of 
 equality, unshunned by any, except the gravest and most 
 rigid censors. Arvina, too, was very young; and very 
 young men are often fascinated, as it were, by great repu 
 tations, even of great criminals, with a passionate desire 
 to see them more closely, and observe the stuff they are 
 made of. So that, in fact, Catiline being looked upon in 
 those days much as a desperate gambler, a celebrated 
 duellist, or a famous seducer of our own time, whom no 
 one shuns though every one abuses, it was not perhaps 
 very wonderful if this rash, ardent, and inexperienced 
 youth should have conceived himself flattered by such 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 85 
 
 notice, from one of whom all the world was talking; and 
 should have followed him to a seat with a sense of grati 
 fied vanity, blended with eager curiosity. 
 
 The race, which followed, differed not much from any 
 other race ; except that th6 riders having no stirrups, 
 that being a yet undiscovered luxury, much less depend 
 ed upon jockeyship the skill of the riders being limited 
 to keeping their seats steadily and guiding the animals 
 they bestrode and much more upon the native powers, 
 the speed and endurance of the coursers. 
 
 So much, however, was Arvina interested by the man 
 ner and conversation of the singular man by whose side 
 he sat, and who was indeed laying himself out with deep 
 art to captivate him, arid take his mind, as it were, by 
 storm, how with the boldest and most daring paradoxes ; 
 now with bursts of eloquent invective against the oppres 
 sion and aristocratic insolence of the cabal, which by his 
 shewing governed Rome ; and now with sarcasm and pun 
 gent wit, that he saw but little of the course, which he had 
 come especially to look at. 
 
 " Do you indeed ride so well, my Paullus 1" asked his 
 companion suddenly, as if the thought had been suggested 
 by some observation he had just made on the competitors, 
 as they passed in the second circuit. " So well, I mean, 
 as Aurelius Victor said ; and would you undertake the 
 combat of the horse and spear with Caius Marcius V 
 
 " Truly I would," said Arvina, blushing slightly ; " I 
 have interchanged many a blow and thrust with young 
 Varro, whom our master-at-arms holds better with the 
 pear than Marcius; and I feel myself his equal. I have 
 oeen practising a good deal of late," he added modestly ; 
 -" for, though perhaps you know it not, I have been elected 
 decurw :* and, as first chosen, leader of a troop, and am 
 to take the field with the next reinforcements that go out 
 to Poritus to our great Pompey." 
 
 " The next reinforcements," replied Catiline with a 
 meditative air : " ha ! that may be some time distant." 
 
 "Not so, by Jupiter! my Sergius ; we are already 
 
 * The cavalry attached to every legion, consisting of three hundred 
 men, was divided into ten troops. Surma; of thirty each, which were subdi 
 vided into decurise of ten, commanded by a decurio, the first elected of 
 whom was called dux turma. and led the troop. 
 
 8 
 
86 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ordered to hold ourselves in readiness to march for Brun- 
 dusium, where we shall ship for Pontus. I fancy we 
 shall set forth as soon as the consular comitia have been 
 neld." 
 
 " It may be so," said the other ; " but I do not think it. 
 There may fall out that which shall rather summon Pom- 
 pey homeward, than send more men to join him. That 
 is a very handsome dagger," he broke off, interrupting 
 himself suddenly " where did you get it ? I should like 
 much to get me such an one to give to my friend Cethe- 
 gus, who has a taste for such things. I wonder, however, 
 at your wearing it so openly." 
 
 Taken completely by surprise, Arvina answered hastily, 
 " I found it last night ; and I wear it, hoping to find the 
 owner." 
 
 "By Hercules!" said the conspirator laughing; "I 
 would not take so much pains, were I you. But, do you 
 hear, I have partly a mind myself to claim it." 
 
 " No ! you were better not," said Paullus, gravely ; 
 " besides, you can get one just like this, without risking 
 any thing. Volero, the cutler, in the Sacred Way, near 
 Vesta s temple, has one precisely like to this for sale. 
 He made this too, he tells me ; though he will not tell me 
 to whom he sold it ; but that shall soon be got out of him, 
 notwithstanding." 
 
 " Ha ! are you so anxious in the matter ? it would 
 oblige you, then, if I should confess myself the loser ! 
 Well, I don t want to buy another ; I want this very one. 
 1 believe I must claim it." 
 
 He spoke with an emphasis so singular; impressive, and 
 at the same time half-derisive, and with so strangely-mean 
 ing an expression, that Paullus indeed scarcely knew what 
 to think ; but, in the mean time, he had recovered his own 
 self-possession, and merely answered 
 
 " I think you had better not ; it would perhaps be 
 dangerous !" 
 
 " Dangerous 1 Ha ! that is another motive. I love 
 danger ! verily, I believe I must ; yes ! I must claim it." 
 
 "What!" exclaimed Paullus, turning pale from ex 
 citement ; " Is it yours ? Do you say that it is yours ?" 
 
 "Look! look!" exclaimed Catiline, springing to his 
 feet; " here they come, here they come now; this is the last 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 87 
 
 round. By the gods ! but they are gallant horses, and 
 well matched ! See how the bay courser stretches himself, 
 and how quickly he gathers ! The bay ! the bay has it for 
 five hundred sesterces !" 
 
 " I wager you," said a dissolute-looking long-haired 
 youth ; " I wager you five hundred, Catiline. I say the 
 gray horse wins." 
 
 " Be it so, then," shouted Catiline ; " the bay, the bay ! 
 spur, spur, Aristius Fuscus, Aurelius gains on you ; spur, 
 spur!" 
 
 " The gray, the gray ! There is not a horse in Rome can 
 touch Aurelius Victor s gray South-wind !" replied the 
 other. 
 
 And in truth, Victor s Gallic courser repaid his master s 
 vaunts ; for he made, though he had seemed beat, so des 
 perate a rally, that he rushed past the bay Arab almost at 
 the goal, and won by a clear length amidst the roars of 
 the glad spectators. 
 
 " I have lost, plague on it !" exclaimed Catiline ; " and 
 here is Clodius expects to be paid on the instant, I ll be 
 sworn." 
 
 And as he spoke, the debauchee with whom he had 
 betted came up, holding his left hand extended, tapping 
 its palm with the forefinger of the right. 
 
 " I told you so," he said, " I told you so ; where be the 
 sesterces ]" 
 
 " You must needs wait a while ; I have not my purse 
 with me," Catiline began. But Paullus interrupted him 
 
 " I have, I have, my Sergius ; permit me to accommo 
 date you." And suiting the action to the word, he gave 
 the conspirator several large gold coins, adding, " you can 
 repay me when it suits you." 
 
 " That will be never," said Clodius with a sneer; " you 
 don t know Lucius Catiline; I see, young man." 
 
 " Ay, but he does !" replied the other, with a sarcastic 
 grin; " for Catiline never forgets a friend, or forgives a 
 foe. Can Clodius say the same 
 
 But Clodius merely smiled, and walked off, clinking the 
 money he had won tauntingly in his hand. 
 
 " What now, I wonder, is the day destined to bring 
 forth V 1 said the conspirator, making no more allusion to 
 the dagger. 
 
THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " A contest now between myself, Aristius, and Aure- 
 lius, in the five" games of the quinqucrtium, and then afoot 
 race in the heaviest panoply." 
 
 " Ha ! can you beat them ]" asked Catiline, regarding 
 Arvina with an interest that grew every moment keener, 
 as he saw more of his strength and daring spirit. 
 
 " I can try." 
 
 " Shall I bet on you ?" 
 
 " If you please. I can beat them in some, I think ; and, 
 as I said, I will try in all." 
 
 More words followed, for Paullus hastened away to 
 strip and anoint himself for the coming struggle ; and in 
 a little while the strife itself succeeded. 
 
 To describe this would be tedious ; but suffice it, thai- 
 while he won decidedly three games of the five, Paulina 
 was beat in none ; and that in the armed foot race, the 
 most toilsome and arduous exercise of the Campus, he 
 not only beat his competitors with ease ; but ran the 
 longest course, carrying the most ponderous armature and 
 shield, in shorter time than had been performed within 
 many years on the Field of Mars. 
 
 Catiline watched him eagerly all the while, inspecting 
 him as a purchaser would a horse he was about to buy ; 
 and then, muttering to himself, "We must have him!" 
 walked up to join him as he finished the last exploit. 
 
 " Will you dine with me, Paullus," he said, " to-day, 
 and meet the loveliest women you can see in Rome, and 
 no prudes either 1" 
 
 " Willingly," he replied; " but I must swim first in the 
 Tiber !" 
 
 " Be it so, there is time enough ; 1 will swim also." 
 And they moved down in company toward the river. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FALSE LOVE. 
 
 Fie, fie, upon her ; 
 
 There s a language in her eye, her cheek, her lip ; 
 Nay, her foot speaks, her wanton spirits look out 
 At every joint and motive of her body. 
 
 AND CRESSIDA, 
 
 ABOUT three hours later than the scene in the Campus 
 Martius, which had occurred a little after noon, Catiline 
 was standing ricnTy dressed in a bright saffron* robe, some 
 thing longer than the ordinary tunic, flowered with sprigs 
 of purple, in the inmost chamber of the woman s apart 
 ments, in his own heavily mortgaged mansion. His wife, 
 Aurelia Orestilla, sat beside him on a low stool, a woman 
 of the most superb and queenly beauty for whom it was 
 believed that he had plunged himself into the deepest 
 guilt and still, although past the prime of Italian woman 
 hood, possessing charms that might well account for the 
 most insane passion. 
 
 A slave was listening with watchful and half terrified 
 attention to the injunctions of his lord for Catiline was an 
 unscrupulous and severe master and, as he ceased speak 
 ing, he made a deep genuflexion and retired. 
 
 No sooner had he gone than Catiline turned quickly to 
 the lady, whose lovely face wore some marks of displea 
 sure, and said rather shortly, 
 
 " You have not gone to her, my Aurelia. There is no 
 time to lose; the young man will be here soon, and if they 
 meet, ere you have given her the cue, all will be lo&t." 
 
 * The guests at Roman banquets usually brought their own napkins, 
 mappa, and wore robes of bright colors, usually flowered, called canatwice 
 or cubitoria. ^t 
 
90 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " I do not like it, my Sergius," said the woman, rising, 
 but making no movement to leave the chamber. 
 
 " And why not, I beseech you, madam ]" he replied 
 angrily ; " or what is there in that which I desire you to 
 tell the girl to do, that you have not done twenty times 
 yourself, and Fulvia, and Sempronia, and half Rome s no 
 blest ladies] Tush ! I say, tush ! go do it." 
 
 " She is my daughter, Sergius," answered Aurelia, in a 
 tone of deep tenderness ; "a daughter s honor must be 
 something to every mother !" 
 
 " And a son s life to every father !" said Catiline with 
 a fierce sneer. " I had a son once, I remember. You wish 
 ed to enter an * empty house on the day of your marriage 
 feast. I do not think you found him in your way ! Be 
 sides, for honor if I read Lucia s eyes rightly, there is not 
 much of that to emperil." 
 
 When he spoke of his son, she covered her face in her 
 richly jewelled hands, and a slight shudder shook her 
 whole frame. When she looked up again, she was pale 
 as death, and her lips quivered as she asked 
 
 " Must I, then 1 Oh ! be merciful, my Sergius." 
 
 "You must, Aurelia!" he replied sternly, " and that 
 now. Our fortunes, nay, our lives, depend on it !" 
 
 " All must she give all, Lucius 1" 
 
 " All that he asks ! But fear not, he shall wed her, when 
 our plans shall be crowned with triumph T 
 
 " Will you swear it 1" 
 
 " By all the Gods ! he shall ! by all the Furies, if you 
 will, by Earth, and Heaven, and Hades !" 
 
 " I will go," she replied, something reassured, " and 
 prepare her for the task !" 
 
 "The task!" he muttered with his habitual sneer. 
 " Daintily worded, fair one; but it will not, I fancy, prove 
 a hard one ; Paullus is young and handsome ; and our soft 
 Lucia has, methinks, something of her mother s yielding 
 tenderness. 
 
 " Do you reproach me with it, Sergius 1" 
 
 "Nay ! rather I adore thee for it, loveliest one ; but go 
 and prepare our Lucia." Then, as she left the room, the 
 dark scowl settled down on his black brow, and he clinch 
 ed his hand as he said 
 
 * Pro certo creditur, necato filio,vacam domuni scelestis nuptiis fecissc. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 
 
 " She waxes stubborn let her beware! She is not 
 half so young as she was ; and her beauty wanes as fast as 
 my passion for it ; let her beware how she crosses me !" 
 
 While he was speaking yet a slave entered, and an 
 nounced tljat Paullus Cjecilius Arvina had arrived, and 
 Curius, and the noble Fulvia ; and as he received the ti 
 dings the frown passed away from the brow of Mi t con 
 spirator, and putting on his mask of smooth, smiling dissi 
 mulation, he went forth to meet his guests. 
 
 They were assembled in the tablinum, or saloon, Arvina 
 clad in a violet colored tunic, sprinkled with flowers in 
 their natural hues, and Curius a slight keen-looking man, 
 with a wild, proud expression, giving a sort of interest to 
 a countenance haggard from the excitement of passion, in 
 one of rich crimson, fringed at the wrists and neck with 
 gold. Fulvia, his paramour, a woman famed throughout 
 Rome alike for her licentiousness and beauty, was hang 
 ing on his arm, glittering with chains and carcanets, and 
 bracelets of the costliest gems, in her fair bosom all too 
 much displayed for amatron s modesty; on her round daz 
 zling arms ; about her swan-like neck; wreathed in the pro 
 fuse tresses of her golden hair for she was that unusual 
 and much admired being, an Italian blonde and, span 
 ning the circumference of her slight waist. She was, indeed, 
 a creature exquisitely bright and lovely, with such an air of 
 mild and angelic candor pervading her whole face, that you 
 would have sworn her the most innocent, the purest of her 
 sex. Alas ! that she was indeed almost the vilest ! that she was 
 that rare monster, a woman, who, linked with every crime 
 and baseness that can almost unsex a woman, preserves 
 yet in its height, one eminent and noble virtue, one half- 
 redeeming trait amidst all her infamy, in her proud love or 
 country ! Name, honor, virtue, conscience, womanhood, 
 truth, piety, all, all, were sacrificed to her rebellious pas 
 sions. But to her love of country she could have sacrificed 
 those very passions ! That frail abandoned wretch was 
 still a Roman might have been in a purer age a heroine 
 of Rome s most glorious. 
 
 " Welcome, most lovely Fulvia," exclaimed the host, 
 gliding softly into the room. " By Mars ! the most favored 
 of immortals ! You must have stolen Aphrodite s cestus ! 
 Saw you her ever look so beautiful, my Paullus ] You 
 do well to put those sapphires in your hair, for they wax 
 
92 THE ROMAN TRAITOR J OR, THE 
 
 pale and dim besides the richer azure of your eyes ; and 
 the dull gold in which they are enchased sets off the spark 
 ling splendor of your tresses. What, Fulvia, know you 
 not young Arvina one of the great Caecilii 1 By Hercules ! 
 my Curius, he won the best of the quinquertium from 
 such competitors as Victor and Aristius Fuscus, and ran 
 twelve stadii, with the heaviest breast-plate and shield in 
 the armory, quicker than it has been performed since the 
 days of Licinius Celer. I prithee, know, and cherish him, 
 my friends, for I would have him one of us. In truth I 
 would, my Paullus." 
 
 The flattering words of the tempter, and the more fasci 
 nating smiles and glances of the bewitching siren, were 
 not thrown away on the young noble ; and these, with the 
 soft perfumed atmosphere, the splendidly voluptuous fur 
 niture of the saloon, and the delicious music, which was 
 floating all the while upon his ears from the blended in 
 struments and voices of unseen minstrels, conspired to 
 plunge his senses into a species of effeminate and luxuri 
 ous languor, which suited well the ulterior views of Cati 
 line. 
 
 " One thing alone has occurred," resumed the host, after 
 some moments spent in light jests and trivial conversa 
 tion, "to decrease our pleasure: Cethegus was to have 
 dined with us to-day, and Decius Brutus, with his inimi 
 table wife Semproriia. But they have disappointed us ; and, 
 save Aurelia only, and our poor little Lucia, there will be 
 none but ourselves to eat my Umbrian boar." 
 
 " Have you a boar, my Sergius 1" exclaimed Curius, 
 eagerly, who was addicted to the pleasures of the table, 
 almost as much as the charms of women. " By Pan, the 
 God of Hunters ! we are in luck to-day !" 
 
 " But wherefore comes not Sempronia ?" inquired 
 Fulvia, not very much displeased by the absence of a rival 
 beauty. 
 
 " Brutus is called away, it appears, suddenly to Taren- 
 tum upon business ; and she" 
 
 " Prefers entertaining our Cethegus, alone in her own 
 house, I fancy," interrupted Fulvia. 
 
 " Exactly so," replied Catiline, with a smile of mean 
 ing. 
 
 " Happy Cethegus," said Arvina. 
 
-r -, 
 DAYS OP CICERO, CATC AND CATALINE. 93 
 
 " Do you think her so handsome 1" asked Fulvia, favor 
 ing him with one of her most melting glances. 
 
 "The handsomest woman," he replied, " with-but one 
 exception, I ever had the luck to look upon." 
 
 " Indeed ! and pray, who is the exception]" asked the 
 lady, very tartly. 
 
 There happened to be lying on a marble slab, near to the 
 pluco where they were standing, a small round mirror of 
 highly polished steel, set in a frame of tortoiseshell and 
 gold. Paullus had noticed it before she spoke; and taking 
 it up without a moment s pause, he raised it to her face. 
 
 "Look!" he said, "look into that, and blush at your 
 question." 
 
 " Prettily said, my Paullus ; thy wit is as fleet as thy 
 foot is speedy," said the conspirator. 
 
 "Flatterer!" whispered the lady , evidently much de 
 lighted ; and then, in a lower voice she added, " Do you 
 indeed think so 1" 
 
 " Else may I never hope." 
 
 But at this moment the curtains were drawn aside, and 
 Orestilla entered from the gallery of the peristyle, accom 
 panied by her daughter Lucia. 
 
 The latter was a girl of about eighteen years old, and of 
 appearance so remarkable, that she must not be passed un 
 noticed. In person she was extremely tall and slender, 
 and at first sight you would have supposed her thin ; until 
 the wavy outlines of the loose robe of plain white linen 
 which she wore, undulating at every movement of her 
 form, displayed the exquisite fulness of her swelling bust, 
 and the voluptuous roundness of all her lower limbs. 
 Her arms, which were bare to the shoulder^, where her 
 gown was fastened by two studs of gold, were quite una 
 dorned, by any gem or bracelet, and although beautifully 
 moulded, were rather slender than full. 
 
 Her face did not at first sight strike you more than her 
 person, as being beautiful ; for it was singularly still and 
 inexpressive when at rest although all the features were 
 fine and classically regular and was almost unnaturally 
 pale and hueless. The mouth only, had any thing of 
 warmth, or color, or expression ; and what expression there 
 was, was not pleasing, for although soft and winning, it 
 was sensual to the last degree. 
 
94 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 Her manner, however, contradicted this ; for she slided 
 into the circle, with downcast eyes, the long dark silky 
 lashes only visible in relief against the marble paleness of 
 her cheek, as if she were ashamed to raise them from the 
 ground ; her whole air being that of a girl oppressed with 
 vervvhelming bashfulness, to an extent almost painful. 
 
 " Why, what is this, Aurelia," exclaimed Catiline, as if 
 he were angry, although in truth the whole thing was 
 carefully preconcerted. " Wherefore is Lucia thus strange 
 ly clad? Is it, I pray you, in scorn of our noble guests, 
 that she wears only this plain morning stolaT 
 
 " Pardon her, I beseech you, good my Sergius," an 
 swered his wife, with a painfully simulated smile ; " you 
 know how over-timid she is and bashful ; she had Jeter- 
 mined not to appear at dinner, had I not laid my com 
 mands on her. Her very hair, you see, is not braided." 
 
 "Ha! this is ill done, my girl Lucia," answered Cati 
 line. " What will my young friend, Arvina, think of you, 
 who comes hither to-day, for the first time 1 For Curius 
 and our lovely Fulvia, I care not so much, seeing they 
 know your whims ; but I am vexed, indeed, that Paullus 
 should behold you thus in disarray, with your hair thus 
 knotted like a slave girl s, on your neck." 
 
 " Like a Dryad s, rather, or shy Oread s of Diana s 
 train beautiful hair !" replied the youth, whose attention 
 had been called to the girl by this conversation ; and who, 
 having thought her at first unattractive rather than other 
 wise, had now discovered the rare beauties of her lythe 
 and slender figure, and detected, as he thought, a world 
 of passion in her serpent-like and sinuous motions. 
 
 She raised her eyes to meet his slowly, as he spoke ; 
 gazed into them for one moment, and then, as if ashamed 
 of what she had done, dropped them again instantly; while 
 a bright crimson flush shot like a stream of lava over her 
 pallid face, and neck, and arms; yes, her arms blushed, 
 and her hands to the finger ends ! It was but one moment, 
 that those large lustrous orbs looked full into his, swim 
 ming in liquid Oiiental languor, yet flashing out beams of 
 consuming fire. 
 
 Yet Paullus Arvina felt the glance, like an electrical 
 influence, through every nerve and artery of his body, and 
 trembled at its power. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 95 
 
 it was a mmute before he could collect himself enough 
 to speak to her, for all the rest had moved away a little, 
 and left them standing together ; and when he did so, 
 his voice faltered, and his manner was so much agitated, 
 that she must have been blind, indeed, and stupid, riot to 
 perceive it. 
 
 And -Lucia was not blind nor stupid. No ! by the God 
 of Love! an universe of wild imaginative intellect, an 
 ocean of strange whirling thoughts, an Etna of fierce and 
 fiery passions, lay buried beneath that calm, bashful, al 
 most awkward manner. Many bad thoughts were there, 
 many unmaidenly imaginings, many ungoverned and most 
 evil passions ; but there was also much that was partly 
 good ; much that might have been all good, and high and 
 noble, had it been properly directed ; but alas! as much 
 pains had been taken to corrupt and deprave that youth 
 ful understanding, and to inflame those nascent passions, 
 as are devoted by good parents to developing the former, 
 and repressing the growth of the latter. 
 
 As it was, self indulged, and indulged by others, she 
 was a creature of impulse entirely, ill regulated and un 
 governable. 
 
 Intended from the first to be a tool in his own hands, 
 whenever he might think fit to use her, she had in no case 
 hitherto run counter to the views of Catiline ; because, so 
 long as his schemes were agreeable to her inclinations, 
 and favorable to her pleasures, she was quite willing to 
 be his tool ; though by no means unconscious of the fact 
 that he meant her to be such. 
 
 What might be the result should his wishes cross her 
 own, the arch conspirator had never given himself the 
 pains to enquire ; for, like the greater part of voluptu 
 aries, regarding women as mere animals, vastly inferior in 
 mind and intellect to men, he had entirely overlooked her 
 mental qualifications, and fancied her a being of as small 
 moral capacity, as he knew her to be of strong physical 
 organization. % 
 
 He was mistaken ; as wise men often are, and deeply, 
 perhaps fatally. 
 
 There was not probably a girl in all Italy, in all the 
 world, who would so implicitly have followed his direc 
 tions, as long as to do so gratified her passions, and clash- 
 
90 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ed not \vith her indomitable will, to the sacrifiee of all 
 principle, and with the most total disregard of right or 
 wrong, as Lucia Orestilla; but certainly there was riot 
 one, who would have resisted commands, threats, vio 
 lence, more pertinaciously or dauntlessly, than the same* 
 Lucia, should her will and his councils ever be set at twain. 
 
 While Paullus was yet conversing in an under tone with 
 this strange girl, and -becoming every moment more and 
 more fascinated by the whole tone of her remarks, which 
 were free, and even bold, as contrasted with the bashful 
 air and timid glances which accompanied them, the cur 
 tains of the Tablinum were drawn apart, and a soft sym 
 phony of flutes stealing in from the atrium, announced 
 that the dinner was prepared. 
 
 " My Curius," exclaimed Catiline, "I must entreat you 
 take r^uriM of Fulvia; I hsid 
 
 to take r^uriM of Fulvia; I hsid proposed myself that 
 pleasure, intending that you should escort Sempmnia, 
 and Decius my own Orrslillu; but, as it is, we will 
 rurh abide by his own lady; and Paullus here will par 
 don the youth and rawness of my Lucia." 
 
 " By heaven ! I would wish nothing better," said Curi 
 us, taking Fulvia by the hand, and leading her forward. 
 "Should you Arvina?" 
 
 " Not I, indeed," replied Paullus, " if Lucia be con 
 tent." And he looked to catch her eye, as he took her soft 
 hand in his own, but her face remajued cold and pale as 
 marble, and her eye downcast. 
 
 As they passed out, however, into the fauces, or passage 
 leading to the dining-room, Catiline added, 
 
 " As we are all, I may say, one family and party, I have 
 desired the slaves to spread couches only ; the ladies will 
 recline with us, instead of sitting at the board." 
 
 At this moment, did Paullus fancy it ] or did that beau 
 tiful pale girl indeed press his fingers in her own ] he 
 could not be mistaken ; and yet there was the downcast 
 eye, the immoveable cheek, and the unsmiling aspect of 
 the rosy mouth. But he returne^ the pressure, and that so 
 significantly, that she at least could not be mistaken ; nor 
 was she, for her eye again met his, with that deep amorous 
 Vvnguid glance ; was bashfully withdrawn ; and then met 
 his again, glancing askance through the dark fringed lids, 
 and a quick flashing smile, and a burning blush follow- 
 
DAYS OF CICERO. CATO AND CATALINE. 97 
 
 ed ; and in a second s space she was again as cold, as im 
 passive as a marble statue. 
 
 They reached the triclinium, a beautiful oblong apart 
 ment, gorgeously painted with arabesques of gold and 
 scarlet upon a deep azure ground work. A circular table, 
 covered with a white cloth, bordered with a deep edge of 
 purple and deeper fringe of gold, stood in the centre, and 
 around it three couches, nearly of the same height with 
 the board, each the segment of a circle, the three forming 
 a horse-shoe. 
 
 The couches were of the finest rosewood, inlaid with 
 tortoiseshell and ivory and brass, strewed with the richest 
 tapestries, and piled with cushions glowing with splendid 
 needlework. And over all, upheld by richly moulded 
 shafts of Corinthian bronze, was a canopy of Tyrian pur 
 ple, tasselled and fringed with gold. 
 
 The method of reclining at the table was, that the guests 
 should place themselves on the left side, propped partly 
 by the left elbow and partly by a pile of cushions ; each 
 couch being made to contain in general three persons, the 
 head of the second coming immediately below the right 
 arm of the first, and the third in like manner ; the body of 
 each being placed transversely, so as to allow space for 
 the limbs of the next below in front of him. 
 
 The middle place on each couch was esteemed the most 
 honorable ; and the middle couch of the three was that as 
 signed to guests of the highest rank, the master of the 
 feast, for the most, occurjying the central position on the 
 third or left hand sofa. The slaves stood round the outer 
 circuit of the whole, with the cupbearers ; but the carver, 
 and steward, if he might so be termed, occupied that side 
 of the table which was left open to their attendance. 
 
 On this occasion, there being but six guests in all, each 
 gentleman assisted the lady under his charge to recline, 
 with her head comfortably elevated, near the centre of 
 the couch; and then took his station behind her, so that, if 
 she leaned back, her head, would rest on his bosom, while 
 he was enabled himself to reach the table, and help himself 
 or his fair partner, as need might be, to the delicacies of 
 fered in succession. 
 
 Curius and Fulvia, he as of senatorial rank, and she as 
 a noble matron, occupied the highest places ; Paullus and 
 9 
 
98 THE ROMAN TRAITOR J OR, THE 
 
 Lucia reclined on the right hand couch, and Catiline with 
 Orestilla in his bosom, as the phrase ran, on the left. 
 
 No sooner were they all placed, and the due libation 
 made of wine, with an offering of salt, to the domestic 
 Gods a silver group of statues occupying the centre of 
 the board, where we should now place the plateau and 
 epergne, than a louder burst of music ushered in three 
 beautiful female slaves, in succinct tunics, like that seen 
 in the sculptures of Diana, with half the bosom bare, 
 dancing and singing, and carrying garlands in their hands 
 of roses and myrtle, woven with strips of the philyra, 
 or inner bark of the linden tree, which was believed to be 
 a specific against intoxication. Circling around the board, 
 in time to the soft music, they crowned each of the guests, 
 and sprinkled with rich perfumes the garments and the hair 
 of each ; and then with more animated and eccentric ges 
 tures, as the note of the flute waxed shriller and more 
 piercing, they bounded from the banquet hall, and were 
 succeeded by six boys with silver basins, full of tepid wa 
 ter perfumed with costly essences, and soft embroidered 
 napkins, which they handed to every banqueter to wash 
 the hands before eating. 
 
 This done, the music died away into a low faint close, 
 and was silent; and in the hush that followed, an aged 
 slave bore round a mighty flask of Chian wine, diluted 
 with snow water, and replenished the goblets of stained 
 glass, which stood beside each guest ; while another dis 
 pensed bread from a lordly basket of wrought gilded scroll 
 work. 
 
 And now the feast commenced, in earnest; as the first 
 course, consisting of fresh eggs boiled hard, with lettuce, 
 radishes, endive and rockets, olives of Venafrum, ancho 
 vies and sardines, and the choicest luxury of the day hot 
 sausages served upon gridirons of silver, with the rich 
 gravy dripping through the bars upon a sauce of Syrian 
 prunes and pomegranate berries was placed upon the 
 board. 
 
 For a time there was little conversation beyond the or 
 dinary courtesies of the table, and such trifling jests as 
 were suggested by occurrences of the moment. Yet still in 
 the few words that passed from time to time, Paullus 
 continued often to convey his sentiments to Lucia in words 
 
DATS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 99 
 
 of double meaning ; keenly marked, it is true, but seeming 
 ly unobserved by the wily plotter opposite ; and more than 
 once in handing her the goblet, or loading her plate with 
 dainties, he took an opportunity again and again of press 
 ing her not unwilling hand. And still at every pressure he 
 caught that soft momentary glance, was it of love and 
 passion, or of mere coquetry and girlish wantonness, suc 
 ceeded by the fleeting blush pervading face, neck, arms, 
 and bosom. 
 
 Never had Paullus been so wildly fascinated ; his heart 
 throbbed and bounded as if it would have burst his 
 breart ; his head swam with a sort of pleasurable dizzi 
 ness ; his eyes were dim and suffused ; and he scarce 
 knew that he was talking, though he was indeed the life 
 of the whole company, voluble, witty, versatile, and at 
 times eloquent, so far as the topics of the day gave room 
 for eloquence. 
 
 And now, to the melody of Lydian lutes, two slaves in 
 troduced a huge silver dish, loaded by the vast brawn of 
 the Umbrian boar, garnished with leaves of chervil, and 
 floating in a rich sauce of anchovies, the dregs of Coan 
 wine, white pepper, vinegar, and olives. The car^r bran 
 dished his knife in graceful and fantastic gestures, proud 
 of his honorable task ; and as he plunged it into the savory 
 meat, and the delicious savor rushed up to his nostrils, he 
 laid down the blade, spread out his hands in an ecstacy, 
 and cried aloud, " ye Gods, how glorious !" 
 
 "Excellent well, my Glycon," cried Curius, delighted 
 with the expressive pantomine of the well skilled Greek j 
 " smells it so savory ?" , 
 
 " I have carvedraany a boar from Lucania and from 
 Umbria also; to say nothing of those from the Laurentian 
 marshes, which are bad, seeing that they are fed on reeds 
 only and marsh grass ; most noble Curius; and never put 
 I knife into such an one as this. There are two inches on 
 it of pure fat, softer than marrow. He was fed upon holm 
 acorns, I ll be sworn, and sweet chesnuts, and caught in a 
 mild south wind !" 
 
 " Fewer words, you -scoundrel," exclaimed Catiline, 
 laughing at the fellow s volubility, " and quicker carving, 
 if you wish not to visit the pistrinum. You have set Curius 
 mouth watering, so that he will be sped with longing, be- 
 
100 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THB 
 
 fore you have helped Fulvia and your mistress. Fill up. 
 you knaves, fill up ; nay ! not the Chian now ; the Faler- 
 nian from the Faustian hills, or the Csecuban 1 Which 
 shall it be, my Curius ]" 
 
 " The Caecuban, by all the Gods ! I hold it the best vin 
 tage ever, and yours is curious. Besides, the Falerrrian is 
 too dry to drink before the meat. Afterward, if, as Glycon 
 says, the boar hath a flavor of the south, it will be excel 
 lent, indeed." 
 
 " Are as you as constant, Paullus, in your love for the 
 boar, as these other epicures ?" cried Fulvia, who, de 
 spite the depreciating tone in which she spoke, had sent 
 her own plate for a second slice. 
 
 " No! by the Gods! Fulvia," he replied, " I am but a 
 sorry epicure, and I love the boar better in his reedy fen, 
 or his wild thicket on the Umbrian hills, with his eye gla 
 ring red m rage, and his tusks white with foam, than girt 
 with condiments and spices upon a golden dish." 
 
 "A strange taste," said Curius, " I had for my part rather 
 meet ten on the dining table, than one in the oak woods." 
 
 " Commend me to the boar upon the table likewise," 
 said Cafiline ; " still, with my friend Arvina at my side, 
 and a good boarspear in my hand, I would like well to 
 bide the charge of a tusker ! It is rare sport, by Hercu 
 les S" 
 
 " Wonderful beings you men are," said Fulvia, mincing 
 her words affectedly, "ever in search of danger ; ever on 
 the alert to kill ; to shed blood, even if it be your own ! by 
 Juno, I cannot comprehend it." 
 
 " I can, I can," cried Lucia, raising her voice for the 
 first time, so that it could be heard by any others than her 
 nearest neighbor ; "right well can 1 comprehend it ; were 
 I a man myself, I feel that I should pant for the battle. 
 The triumph would be more than rapture ; and strife, 
 for its own sake, maddening bliss ! Heavens ! to see the 
 gladiators wheel and charge ; to see their swords flash in 
 the sun ; and the red blood gush out unheeded ; and the 
 grim faces flushed and furious ; and the eyes greedily de 
 vouring the wounds of the foeman, but all unconscious of 
 their own; and the play of the muscular strong limbs ; and 
 the terrible death grapple ! And then the dull hissing sound 
 of the death stroke ; and the voiceless parting of the bold 
 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 101 
 
 spirit! Ye Gods! ye Gods ! it is a joy, to live, and almost 
 to die for !" 
 
 Paullus Arvina looked at her in speechless wonder. The 
 eyes so wavering and downcast were now fixed, and stea 
 dy, and burning with a passionate clear light ; there was 
 a fiery flush on her cheek, not brief and evanescent ; her 
 ripe red mouth was half open, shewing the snow white 
 teeth biting the lower lip in the excitement of her feel 
 ings. Her whole form seemed to be dilated and more 
 majestic than its wont. 
 
 "Bravo! my girl; well said, my quiet Lucia!" ex 
 claimed Catiline. "I knew not that she had so much of 
 mettle in her." 
 
 " You must have thought, then, that I belied my race," 
 replied the girl, unblushingly ; " for it is whispered that 
 you are my father, and I think you have looked on blood, 
 and shed it before now !" 
 
 " Boar s blood, ha ! Lucia ; but you are blunt and brave 
 to-night. Is it that Paullus has inspired you V 
 
 " Nay ! I know not," she replied, half apathetically ; 
 " but I do know, that if I ever love, it shall be a hero ; a 
 man that would rather lie in wait until dawn to receive 
 the fierce boar rushing from the brake upon his spear, 
 than until midnight to enfold a silly girl in his embrace." 
 
 " Then will you never love me, Lucia," answered 
 Curius. 
 
 " Never, indeed !" said she ; " it must be a man whom 
 I will love; and there is nothing manly about thee, save 
 thy vices !" 
 
 " It is for those that most people love me," replied Cu 
 rius, nothing disconcerted. " Now Cato has nothing of 
 the man about him but the virtues ; and I should like to 
 know who ever thought of loving Cato." 
 
 " I never heard of anybody loving Cato," said Fulvia, 
 quietly. 
 
 " But I have," answered the girl, almost fiercely ; 
 " none of you love him ; nor do I love him ; because he is 
 too high and noble, to be dishonored by the love of such as 
 I am ; but all the good, and great, and generous, do love 
 him, and will love his memory for countless ages ! I would 
 to God, I could love him!" 
 
 " What fury has possessed her 1 ?" whispered Catiline 
 
102 THE EOMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 to Orestilla ; " what ails her to talk thus 1 first to pro 
 claim herself my daughter, and now to praise Cato 1" 
 
 "Do not ask me!" replied Aurelia in the same tone; 
 * she was a strange girl ever ; and I cannot say, if she likes 
 this task that you have put upon her." 
 
 "More wine, ho ! bring more wine ! Drink we each 
 man to his mistress, each lady to her lover in secrecy and 
 silence !" cried the master of the revel. " Fill up ! fill up ! 
 let it be pure, and sparkling to the brim." 
 
 But Fulvia, irritated a little by what had passed, would 
 not be silent; although she saw that Catiline was annoy 
 ed at the character the conversation had assumed, and ere 
 the slave had filled up the beakers she addressed Lucia 
 
 " And wherefore, dearest, would you love Cato ] I 
 could as soon love the statue of Accius Ncevius, with his 
 long beard, on the steps of the Comitium ; he were scarce 
 colder, or less comely than your Cato." 
 
 "Because to love virtue is still something, if we be vi 
 cious even ; and, if I am not virtuous myself, at least I 
 have not lost the sense that it were good to be so !" 
 
 " I never knew that you were not virtuous, my Lucia," 
 interposed her mother ; " affectionate and pious you have 
 ever been." 
 
 "And obedient!" added Catiline, with strong empha 
 sis. " Your mother, my Lucia, and myself, return thanks 
 to the Gods daily forgiving us so good a child." 
 
 " Do you 1" replied the girl, scornfully ; " the Gods must 
 have merry times, then, for that must needs make them 
 laugh ! But good or bad, I respect the great ; and, if I 
 ever love, it will be, as I said, a great and a good man." 
 
 "I fear you will never love me, Lucia," whispered Paul- 
 lus in her ear, unheard amid the clash of knives and flagons, 
 and the pealing of a fresh strain of music, which ushered 
 in the king of fish, the grand conger, garnished with prawns 
 and soused in pungent sauce. 
 
 " Wherefore not]" she replied, meeting his eye with a 
 furtive sidelong glance. 
 
 " Because I, for one, had rather watch till midnight fifty 
 times, in the hope only of clasping Lucia, once, in my 
 embrace ; than once until dawn, to kill fifty boars of 
 CJmbria." 
 
 She made no answer ; but looked up into his face as if 
 
DAYS Or CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 103 
 
 to see whether he was in earnest, with an affectionate and 
 pleading glance ; and then pressed her unsandalled foot 
 against his. A moment or two afterward, he perceived 
 the efhbroidered table cover had been drawn up, with the 
 intent of protecting her dress from the sauces of the fish 
 which she was eating, in such a manner as to conceal the 
 greater part of her person. 
 
 Observing this, and excited beyond all restraint of ordi 
 nary prudence, by the consciousness of her manner, he 
 profited by the chance to steal his arm about her waist ; 
 and to his surprise, almost as much as his delight, he felt 
 his hand clasped instantly in hers, and pressed upon her 
 throbbing heart. 
 
 The blood gushed like molten fire through his veins. 
 The fascinations of the siren had prevailed. The voice of 
 the charmer had been heard, charming him but too wise 
 ly. And for the moment, fool that he was, he fancied he 
 loved Lucia, and his own pure and innocent and lovely 
 Julia was forgotten ! Forgotten, and for whom ! 
 
 Catiline had not lost one word, one movement of the 
 young couple ; and he perceived, that, although there was 
 clearly something at work in the girl s bosom which he 
 did not comprehend, she had at least obeyed his com 
 mands in captivating Paullus; and he now doubted not but 
 she would persevere, from vanity or passion, and bind him 
 down a fettered captive to her will. 
 
 Determined to lose nothing by want of exertion, the 
 traitor circulated now the fiery goblet as fast as possible, 
 till every brain was heated more or less, and every cheek 
 flushed, even of the women, by the inspiring influence of 
 the wine cup. 
 
 All dainties that were known in those days ministered 
 to his feast ; oysters from Baiae ; pheasants a rarity but 
 lately introduced, since Pompey s conquests in the east 
 had been brought all the way from Phasis upon the south 
 ern shores of the Black Sea ; and woodcock from the val 
 leys of Ionia, and the watery plains of Troas, to load the 
 tables of the luxurious masters of the world. Livers of 
 geese, forced to an unnatural size by cramming the un 
 happy bird with figs ; and turbot fricasseed in cream, and 
 peacocks stuffed with truffles, were on the board of Cati 
 line that day, as on the boards of many another noble 
 
104 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 Roman ; and the wines by which these rare dainties were 
 diluted, differed but little, as wisest critics say, from the 
 madeiras and the sherries of the nineteenth century. For 
 so true is it, that under the sun there is nothing new*, that 
 in \hefoix gras of Strasburg, in the turbot a la creme, and 
 in the dindons aux truffles of the French metropolis, the 
 gastronomes of modern days have only reproduced the 
 dishes, whereon Lucullus and Hortensius feasted before 
 the Christian era. 
 
 The day passed pleasantly to all, but to Paullus Arvina 
 it flew like a dream, like a delirious trance, from which, 
 could he have consulted his own will, he would never have 
 awakened. 
 
 With the dessert, and the wine cup, the myrtle branch 
 and the lute went round, and songs were warbled by sweet 
 voices, full of seductive thoughts and words of passion. At 
 length the lamps were lighted, and the women arose to quit 
 the hall, leaving the ruder sex to prolong the revel ; but 
 as Lucia rose, she again pressed the fingers of Arvina, and 
 whispered a request that he would see her once more ere 
 he left the house. 
 
 He promised ; but as he did so, his heart sank within 
 him ; for dearly as he wished it, he believed he had pro 
 mised that which would prove impossible. 
 
 But in a little while, chance, as he thought it, favored 
 him ; for seeing that he refused the wine cup, Catiline, 
 after rallying him some time, good humoredly said with a 
 laugh, " Come, my Arvina, we must not be too hard on 
 you. You have but a young head, though a stout one. 
 Curius and I are old veterans of the camp, old revellers, 
 and love the wine cup better than the bright eyes of beauty, 
 or the minstrel s lute. Thou, I will swear it, wouldst 
 rather now be listening to Lucia s lyre, and may be finger 
 ing it thyself, than drinking with us roisterers ! Come, 
 never blush, boy,. s we were all young once ! Confess, if I 
 am right ! The women you will find, if you choose to seek 
 them, in the third chamber on the left, beyond the inner 
 peristyle. We all love freedom here ; nor are we rigid 
 censors. Curius and I will drain a flagon or two more, 
 and then join you." 
 
 Muttering something not very comprehensible about his 
 exertions in the morning, and his inability to drink any 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 105 
 
 more, Paullus arose, delighted to effect his escape on terms 
 so easy, and left the triclinium immediately in quest of his 
 mistress. 
 
 As he went out, Catiline burst into one of his sneering 
 laughs, and exclaimed, " He is in ; by Pan, the hunter s 
 God ! he is in the death-toil already ! May I perish ill, if 
 he escape it." 
 
 " Why, in the name of all the Gods, do you take so 
 much pains with him," said Curius ; " he is a stout fellow, 
 and I dare say a brave one ; and will make a good legion 
 ary, or an officer perhaps ; but he is raw, and a fool to 
 boot !" 
 
 " Raw, but no fool ! I can assure you," answered Cati 
 line ; " no more a fool than I am. And we must have him, 
 he is necessary !" 
 
 " He will be necessary soon to that girl of yours ; she 
 has gone mad, I think, for love of him. I never did be 
 lieve in philtres ; but this is well nigh enough to make one 
 do so." 
 
 " Pshaw !" answered Catiline ; " it is thou that art raw 
 now, and a fool, Curius. She is no more in love with 
 him than thou art; it was all acting right good acting: 
 for it did once well nigh deceive me who devised it ; but 
 still, only acting. I ordered her to win him at all hazards." 
 
 " At all hazards V 
 
 "Aye! at all." 
 
 " I wish you would give her the like orders touching 
 me, if she obey so readily." 
 
 " I would, if it were necessary ; which it is not. First, 
 because I have you as firmly mine, as need be ; and 
 secondly, because Fulvia would have her heart s blood 
 ere two days had gone, and that would ill suit me ; for 
 the sly jade is useful." 
 
 " Take care she prove not too sly for you, Sergius. 
 She may obey your orders in this thing; but she does so 
 right willingly. She loves the boy, I tell you, as madly 
 as Venus loved Adonis, or Phaedra Hyppolitus ; she would 
 pursue him if he fled from her." 
 
 " She loves him no more than she loves the musty sta 
 tue of my stout grandsire, Sergius Silo." 
 
 " You will see one day. Meanwhile, look that she fool 
 you not." 
 
106 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 While they were speaking, Paullus had reached the 
 entrance of the chamber indicated; and, opening the door, 
 had entered, expecting to find the three women assembled 
 at some feminine sport or occupation. But fortune again 
 favored him opportune fortune ! 
 
 For Lucia was alone, expecting him, prepared for his 
 entrance at any moment ; yet, when he came, how unpre 
 pared, how shocked, how terrified ! 
 
 For she had unclasped her stola upon both her shoulders, 
 and suffered it to fall down to her girdle which kept it in 
 its place about her hips. But above those she was dressed 
 only in a tunic of that loose fabric, a sort of silken gauze, 
 which was called woven air, and was beginning: to be worn 
 very much by womeiLjrf licentious character ; this dress 
 if that indeed could be called a dress, which displayed all 
 the outlines of the shape, all the hues of the glowing skin 
 every minute blue vein that meandered over the lovely 
 bosom was wrought in alternate stripes of white and sil 
 ver; and nothing can be imagined more beautiful than 
 the effect of its semi-transparent veil concealing just enough 
 to leave some scope for the imagination, displaying more 
 than enough for the most prodigal of beauty. 
 
 She was employed in dividing her long jet-black hair 
 with a comb of mother-of-pearl as he entered ; but she 
 dropped both the hair and comb, and started to her feet 
 with a simulated scream, covering her beautiful bust with 
 her two hands, as if she had been taken absolutely by sur 
 prise. 
 
 But Paullus had been drinking freely, and Paullus saw, 
 moreover, that she was not offended ; and, if surprised, 
 surprised not unpleasantly by his coming. 
 
 He sprang for\^ard, caught her in his arms, and clasp 
 ing her to his bosom almost smothered her with kisses. 
 But shame on her, fast and furiously as he kissed, she 
 kissed as closely back. 
 
 " Lucia, sweet Lucia, do you then love me V 9 
 
 " More than my life more than rny country more than 
 the Gods ! my brave, my noble Paullus." 
 
 " And will you then be mine all mine, my Lucia V 
 
 " Yours, Paul I" she faltered, panting as if with agitation 
 upon his bosom ; " am I not yours already I but no, no, no !" 
 she exclaimed, tearing herselfejfrom his embrace. " No 
 

 DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 107 
 
 no ! I had forgotten. My father ! no ; I cannot, my fa 
 ther !" 
 
 " What mean you, Lucia 1 your father 1 What of your 
 father?" 
 
 " You are his enemy. You have discovered, will be 
 tray him." 
 
 " No, by the great Gods ! you are mad, Lucia. I have 
 discovered nothing ; nor if I knew him to be the slayer 
 of my father, would I betray him ! never, never !" 
 
 " Will you swear that ?" 
 
 " Swear what V 
 
 " Never, whatever you may learn, to betray him to any 
 living man : never to carry arms, or give evidence against 
 him ; but faithfully and stedfastly to follow him through 
 virtue and through vice, in life and unto death ; to live 
 for him, and die with him, unless I release you of your oath 
 and restore you to freedom, which -I will never do !" 
 
 " By all the powers of light and darkness ! by Jupiter 
 Omnipotent, and Pluto the Avenger, I swear, Lucia ! May 
 I and all my house, and all whom I love or cherish, wretch 
 edly perish if I fail you." 
 
 " Then I am yours," she sighed; " all, and for ever!" and 
 sank into his arms, half fainting with the violence of that 
 prolonged excitement. 
 
108 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE OATH. 
 
 Into what dangers 
 Would you lead me, Cassius ? 
 
 JULIUS C.ESA*. 
 
 THE evening had worn on to a late hour, and darkness 
 had already fallen over the earth, when Paullus issued 
 stealthily, like a guilty thing, from Lucia s chamber. No 
 step or sound had come near the door, no voice had called 
 on either, though they had lingered there for hours in 
 endearments, which, as he judged the spirit of his host, 
 would have cost him his life, if suspected ; and though he 
 never dreamed of connivance, he did think it strange that 
 a man so wary and suspicious as Catiline was held to be, 
 should have so fallen from his wonted prudence, as to be 
 tray his adopted daughter s honor by granting this most 
 fatal opportunity. 
 
 He met no member of the family in the dim-lighted 
 peristyle ; the passages were silent and deserted ; no gay 
 domestic circle was collected in the tablinum, no slaves 
 were waiting in the atrium ; and, as he stole forth cau 
 tiously with guarded footsteps, Arvina almost fancied that 
 he had been forgotten ; axfd. that the master of the house 
 believed him to have retired when he left the dining hall. 
 
 It was not long, however, before he was undeceived ; 
 for as he entered the vestibule, and was about to lay hia 
 
DATS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 109 
 
 hand on the lock of the outer door, a tall dark figure, 
 which he recognized instantly to be that of his host, step 
 ped forward from a side-passage, and stretched out his 
 arm in silence, forbidding him, by that imperious gesture, 
 to proceed. 
 
 " Ha ! you have tarried long," he said in a deep guard 
 ed whisper, " our Lucia truly is a most soft and fascinating 
 creature ; you found her so, is it not true, my Paullus 1" 
 
 There was something singular in the manner in which 
 these words were uttered, half mocking, and half serious ; 
 something between a taunting and triumphant assertion 
 of a fact, and a bitter question ; but nothing that betoken 
 ed anger or hostility, or offended pride in the speaker. 
 
 Still Paullus was so much taken by surprise, and so 
 doubtful of his entertainer s meaning, and the extent of 
 his knowledge, that he remained speechless in agitated and 
 embarrassed silence. 
 
 " What, have the girl s kisses clogged your lips, so that 
 they can give out no sound ] By the gods ! they were 
 close enough to do so." * 
 
 " Catiline !" he exclaimed, starting back in astonishment, 
 and half expecting to feel a dagger in his bosom. 
 
 " Tush ! tush ! young man think you the walls in the 
 house of Catiline have no ears, nor eyes ] Paullus Arvina, 
 I know all !" 
 
 "All?" faltered the youth, now utterly aghast. 
 
 " Ay, all !" replied the conspirator, with a harsh tri 
 umphant laugh. "Lucia has given herself to you ; and 
 you have sold yourself to Catiline ! By all the fiends of 
 Hades, better it were for you, rash boy, that you had ne er 
 been born, than now to fail me !" 
 
 Arvina, trembling with the deep consciousness of hospi 
 tality betrayed, and feeling the first stings of remorse al 
 ready, stood thunderstricken, and unable to articulate. 
 
 "Speak!" thundered Catiline; "speak! art thou not 
 mine mine soul and body sworn to be mine forever 1 ?" 
 
 Alas.! the fatal oath, sworn in the heat of passion, flashed 
 on his soul, and he answered humbly, and in a faint low 
 voice, how different from his wonted tones of high and 
 manly confidence 
 
 "I am sworn, Catiline!" 
 
 "See then that thou J?e not forsworn. Little thou 
 
110 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 dream st yet, unto what thou art sworn, or unto whom ; 
 but know this, that hell itself, with all its furies, would fall 
 short of the tortures that await the traitor !" 
 
 " I am, at least, no traitor !" 
 
 "No! traitor! Ha!" cried Catiline, "is it an honest 
 deed to creep into the bosom of a daughter of the house 
 which entertained thee as a friend ! No ! Traitor ha ! 
 ha ! ha ! thou shalt ere long learn better ha ! ha ! ha !" 
 
 And he laughed with the fearful sneering mirth, which 
 was never excited in his breast, but by things perilous and 
 terrible and hateful. In a moment, however, he repressed 
 his merriment, and added 
 
 " Give me that poniard thou didst wear this morning. It 
 is mine." 
 
 " Thine !" cried the unhappy youth, starting back, as if 
 he had received a blow ; " thine, Catiline !" 
 
 "Aye!" he replied, in a hoarse voice, looking into the 
 very eyes of Paul. " I am the slayer of the slave, and regret 
 only that I slew him without torture. Know you whose 
 slave he was, by any chance V 1 
 
 " He was the Consul s slave," answered Arvina, almost 
 mechanically for he was utterly bewildered by all that had 
 passed "Medon, my freedman Thrasea s cousin." 
 
 " The Consul s, ha ! which Consul s ] speak ! fool ! 
 speak, ere I tear it from your throat ; Cicero s, ha ?" 
 
 "Cicero s, Catiline!" 
 
 " Here is a coil ; and knows he of this matter 1 I mean 
 Cicero." 
 
 " He knows it." 
 
 " That is to say, you told him. Aye ! this morning, after 
 I spoke with you. I comprehend ; and you shewed him 
 the poniard. So ! so ! so ! Well, give it to me ; I will 
 tell you what to do, hereafter." 
 
 " I have it not with me, Sergius," he replied, thoroughly 
 daunted arid dismayed. 
 
 " See that you meet me then, bringing it with you, at 
 Egeria s cave, as fools call it, in the valley of Muses, at 
 the fourth hour of night to-morrow. In the meantime, be 
 ware that you tell no man aught of this, nor that the in 
 strument was bought of Volero. Ha ! dost thou hear me ]" 
 
 " I hear, Catiline." 
 
 " And wilt obey 1" 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. Ill 
 
 " And will obey." 
 
 " So shall it go well with thee, and we shall be fast 
 friends forever. Good repose to thee, good my Paullus." 
 
 " And Lucia ]" he replied, but in a voice of inquiry ; 
 for all that he had heard of the tremendous passions and 
 vindictive fury of the conspirator, flashed on his mind, and 
 he fancied that he knew not what of vengeance would fall 
 on the head of the soft beauty. 
 
 " Hath played her part rarely !" answered the monster, 
 as he dismissed him from the door, which he opened with 
 his own hand. " Be true, and you shall see her when you 
 will ; betray us, and both you and she shall live in ago 
 nies, that shall make you call upon death fifty times, ere 
 he relieve you." 
 
 And with a menacing gesture, he closed arid barred the 
 door behind him. 
 
 " Played her part rarely !" The words sank down into 
 his soul with a chilling weight, that seemed to crush every 
 energy and hope. Played her part! Then he was a dupe 
 the very dupe of the fiend s arch mock, to lip a wanton, 
 and believe her chaste the dupe of a designing harlot; 
 the sworn tool and slave of a murderer a monster, who 
 had literally sold his own child s honor. For all the world 
 well knew, that, although Lucia passed for his adopted 
 daughter only, she was his natural offspring by Aurelia 
 Orestilla, before their impious marriage. 
 
 Well might he gnash Ins teeth, and beat his breast, and 
 tear his dark hair by handfulls from his head ; well might 
 he groan and curse. 
 
 But oh ! the inconsistency of man ! While he gave vent 
 to all the anguish of his rage in curses against her, the soft 
 partner of his guilt, and at the same time, its avenger ; 
 against the murderer and the traitor, now his tyrant ; he 
 utterly forgot that his own dereliction, from the paths of 
 rectitude and honor, had led him into the dark toils, in 
 which he now seemed involved beyond any hope of extri 
 cation. 
 
 He forgot, that to satisfy an insane and unjustifiable love 
 of adventure, and a false curiosity, he had associated him 
 self with a man whom he believed, if he did not actually 
 know, to be infamous and capable of any crime. 
 
 He forgot, that, admitted into that man s house in friend- 
 
112 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ship, he had attempted to undermine his daughter s honor ; 
 and had felt no remorse, till he learned that his success 
 was owing to connivance that his own treason had been 
 met and repaid by deeper treason. 
 
 He forgot, that for a wanton s love, he had betrayed the 
 brightest, and the purest being that drew the breath of 
 life, from the far Alps, to the blue waters of the far Ta- 
 rentum that he had broken his soul s plighted faith that 
 he was himself, first, a liar, perjurer, and villain. 
 
 Alas ! it is the inevitable consequence, the first fruit, as 
 it were, of crime, that guilt is still prolific ; that the com 
 mission of the first ill deed, leads almost surely to the com 
 mission of a second, of a third, until the soul is filed and 
 the heart utterly corrupted, and the wretch given wholly 
 up to the dominion of foul sin, and plunged into thorough 
 degradation. 
 
 Arvina had thought lightly, if at all, of his first luxurious 
 sin, but now to the depth of his secret soulf he felt that he 
 was emmeshed and entangled in the deepest villainy. 
 
 All that he ever had yet heard hinted darkly or surmised 
 of Catiline s gigantic schemes of wickedness, rushed on 
 him, all at once ! He doubted nothing any longer ; it was 
 clear to him as noonday ; distinct and definite as if it had 
 been told to him in so many words ; the treason to the 
 state concealed by individual murder ; and he, a sworn ac 
 complice nay, a sworn slave to this murderer and traitor! 
 
 Nor was this all ; his peril was no less than his guilt ; 
 equal on either side sure ruin if he should be true to his 
 country, and scarce less sure, .if he should join its parri 
 cides. For, though he had not dared say so much to Cati 
 line, he had already sent the poniard to the house of Cicero, 
 and a brief letter indicating all that he had learned from 
 Volero. This he had done in the interval between the 
 Campus and his unlucky visit to the house of Catiline, 
 whom he then little deemed to be the man of whom he 
 was in quest. 
 
 Doubtless, ere this time, the cutler had been summoned 
 to the consul s presence, and the chief magistrate of the 
 Republic had learned that the murderer of his slave was 
 the very person, whom he had bound himself by oaths, so 
 strong that he shuddered at the very thought of them, to 
 support and defend to the utmost. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 113 
 
 What was he then to do 1 how to proceed, since to re 
 cede appeared impossible 1 
 
 How was he to account to the conspirator for his inabil 
 ity to produce the poniard at their appointed meeting 1 
 how should he escape the pursuit of his determined ven 
 geance, if he should shun the meeting 1 
 
 And then, Lucia ! The recollection, guilty and degraded 
 as he knew her to be, of her soft blandishments, of her 
 rare beauty, of her wild and inexplicable manner, adding 
 new charms to that forbidden bliss, yet thrilled in every 
 sense. And must he give her up 1 No ! madness was in the 
 very thought ! so strangely had she spread her fascinations 
 round him. And yet did he love her 1 no ! perish the 
 thought ! Love is a high, a holy, a pure feeling the purest 
 our poor fallen nature is capable of experiencing ; no ! this 
 fierce, desperate, guilty passion was no more like true love, 
 than the whirlwind that upheaves the tortured billows, and 
 hurls the fated vessel on the treacherous quicksands, is like 
 to the beneficent arid gentle breeze that speeds it to the ha 
 ven of its hopes, in peace and honor. 
 
 After a little while consumed in anxious and uneasy 
 thoughts, he determined as cowards of the mind deter 
 mine ever to temporise, to await events, to depend upon 
 the tide of circumstance. He would, he thought, keep the 
 appointment with his master for such he felt that Cati 
 line now was indeed however he might strive to conceal 
 the fact ; endeavor to learn what were his real objects ; and 
 then determine what should be his own course of action. 
 Doubtful, and weak of principle, and most infirm of pur 
 pose, he shrunk alike from breaking the oath he had been 
 entrapped into taking, and from committing any crime 
 against his country. 
 
 His country ! To the Roman, patriotism stood for reli 
 gion ! Pride, habit, education, honor, interest, all were 
 combined in that word, country ; and could he be untrue 
 to Rome ] His better spirit cried out, no ! from every 
 nerve and artery of his body. And then his evil genius 
 whispered Lucia, and he wavered. 
 
 Meantime, had no thought crossed him of his own pure 
 
 and noble Julia, deserted thus and overlooked for a mere 
 
 wanton ] Many times ! many times, that day, had his 
 
 mind reverted to her. "Whon first he went to Cataline s 
 
 10* 
 
114 
 
 house, he went with the resolution of leaving it at an 
 early hour, so soon as the feast should be over, and seeking 
 her, while there should yet be time to ramble among the 
 flower-beds on the hill of gardens, or perchance, to drive 
 out in his chariot, which he had ordered to be held in 
 . readiness, toward the falls of the Anio, or on the proud 
 Emilian way. 
 
 Afterward, in the whirl of his mad intoxication for the 
 fascinating Lucia, all memory of his true love was lost, 
 as the chaste moon-light may be dimmed and drowned for 
 a while by the red glare of the torches, brandished in some 
 licentious orgy. Nor did he think of her again, till he 
 found himself saddened, and self-disgusted, plunged into 
 peril perhaps into ruin, by his own guilty conduct ; and 
 then, when he did think, it was with remorse, and self-re 
 proach, and consciousness of disloyalty, so bitterly and keen 
 ly painful yet unaccompanied by that repentance, which 
 steadily envisages |>ast wrong, and determines to amend in 
 future that he shook off the recollection, whenever it re 
 turned, with wilful stubbornness ; and resolved on forget 
 ting, for the present, the being whom a few short hours be 
 fore, he would have deemed it impossible that he should 
 ever think of but with joy and rapturous anticipation. 
 
 Occupied in these fast succeeding moods and fancies, 
 Paullus had made his way homeward from the house of 
 Catiline, so far as to the Cerolian place, at the junction of 
 the Sacred Way and the Carinee. He paused here a mo 
 ment; and grasping his fevered brow with his hand, recal 
 led to mind the strange occurrences, most unexpected and 
 unfortunate, which had befallen him, since he stood there 
 that morning ; each singly trivial; each, unconnected as it 
 seemed with the rest, and of little moment ; yet all, when 
 united, forming a chain of circumstances by which he was 
 now fettered hand and foot his casual interview with 
 Catiline on the hill ; his subsequent encounter of Victor 
 and Aristius Fuscus ; the recognition of his dagger by the 
 stout cutler Volero; the death of Varus in the hippodrome; 
 his own victorious exercises on the plain ; the invitation 
 to the feast ; the sumptuous banquet ; and last, alas ! and 
 most fatal, the too voluptuous and seductive Lucia. 
 
 Just at this moment, the doors of Cicero s stately man 
 sion were thrown open, and a long train came sweeping 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 115 
 
 out in dark garments, with blazing torches, and music 
 doleful and piercing. And women chanting the shrill fune 
 real strain. And then, upon a bier covered with black, the 
 rude wooden coffin, peculiar to the slave, of the murdered 
 Medon ! Behind him followed the whole household of the 
 Consul; and last, to the extreme astonishment of Paullus, 
 preceded by his lictors, and leaning on the arm of his 
 most faithful freedman, came Cicero himself, doing unusu 
 al honor, for some cause known to himself alone, to the 
 manes of his slaughtered servant. 
 
 As they passed on toward the Capuan gate of the city, 
 the Consul s eyes fell directly on the form of Arvina, 
 where he stood revealed in the full glare of the torch-light ; 
 and as he recognised him, he made a sign that he should 
 join him, which, under those peculiar circumstances, he 
 felt that he could not refuse to do. 
 
 Sadly and silently they swept through the splendid 
 streets, and under the arched gate, and filed along the cele 
 brated Appian way, passing the tomb of the proud Scipios 
 on the left hand, with its superb sarcophagi for that great 
 house had never, from time immemorial, been wont to burn 
 their dead and on the right, a little farther on, the noble 
 temple and the sacred slope of Mars, and the old statue of 
 the god which had once sweated blood, prescient of Thrasy- 
 mene. On they went, frightening the echoes of the quiet 
 night with their wild lamentations and the clapping of 
 their hands, sending the glare of their funereal torches far 
 and wide through the cultured fields and sacred groves and 
 rich gardens, until they reached at length the pile, hard 
 by the columbarium, or slave-burying-place of Cicero s 
 household. 
 
 Then, the rites performed duly, the dust thrice sprinkled 
 on the body, and the farewell pronounced, the corpse was 
 laid upon the pile, and the tall spire of blood-red flame 
 went up, wavering and streaming through the night, rich 
 with perfumes, and gums, and precious ointment, so noble 
 was the liberality of the good Consul, even in the interment 
 of his more faithful slaves. 
 
 No words were uttered to disturb the sound of the cer 
 emony, until the flames died out, and, the smouldering em 
 bers quenched with wine, Thrasea, as the nearest relative 
 of the deceased, gathered the ashes and inurned them, 
 
116 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 when they were duly labelled and consigned to their 
 niche in the columbarium ; and then, the final llicet pro 
 nounced, the sad solemnity was ended. 
 
 Then, though not until then, did Cicero address the 
 young man ; but then, as if to make up for his previous 
 silence, he made him walk by his side all the way back to 
 the city, conversing with him eagerly about all that had 
 passed, thanking him for the note and information he had 
 sent concerning Volero, and anticipating the immediate 
 discovery of the perpetrators of that horrid crime. 
 
 " 1 have not had the leisure to summon Volero before 
 me," he added. " I wished also that you, Arvina, should 
 be present when I examine him. I judge that it will be 
 best, when we shall have dismissed all these, except the 
 lictors, to visit him this very night. He is a thrifty and 
 laborious artisan, and works until late by lamp light ; we 
 will go thither, if you have naught to hinder you, at once." 
 
 Arvina could do no otherwise than assent ; but his 
 heart beat violently, and he could scarcely frame his words, 
 so dreadful was his agitation. Yet, by dint of immense ex 
 ertion, he contrived to maintain the outward appearance 
 of composure, which he was very far from feeling, and even 
 to keep up a connected conversation as they walked along. 
 Returning home at a much quicker pace than they had 
 gone out, it was comparatively but a short time before 
 they arrived at the house of. Cicero, and there dismissed 
 their followers, many of the slaves and freedmen of Arvina 
 having joined the procession in honour of their fellow- 
 servant Thrasea. 
 
 Thence, reserving two lictors only of the twelve, the 
 consul with his wonted activity hurried directly forward 
 by the Sacred Way to the arch of Fabius ; and then, as 
 the young men had gone in the morning, through the 
 Forum toward the cutler s shop, taking the shortest way, 
 and evidently well acquainted with the spot beforehand. 
 
 " I caused the funeral to take place this night," he said 
 to Arvina, " instead of waiting the due term of eight days, 
 on purpose that I might create no suspicion in the minds 
 of the slayers. They never will suspect him, we have 
 buried even now, to be the man they slew last night, and 
 will fancy, it may be, that the body is not discovered 
 even." 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 117 
 
 " It will be well if it prove so," replied Paullus, feel 
 ing that he must say something, and fearful of committing 
 himself by many words. 
 
 " It will, and I think probably it may," answered Cicero. 
 " But see, I was right; there shines the light from Vole- 
 ro s shop, though all the other booths have been closed long 
 ago, and the streets are already silent. There are but few 
 men, even in this great city, of whom I know not some 
 thing, beyond the mere names. Think upon that, young/ 
 man, and learn to do likewise ; cultivate memory, above 
 all things, except virtue." 
 
 " I should have thought such things too mean to occupy 
 a place, even, in the mind of Cicero," answered Arvina. 
 
 " Nothing, young man, that pertains to our fellow; 
 men, is too mean to occupy the mind of the noblestS 
 Why should it, since it doth occupy the mind of the 
 G ods, who are all great and omnipotent 1" 
 
 " You lean not then to the creed of Epicurus, which 
 teaches " 
 
 " Who, I T* interrupted Cicero, almost indignantly. 
 "No! by the immortal Gods! nor I trust, my young 
 friend, do you. Believe me but ha !" }# added in a quick 
 and altered tone, " what have we here 1 there is some vil 
 lainy in the wind away ! away ! there ! lictors apprehend 
 that fellow." 
 
 For as they came within about a bow-shot of the booth 
 of Volero, the sound of a slight scuffle was heard from 
 within, and the light of the lamp became very dim and 
 wavering, as if it had been overset ; and in a moment 
 went out altogether. But its last glimmering ray shewed 
 a tall sinewy figure making out of the door and bounding 
 at a great pace up the street toward the Carmental gate. 
 
 Arvina caught but a momentary glance of the figure ; 
 yet was that glance enough. He recognized the spare but 
 muscular form, all brawn arid bone and sinew ; he recog 
 nized the long and pardlike bounds ! It was his tyrant, 
 and, as he thought, his Fate ! 
 
 The lictors rushed away upon his track, but there 
 seemed little chance that, encumbered with their heavy 
 fasces, they would overtake so swift a runner, as, by 
 the momentary sight they had of him, the fugitive ap 
 peared to be. 
 
118 
 
 Arvina and the Consul speedily reached the booth. 
 
 "Volero! Volero !" 
 
 But there came forth no answer. 
 
 " Volero ! what ho ! Volero !" 
 
 They listened eagerly, painfully, with ears sharpened 
 by excitement. There came a sound a plash, as of a 
 heavy drop of water falling on the stone floor ; another, 
 and another the trickling of a continuous stream. 
 
 All was dark as a moonless midnight. Yet Cicero 
 took one step forward, and laid his hand upon the coun 
 ter. It splashed into a pool of some warm liquid. 
 
 " Now may the Gods avert !" he cried, " It is blood ! 
 there has been murder here ! Run, my Arvina, run to 
 Furbo s cookshop, across the way there, opposite ; they 
 sit up there all night cry murder, ho ! help ! murder !" 
 
 A minute had scarcely passed before the heavy knock 
 ing of the young man had aroused the house the 
 neighborhood. And at the cry of murder, many men, 
 some who had not retired for the night, and some half 
 dressed as they had sprung up from their couches, came 
 rushing with their weapons, snatched at random, and 
 with torches in their hands. 
 
 It was but too true ! the laborious artizan was dead; 
 murdered, that instant, at his own counter, at his very 
 work. He had not moved or risen from his seat, but had 
 fallen forward with his head upon the board ; and from 
 beneath the head was oozing in a continuous stream the 
 dark red blood, which had overflowed the counter, and 
 trickled down, and made the paved floor one great pool ! 
 
 " Ye Gods ! what blood ! what blood !" exclaimed the 
 first who came in. 
 
 " Poor Volero ! alas !" cried Furbo, "it is not an hour 
 since he supped on a pound of sausages at my table, and 
 now, all is over!" 
 
 They raised his head. His eyes were wide open ; and 
 the whole face bore an expression neither of agony or 
 terror, so much as of wild surprise. 
 
 The throat was cut from ear to ear, dividing the wind 
 pipe, the carotid arteries, and jugular veins on both sides ; 
 and so strong had been the hand of the assassin, and so 
 keen the weapon, that the neck was severed quite to the 
 back bone. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 119 
 
 Among the spectators was a gladiator; he whose es 
 pecial task it was to cut the throats of the conquered 
 victims on the arena; he looked eagerly and curiously 
 at the wound for a moment, and then, said 
 
 " A back stroke from behind a strong hand, and a 
 broadbacked knife the man has been slain by a gladia 
 tor, or one who knows the gladiator s trick!" 
 
 " The man," said the Consul calmly, " has been killed 
 by an acquaintance, a friend, or a familiar customer ; he 
 had not even risen from his seat to speak with him ; 
 and see, the burnisher is yet grasped in his hand, with 
 which he was at work. Ha!" he exclaimed, as his lictors 
 entered, panting and tired by their fruitless chase, " could 
 you not overtake him 1" 
 
 " We never saw him any more, my consul," replied 
 both men in one breath. 
 
 " Let his head down, my friend," said Cicero, turning, 
 much disappointed as it seemed, to Furbo, " let it lie, as it 
 was when we found it ; clear the shop, lictors ; take the 
 names of the witnesses ; one of you keep watch at the 
 door, until you are relieved ; lock it and give the key to 
 the praetor, when he shall arrive ; the other, go straight 
 way, and summon Cornelius Lentulus ; he is the prae 
 tor for this ward. Go to your homes, my friends, and 
 make no tumult in the streets, I pray you. This shall be 
 looked to arid avenged ; your Consul watches over you !" 
 
 "Live ! live the Consul ! the good Consul, the man of 
 the people !" shouted the crowd, as they dispersed quietly 
 to their homes. 
 
 * Arvina, come with me. To whom told you, that you 
 had found, and Volero sold, this dagger ]" he asked very 
 sternly. 
 
 " To no one, Cicero. Marcus Aurelius Victor, and 
 Aristius Fuscus were with me, when he recognized it for 
 his work?" 
 
 " No one else 1" 
 
 " No one, save our slaves, and they," he added in a 
 breath, " could not have heard what passed." 
 
 " Hath no one else seen it V 1 
 
 "As I was stripping for the contests on the Campus, 
 Catiline saw it in my girdle, and admired its fabric." 
 
 " Catiline !" 
 
120 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 "Ay! Consul]" 
 
 " And you told him that Volero had made it V 9 
 
 " Consul, no !" But, with the word, he turned as white 
 as marble. Had it been daylight, his face had betrayed 
 him ; as it was, Cicero observed that his voice trembled. 
 
 " Catiline is the man !" he said solemnly, " the man who 
 slew Medon yesternight, who has slain Volero now. Cati 
 line is the man ; but this craves wary walking. Young 
 man, young man, beware ! meth,inks you are on the verge 
 of great danger. Get thee home to thy bed ; and again I 
 say, Beware !" 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 121 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE TRUE LOVE. 
 
 Dear, my Lord, 
 Make me acquainted with your cause of grief. 
 
 JULIU* CjESAR. 
 
 THE sun rose clear and bright on the following morn 
 ing ; the air was fresh and exhilarating, and full of mirthful 
 inspiration. But Paullus Arvina rose unrefreshed and lan 
 guid, with his mind ill at ease ; for the reaction which suc 
 ceeds ever to the reign of any vehement excitement, had 
 fallen on him with its depressing weight ; and not that 
 only, but keen remorse for the past, and, if possible, anxie 
 ty yet keener for the future. 
 
 Disastrous dreams had beset his sleeping hours ; and, at 
 his waking, they and the true occurrences of the past day, 
 seemed all blended and confused into one horrible and 
 hideous vision. 
 
 JNowhe envisaged the whole dark reality of his past 
 conduct, of his present situation. Lucia, the charming 
 siren of the previous evening, appeared in her real colors, 
 as the immodest, passionate wanton ; Catiline as the mon 
 ster that indeed he was ! 
 
 And yet, alas ! alas ! as the clear perception of the 
 truth dawned on him, it was but coupled with a despairing 
 sense, that to these he was linked inevitably and forever. 
 
 The oath ! the awful oath which he had sworn in the 
 fierce whirl of passion, registered by the arch-traitor the 
 
122 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 oath involving, not alone, his own temporal and eternal 
 welfare, but that of all whom he loved or cherished ; his 
 own pure, beautiful, inimitable Julia, to whom his heart 
 now reverted with a far deeper and more earnest tender 
 ness, after its brief inconstancy ; as he compared her strong, 
 yet maidenly and gentle love, with the wild and ungoverna 
 ble passions of the wanton, for whom he had once sacri 
 ficed her. 
 
 Paullus Arvina was not naturally, not radically evil. 
 Far from it, his impulses were naturally virtuous and cor 
 rect, his calm sober thoughts always honorable and up 
 right ; but his passions were violent and unregulated ; his 
 principles of conduct not definitively formed ; and his mind 
 wavering, unsettled, and unsteady. 
 
 His passions on the previous day had betrayed him 
 fatally, through the dark machinations of the conspirator, 
 and the strange fascinations of his lovely daughter, into 
 the perpetration of a great crime. He had bound him 
 self, by an oath too dreadful to be thought of without 
 shuddering, to the commission of yet darker crimes in 
 future. 
 
 And now the mists of passion had ceased to bedim 
 his mental vision, his eyes were opened, that he saw and 
 repented most sincerely the past guilt. How was he to 
 avoid the future ] 
 
 To no man in these days, could there be a doubt even for 
 a moment however great the sin of swearing such an 
 oath ! No one in these days, knowing and repenting of the 
 crime, would hesitate a moment, or fancy himself bound, 
 because he had committed one vile sin in pledging himself 
 thus to guilt, to rush on deeper yet into the perpetration 
 of wickedness. 
 
 The sin were in the swearing, not in the breaking of an 
 oath so vile and shameful. 
 
 But those were days of dark heathenish superstition, and 
 it was far beyond the reach of any intellect perhaps of that 
 day to arrive at a conclusion, simple as that to which any 
 mind would now leap, as it were instinctively. 
 
 In those days, an omitted rite, an error in the ceremonial 
 tribute paid to the marble idol, was held a deeper sin than 
 adultery, incest, or blood shedding. And the bare thought 
 of the vengeance due for a broken oath would often times 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 123 
 
 keep sleepless, with mere dread, the eyes of men who could 
 have slumbered calmly on the commission of the deadliest 
 crimes. 
 
 Such, then, was the state of Arvina s mind on that morn 
 ing grieving with deep remorse for the faults of which he 
 confessed himself guilty ; trembling at the idea of rushing 
 into yet more desperate guilt ; and at the same time feeling- 
 bound to do so, in despite of his better thoughts, by the 
 fatal oath which bound him to the arch traitor. 
 
 While he was sitting in his lonely chamber, with his un- 
 tasted meal of ripe figs, and delicate white bread, and milk 
 and honeycomb before him, devouring his own heart in his 
 fiery anguish, and striving with all his energies of intellect 
 to devise some scheme by which he might escape the pe 
 rils that seemed to hem him round on every side, his faith 
 ful freedman entered, bearing a little billet, on which his 
 eye had scarcely fallen before he recognized the shapely 
 characters of Julia s well-known writing. 
 
 He broke the seal which connected the flaxen band, and 
 with a trembling eye, and a soul that feared it knew not 
 what, from the very consciousness of guilt, he read as fol 
 lows : 
 
 " A day has passed, my Paullus, and we have not met ! 
 The first day in which we have not met and conversed to 
 gether, since that whereon you asked me to be yours! I 
 would not willingly, my Paul, be as those miserable and 
 most foolish girls, of whom my mother has informed me, 
 who, given up to jealousy and doubt, torment themselves 
 in vain, and alienate the noble spirits, which are bound to 
 them by claims of affection only, not of compulsion or re 
 straint. Nor am I so unreasonable as to think, that a man 
 has no duties to perform, other than to attend a woman s 
 leisure. The Gods- forbid it! for whom 1 love, I would 
 see great, and famous, and esteemed m the world s eyes 
 as highly as in mine ! The house, it is true, is our sphere 
 the Forum and the Campus, the great world with its toils, 
 its strifes, and its honors, yours! All this I speak to my 
 self often. I repeated it many, many times yesterday it 
 ought to have satisfied me it did satisfy my reason, Paul, 
 but it spoke not to my heart! That whispers ever, he 
 came not yesterday to see me! he promised, yet he came 
 not! and it will not be answered. Are you sick, Paullus, 
 
124 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 that you came not ? Surely in that case you had sent for 
 me. Hortensia would have gone with me to visit you. 
 No! you are not sick, else most surely I had known it! 
 Are you then angry with me, or offended ] Unconscious 
 am I, dearest, of any fault against you in word, thought, or 
 deed. Yet will I humble myself, if you are indeed wroth 
 with me. Have I appeared indifferent or cold] oh! Paul, 
 believe it not. If I have not expressed the whole of my 
 deep tenderness which is poured out all, all on thee alone 
 my yearning and continued love, that counts the minutes 
 when tliou art not near me ; it is not that 1 cease ever to 
 think of thee, to adore thee, but that it were unmaidenly 
 and overbold to tell thee of it. See, now, if I have not 
 done so here ; and my hand trembles, and my cheek burns, 
 arid almost L expect to see the pallid paper blush, to find it 
 self the bearer of words so passionate as these. But you 
 will pardon me, and come to me forthwith, and tell me, if 
 anything, in what I have displeased thee. 
 
 " It is a lovely morning, and Hortensia has just learned 
 from Caius Bibulus, that at high noon the ambassadors of 
 the wild Allobroges will march in with their escort over 
 the Mulvian Bridge. She wishes much to see the pomp, 
 for we are told that their stature is gigantic and their pre 
 sence noble, and their garb very wild, yet magnificent with 
 al and martial. Shall we go forth and see them] Horten 
 sia will carry me in her carpentum, and you can either ride 
 with us on horseback, or if you be not over proud take 
 our reins yourself as charioteer, or, what will perhaps be 
 the best of all, come in your own car and escort us. I 
 need not say that I. wish to see you nmv, for that I wish 
 always. Come, then, and quickly, if you would pleasure 
 your own Julia." 
 
 " Sweet girl," he exclaimed, as he finished reading it, 
 " pure as the snow upon Soracte, yet warm and tender as 
 the dove. Inimitable Julia! And I I Oh, ye gods ! ye 
 gods! that beheld it!" and he smote his brow heavily with 
 his hand, and bit his lip, till the blood almost sprang be 
 neath the pressure of his teeth ; but recovering himself in 
 a moment, he turned to Thrasea " Who brought this bil 
 let ? doth he wait 1" 
 
 " Phaedon, Hortensia s Greek boy, brought it, noble Paul- 
 lus. He waits for your answer in the atrium." 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 125 
 
 " Quick, then, quick, Thrasea, give me a reed and pa 
 per." 
 
 Arid snatching the materials he wrote hastily : 
 
 " Chance only, evil chance, most lovely Julia, and busi 
 ness of some weight, restrained me from you most unwil 
 ling yesterday. More I shall tell you when we meet in 
 deed all ! for what can I wish to conceal from you, the bet 
 ter portion of my soul. Need I say that I come not, alas, 
 on the wings of my love, or I should be beside you as I 
 write, but as quickly as the speed of horses may whirl me 
 to your presence ; until then, fare you well, and confide in 
 the fidelity of Paullus." 
 
 " Give it to Phgedon," he said, tossing the note to Thra 
 sea, "and say to him, if he make not the better haste, I shall 
 be at Hortensia s house before him. And then, hark ye, 
 tell some of those knaves in the hall without, to make ready 
 with all speed my light chariot, and yoke the two black 
 horses Aufidus and Acheron. With all speed, mark ye ! And 
 then return, good Thrasea, for I have much to say to you, 
 before I go." 
 
 When he was left alone, he arose from his seat, walked 
 three or four times to and fro his chamber, in anxious and 
 uneasy thought ; and then saying, " Yes ! yes ! I will not 
 betray him, but I will take no step in the business any far 
 ther, and I will tell him so to-night. I will tell him, more 
 over, that Cicero has the dagger, for now that Volero is 
 slain, I see not well how it can be identified. The Grods 
 defend me from the dark ones whom I have invoked. I 
 will not be untrue to Rome, nor to Julia, any more per 
 ish the whole earth, rather! Ay ! and let us, too, perish in 
 nocent, better than to live guilty!" 
 
 As he made up his mind, by a great effort, to the better 
 course, the freedman returned, and announcing that the 
 car would be ready forthwith, inquired what dress he should 
 bring him. 
 
 Never mind that ! What I have on will do well enough, 
 with &petasus;* for the sun shines so brightly that it will 
 be scarce possible to drive bare headed. But I have work 
 
 The Petasus was a broad brimmed hat of felt with a low round crown. 
 It wat originally an article of the Greek dress, but was adopted by the Ro 
 mans 
 
126 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 for you of more importance. You know the cave of Ege- 
 ria, as men call it, in the valley of the Muses V 1 
 
 "Surely, my Paullus." 
 
 " I know, I know; but have you ever marked the ground 
 especially around the cave what opportunities there be 
 for concealment, or the like ]" 
 
 " Not carefully," he answered, "but I have noticed that 
 there is a little gorge just beyond the grotto, broken with 
 crags and blocks of tufo, and overgrown with much brush 
 wood, and many junipers and ivy." 
 
 " That will do then, I warrant me," replied Arvina. 
 " Now mark what I tell you, Thrasea j for it may be, that 
 my life shall depend on your acting as 1 direct. At the 
 fourth hour of the night, I am to meet one in the grotto, 
 on very secret business, whom I mistrust somewhat ; who 
 it is, I may not inform you; but, as I think my plans will 
 not well suit his councils, I should not be astonished were 
 he to have slaves, or even gladiators, with him to attack 
 me but not dreaming that I suspect anything, he will not 
 take many. Now I would have you arm all my freedmen, 
 and some half dozen of the trustiest slaves, so as to have in 
 all a dozen or fifteen, with corslets under their tunics, and 
 boarspears, and swords. You must be careful that you are 
 not seen going thither, and you were best send them out 
 by different roads, so as to meet after nightfall. Hide your 
 selves closely somewhere, not far from the cavern s mouth, 
 whence you may see, unseen yourselves, whatever passes. 
 I will carry my light hunting horn ; and if you hear its blast 
 rush down and surround the cave, but hurt no man, nor 
 strike a blow save in self-defence, until I bid you. Do you 
 comprehend me?" 
 
 " I comprehend, and will obey you to the letter, Paul 
 lus," answered the grave freedman, "but will not you be 
 armed T 
 
 " I will, my Thrasea. Leave thou a leathern hunting 
 helmet here on the table, and light scaled cuirass, which I 
 will do on under my toga. I shall be there at the fourth 
 hour precisely ; but it were well that ye should be on your 
 posts by the second hour or soon after. For it may be, he 
 too will lay an ambuscade, and so all may be discovered. 
 
 "It shall be done, most noble master." 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 127 
 
 "And see that ye take none but trustworthy men, and 
 that ye all are silent to would be ruin." 
 
 "As silent as the grave, my Paullus," answered the 
 freed man. 
 
 " The car and horses are prepared, Paullus," exclaimed 
 a slave, entering hastily. 
 
 "Who goes with me to hold the reins ?" asked his mas 
 ter. 
 
 " The boy Myron." 
 
 " It is well. Fetch me a petasus, and lay the toga in the 
 chariot. I may want it. Now, Thrasea, I rely on you ! 
 Remember be prudent, sure, and silent." 
 
 " Else may I perish ill," replied the faithful servitor, as 
 his master, throwing the broad brimmed hat carelessly on 
 his curly locks, rushed out, as if glad to seek relief from his 
 own gloomy thoughts in the excitement of rapid motion ; 
 and, scarcely pausing to observe the condition or appear 
 ance of his beautiful black coursers, sprang into the low 
 car of bronze, shaped not much differently from an old 
 fashioned arm chair with its back to the horses; seized the 
 reins, and drove rapidly away, standing erect for the car 
 contained no seats with the boy Myron clinging to the rail 
 behind him. 
 
 A few minutes brought him through the Cyprian lane 
 and the Suburra to the Virbian slope, by which he gained 
 the Viminal hill, and the Hortensian villa; at the door of 
 which, in a handsome street leading through the Quirinal 
 gate to the Flaminian way, or great northern road of Italy, 
 stood the carpentum, drawn by a pair of noble mules, 
 awaiting its fair freight. 
 
 This was a two-wheeled covered vehicle, set apart 
 mostly for the use of ladies,- and, though without springs, 
 was as comfortable and luxurious a carnage as the art of 
 that day could produce ; nor was there one in Rome, with 
 the exception of those kept for public use in the sacred 
 processions, that could excel that of the rich and elegant 
 Hortensia 
 
 The pannels were beautifully painted, and the arched 
 top or tilt supported by gilded caryatides at the four cor 
 ners. Its curtains and cushions were of fine purple cloth ; 
 and altogether, though far less convenient, it was a much 
 
128 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 gayer and more sumptuous looking vehicle than the per 
 fection of modern coach building. 
 
 The ladies were both waiting in the atrium, when the 
 young man dismounted from his car ; and never had his Ju 
 lia, he thought, looked more lovely than she did this morn 
 ing, with the redundant masses of her rich hair confined 
 by a net of green and gold, and a rich pallium, or shawl 
 of the same colors, gracefully draped over her snowy stola, 
 and indicating by the soft sweep of its outlines the beau 
 ties of a figure, which it might veil but could riot conceal. 
 
 Joyously, in the frank openness of her pure nature, she 
 sprung forward to meet him, with both her fair hands ex 
 tended , and the ingenuous blood rising faintly to her pale 
 cheeks. 
 
 " Dear, dearest Paul I am so happy, so rejoiced to see 
 you." 
 
 Nothing could be more tender, more affectionate, than 
 all her air, her words, her manner. Love flashed from 
 her bright eyes irrepressible, played in the dimples of her 
 smiling mouth, breathed audible in every tone of her soft 
 silvery voice. Yet was there nothing that the gravest and 
 most rigid censor could have wished otherwise nothing 
 that he could have pronounced, even for a moment, too 
 warm, or too free for the bearing of the chariest maiden. 
 
 The very artlessness of her emotions bore evidence to 
 their purity, their holiness. She was rejoiced to see her 
 permitted lover, she felt no shame in that emotion of chaste 
 joy, and would no more have dreamed of concealing it 
 from him whom she loved so devotedly, than of masking 
 her devotion to the Gods under a veil of indifference or 
 coldness. 
 
 Here was the very charm of her demeanor, as here was 
 the difference between her manner, and that of her rival 
 Lucia. 
 
 In Julia, every thought that sprang from her heart, was 
 uttered by her lips in frank and fearless innocence ; she 
 had no thought she was ashamed of, no wish she feared to 
 utter. Her clear bright eyes dwelt unabashed and fondly 
 on the face of him she loved ; and no scrutiny could have 
 detected in their light, one glance of unquiet or immodest 
 passion. Her manner was warm and unreserved toward 
 Paul, because she had a right to love him, and cared not 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 129 
 
 who knew that she did so. Lucia s was as cold as snow, 
 on the contrary ; yet it requited no second glance to per 
 ceive that the coldness was but the cover superinduced to 
 hide passions too warm for revelation. Her eye was 
 downcast ; yet did its stolen glances speak things, the secret 
 consciousness of which would have debased the other in 
 her own estimation beyond the hope of pardon. Her 
 tongue was guarded, and her words slow and carefully 
 selected, for her imaginations would have made the brazen 
 face of the world blush for shame could it have heard them 
 spoken. 
 
 Hortensia smiled to witness the manifest affection of her 
 sweet child ; but the smile was, she knew not why, half 
 mournful, as she said 
 
 "You are unwise,, my Julia, to show this truant how 
 much you prize his coming ; how painfully his absence de 
 presses you. Sages declare that women should not let 
 their lords guess, even, how much they are loved." 
 
 " Why, mother," replied Julia, her bright face gleaming 
 radiantly with the pure lustre of her artless spirit, " I am 
 glad to see him ; I do prize his coming; I do love Paullus. 
 Why, then, should I dissemble, when to do so were dis 
 honest, and were folly likewise V 
 
 " You should not tell him so, my child," replied the 
 mother, " I fear you should not tell him so. Men are not 
 like us women, who love but the more devotedly, the more 
 fondly we are cherished. There is, I fear, something of 
 the hunter s, of the conqueror s, ardour, in their passion ; 
 the pursuit is the great allurement ; the winning the great 
 rapture ; and the prize, once securely won, too often cast 
 aside, and disregarded." 
 
 " No! no !" returned the girl eagerly, fixing her eyes on 
 her lover s features, as if she would read therein the out 
 ward evidences of that nobility of soul, which she believed 
 to exist within. " I will not believe it ; it were against 
 all gratitude ! all honor ! all heart-truth ! No, I will not 
 believe it ; and if I did, Hortensia, by all the Gods, I had 
 rather live without love, than hold it on so vile a tenure of 
 deceit. What, treasure up the secrets of your soul from 
 your soul s lord 1 No ! no ! I would as soon conceal my 
 devotion from the powers of heaven, as my affections from 
 their rightful master. I, for one, never will believe that 
 all men are selfish and unfaithful." L 
 
130 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " May the Gods grant, my Julia, that sad experience 
 shall never teach you that they they are so. I, at least, 
 will believe, and pray, that, what his sex may be soever, 
 our Paullus will prove worthy ever of that best gift of God, 
 a pure woman s pure and unselfish love." 
 
 " Oh ! may it be so," answered Paullus, clasping his 
 hands fervently together. " May T die ere I wrong my 
 Julia ! and be you sure, sweet girl, that your simple trust 
 is philosophy far truer than the sage s lore. Base must 
 his nature be, and his heart corrupt, who remains unsub 
 dued to artlessness and love, such as yours, my Julia." 
 
 " But tell us, now," said the elder lady, " what was it 
 that detained you, and where were you all the day 1 We 
 expected you till the seventh hour of the night, yet you 
 came not." 
 
 " I will tell you, Hortensia," he replied, " as we drive 
 along ; for I had rather do so, where there be no ears to 
 overhear us. You must let me be your charioteer to-day, 
 and your venerable grey-headed coachman shall ride with 
 my wild imp Myron, in the car, if you will permit it." 
 
 " Willingly," she replied. " Then something strange 
 has happened. Is it not so 1" 
 
 " I knew it," exclaimed Julia, clasping her snowy hands 
 together, " I knew it ; I have read it in his eye this half 
 hour. What can it be ? it is something fearful, I am cer 
 tain." 
 
 " Nay ! nay ! be not alarmed ; if there were danger, it 
 is passed already. But come, let me assist you to the car 
 riage ; I will tell you all as we go. But if we do not make 
 good speed, the pomp will have passed the bridge before 
 we reach it." 
 
 The ladies made no more delay, but took their places in 
 the carriage, Paul occupying the front seat, .and guiding 
 the sober mules with far more ease, than Hortensia s aged 
 charioteer experienced in restraining the speed of Arvi- 
 na s fiery coursers, and keeping them in their place, be 
 hind the heavier carpentum. 
 
 The narrow streets were now passed, and threading the 
 deep arch of the Quirinal gate, they struck into a lane 
 skirting the base of the hill of gardens, on the right hand, 
 by which they gained the great Flaminian way, just on the 
 farther confines of the Campus; when they drove rapidly 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 131 
 
 toward the Milvian bridge, built a few years before by 
 ./Emilius Scaurus, and esteemed for many a year the 
 masterpiece of Roman architecture. 
 
 As soon as they had cleared the confines of the busy city, 
 within which the throng of vehicles, and the passengers, as 
 well on foot as on horseback, compelled Arvina to give 
 nearly the whole of his attention to the guidance of the 
 mules he slackened the reins, and leaving the docile and 
 well-broken animals to choose their own way, giving only 
 an occasional glance to their movements, commenced 
 the detail of his adventures at the point, where he parted 
 from them on the night before the last. 
 
 Many were the emotions of fear, and pity, and anxiety 
 which that tale called forth ; and more than once the tears 
 of Julia were evoked by sympathy, first, with her lover s 
 daring, then with the grief of Thrasea. But not a shade of 
 distrust came to cloud her pure spirit, for Paullus mentioned 
 nothing of his interview with Catiline on the Caelian, or in 
 the Campus ; much less of his dining with him, or detecting 
 in him the murderer of the hapless Volero. 
 
 Still he did not attempt to conceal, that both Cicero and 
 himself had suspicions of the identity of the double mur 
 derer, or that he was about to go forth that very evening, 
 for the purpose of attempting as he represented it to 
 ascertain, beyond doubt, the truth of his suspicions. 
 
 And here it was singular, that Julia evinced not so much 
 alarm or perturbation as her mother ; whether it was that 
 she underrated the danger he was like to run, or overrated 
 the prowess and valor of her lover. But so it was, for 
 though she listened eagerly while he was speaking, and 
 gazed at him wistfully after he had become silent, she said 
 nothing. Her beautiful eyes, it is true, swam with big 
 tear-drops for a moment, and her nether lip quivered pain 
 fully ; but she mastered her feelings, and after a short space 
 began to talk joyously about such subjects as were sug 
 gested by the pleasant scenery, through which their road 
 lay, or the various groups of people whom they met on the 
 way. 
 
 Ere long the shrill blast of a cavalry trumpet was heard 
 from the direction of the bridge, and a cloud of dust surg 
 ing up in the distance announced the approach of the 
 train. 
 
132 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 There was a small green space by tne wayside, covered 
 with short mossy turf, and overshadowed by the spreading 
 branches of a single chesnut, beneath which Paullus drew 
 up the mules of Hortensia s carriage, directing the old 
 charioteer, who seemed hard set to manage his high-bred 
 and fiery steeds, to wheel completely off the road, and hold 
 them well in hand on the green behind him. 
 
 By this time the procession had drawn nigh, and two 
 mounted troopers, glittering in casques of highly polished 
 bronze, with waving crests of horsehair, corslets of bur 
 nished brass, and cassocks of bright scarlet cloth, dashed 
 by as hard as their fiery Gallic steeds could trot, their har 
 ness clashing merrily from the rate at which they rode. 
 Before these men were out of sight, a troop of horse rode 
 past in serried order, five abreast, with a square crimson 
 banner, bearing in characters of gold the well-known 
 initials, S. P. Q. R., and surmounted by a gilded eagle. 
 
 Nothing could be more beautifully accurate than the or 
 dered march and exact discipline of this little band, their 
 horses stepping proudly out, as if by one common impulse, 
 in perfect time to the occasional notes of the lituus, or ca 
 valry trumpet, by which all their manoeuvres were directed ; 
 and the men, hardy and fine-looking figures, in the prime 
 of life, bestriding with an air of perfect mastery their fiery 
 chargers, and bearing the weight of their heavy panoply 
 beneath the burning sunshine of the Italian noon, as though 
 a march of thirty miles were the merest child s play. 
 
 About half a mile in the rear of this escort, so as to avoid 
 the dust which hung heavily, and was a long time subsiding 
 in the breathless atmosphere, came the train of the ambas 
 sadors from the Gaulish Highlands, and on these men 
 were the eyes of the Roman ladies fixed with undisguised 
 wonder, not unmixed with admiration. For their giant sta- 
 ture,strong limbs, and wild barbaric dresses, were as differ 
 ent from those of the well-ordered legionaries, as were their 
 long light tresses, their blue eyes, keen and flashing as a fal 
 con s, and their fair ruddy skins, from the clear brown com 
 plexions, dark locks, and black eyes of the Italian race. 
 
 The first of these wild people was a young warrior above 
 six feet in height, mounted on a superb grey charger, which 
 bore his massive bulk as if it were unconscious of his bur 
 then. His large blue eyes wandered around him on all 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 133 
 
 sides with a quick flashing glance that took in everything, 
 yet seemed surprised at nothing ; though almost everything 
 which he beheld must have been strange to him. His long 
 red hair flowed down in wavy masses over his neck and 
 shoulders, and his upper lip, though his cheeks and his 
 chin were closely shaven, was clothed with an immense 
 moustache, the ends of which curled upward nearly to his 
 eyes. 
 
 Upon his head he wore a casque of bronze, covered with 
 studs of silver, and crested by two vast polished horns, the 
 spoil of the fiercest animal of Europe s forests the gigantic 
 and indomitable Urus. A coat of mail, composed of bright 
 steel rings interwoven in the Gaulish fashion, covered his 
 body from the throat downward to the hips, leaving his 
 strong arms bare to the shoulder, though they were deco 
 rated with so many chains, bracelets, and armlets, and 
 broad rings of gold and silver, as would have gone far to pro 
 tect them from a sword cut. 
 
 His legs were clothed, unlike those of any southern peo 
 ple, in tightly-sitting pantaloons b? accas, as they were 
 called of gaily variegated tartans, precisely similar to the 
 trews of the Scottish Highlander a much more ancient 
 part of the costume, by the way, than the kilt r or short pet 
 ticoat, now generally worn and these trews, as well as the 
 streaming plaid, which he wore belted gracefully about his 
 shoulders, shone resplendent with checkers of the brightest 
 scarlet, azure, and emerald, and white, interspersed here 
 and there with lines and squares of darker colors, giving 
 relief and harmony to the general effect. 
 
 A belt of leather, studded with bosses and knobs of 
 coral and polished mountain pebbles, girded his waist, and 
 supported a large purse of some rich fur, with a formida 
 ble dirk at the right side, and, at the left, suspended by gilt 
 chains from the girdle, a long, straight, cutting broadsword, 
 with a basket hilt the genuine claymore, or great sword 
 to resist the sweep of which Marcellus had been fain, 
 nearly five hundred years before, to double the strength of 
 the Roman casque, and to add a fresh layer of wrought 
 iron to the tough fabric of the Roman buckler. 
 
 This ponderous blade constituted, with the dagger, the 
 whole of his offensive armature ; but there was slvmg on 
 his left shoulder a small round targe, of the hide of tha 
 
 12 
 
184 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 mountain bull, bound at the rim, and studded massively 
 with bronze, and having a steel pike projecting from the cen 
 tre in all respects the same instrument as that with which 
 the clans received the British bayonet at Preston Pans and 
 Falkirk. 
 
 The charger of this gallantly-attired chief was bedecked, 
 like his rider, with all the martial trappings of the day; his 
 bridle, mounted with bits of ponderous Spanish fabric, was 
 covered with bosses gemmed with amber and unwrought 
 coral ; his housings, of variegated plaid, were elaborately 
 fringed with embroideries of gold ; and his rich scarlet 
 poitrel was decked, in the true taste of the western savage, 
 with tufts of human hair, every tuft indicating a warrior 
 slain, and a hostile head embalmed in the coffers of the 
 valiant rider. 
 
 " See, Julia, see," whispered Arvina, as he passed slowly 
 by their chariot, u that must be one of their great chiefs, 
 and a man of extraordinary prowess. Look at the horns 
 of the mighty Urus on his helmet, a brute fiercer, and 
 well nigh as large as a Numidian elephant. He must 
 have slain it, single-handed in the forest, else had he 
 not presumed to wear its trophies, which belong only 
 to the greatest of their champions. For every stud of 
 silver on his casque of bronze he must have fought in a 
 pitched battle ; and for each tuft of hair upon his char 
 ger s poitrel he must have slain a foe in hand-to-hand en 
 counter. There are eighteen tufts on this side, and, I 
 warrant me, as many on the other. Doubtless, he has 
 already stricken down thirty-six foemen. 
 
 " And he numbers not himself as yet so many years ! 
 Ye Gods ! what monsters," exclaimed Julia, shuddering 
 at the idea of human hair used as a decoration. " Are 
 they not anthropophagi, the Gauls, my Paullus ?" 
 
 "No, by the Gods ! Julia," answered Arvina, laughing j 
 " but very valiant warriors, and hospitable beyond measure 
 to those who visit their native mountains; admirers, too, of 
 women, whom they regard as almost divine, beyond all 
 things. I see that stout fellow looking wild admiration at 
 you now, from his clear blue eyes, though he would fain 
 be thought above the reach of wonder." 
 
 " Are they believers in the Gods, or Atheists, as well aa 
 barbarous ?" 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 135 
 
 " By Jupiter! neither barbarous, to speak the truth, nor 
 Atheists ; they worship Mercury and Jove, Mars and Apol 
 lo, and Diana, as we do ; and though their tongues be 
 something wild, and their usages seem strange to us, it 
 cannot be denied that they are a brave and noble race, 
 and at this time good friends to the Roman people. Mark 
 that old chieftain ; he is the headman of the tribe, and leader 
 of the embassy, I doubt not." 
 
 While he was speaking, a dozen other chiefs had rid 
 den by, accompanied by the chiefs of the Roman escort, 
 some men in the prime of life, some grizzled and weather- 
 beaten, and having the trace of many a hard-fought field in 
 the scars that defaced their sunburnt visages. But the last 
 was an old man, with long silver hair, and eyebrows and 
 mustachios white as the snow on his native Jura; the prin 
 cipal personage evidently of the band, for his casque was 
 plated with gold, and his shirt of mail richly gilded, and 
 the very plaid which he wore, alternately checked with 
 scarlet, black, and gold. 
 
 He also, as he passed, turned his deep grey eye to 
 ward the little group on the green, and his face lightened 
 up, as he surveyed the athletic form and vigorous propor 
 tions of the young patrician, and he leaned toward the 
 officer, who rode beside him, a high crested tribune of the 
 tenth legion, and enquired his name audibly. 
 
 The soldier, who had been nodding drowsily over his 
 charger s neck, tired by the long and dusty ride, looked 
 up half bewildered, for he had taken no note of the spec 
 tators, but as his eyes met those of Arvina, he smiled and 
 waved his hand, for they were old companions, and he 
 laughed as he gave the required information to the ari- 
 
 o 
 
 cient warrior. 
 
 The gaze of the old man fell next on the lovely linea 
 ments of Julia, and dwelt there so long that the girl low 
 ered her eyes abashed ; but, when she again raised 
 them, supposing that he had passed by, she still met the 
 firm, penetrating, quiet gaze, ri vetted on her face, for he 
 had turned half round in the saddle as he rode along. 
 
 A milder light came into his keen, hawk-like eye, and a 
 benignant smile illuminated his gray weather-beaten fea 
 tures, as he surveyed and marked the ingenuous and art 
 less beauty of her whole form arid face ; and he whispered 
 
136 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 into the tribune s ear something that made him too tur 
 back, and wave his hand to Paul, and laugh merrily. 
 
 "Now, drive us homeward, Paullus," said Hortensia, as 
 the cohort of infantry which closed the procession, march 
 ed steadily along, dusty and dark with sweat, yet proud in 
 their magnificent array, and solid in their iron discipline. 
 " Drive us homeward as quickly as you may. You will dine 
 with us, and if you must need go early to your meeting, 
 we will not hinder you." 
 
 " Gladly will I dine with you ; but I must say farewell 
 soon after the third hour !" 
 
 They soon arrived at the hospitable villa, and shortly 
 afterward the pleasant and social meal was served. But 
 Paul was not himself, though the lips he loved best poured 
 forth their fluent music in his ear, and the eyes which he 
 deemed the brightest, laughed on him in their speaking 
 fondness. 
 
 Still he was sad, silent, and abstracted, and Julia mark 
 ed it all ; and when he rose to say farewell, just as the ear 
 liest shades of night were falling, she arose too ; and as she 
 accompanied him to the door, leaning familiarly on his arm, 
 she said 
 
 "You have not told me all, Paullus. I thought so while 
 you were yet speaking ; but now I am sure of it. I will 
 not vex you at this time with questions, but will devour 
 my anxiety and grief. But to-morrow, to-morrow, Paullus, 
 if you love me indeed, you will tell me all that disturbs 
 you. True love has no concealment from true love. Do 
 not, I pray you, answer me; but fare you well, and good 
 fortunes follow you." 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 137 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE AMBUSH. 
 
 My friends. 
 That is not so. Sir, we are your enemies. 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN ow ViROKA. 
 
 IT was already near the fourth hour of the Roman night, 
 or about a quarter past eight of our time, when Paullus is 
 sued from the Capuan gate, in order to keep his appoint 
 ment with the conspirator ; and bold as he was, and fearless 
 under v ordinary circumstances, it would be useless to deny 
 that his heart beat fast and anxiously under his steel cuirass, 
 as he strode rapidly along the Appian way to the place of 
 meeting. 
 
 The sun had long since set, and the moon, which was in 
 her last quarter, had not as yet risen ; so that, although the 
 skies were perfectly clear and cloudless, there was but 
 little light by which to direct his foot-steps toward the 
 valley of the Muses, had he not been already familiar with 
 the way. 
 
 Stepping out rapidly, for he was fearful now of being 
 too late at the place appointed, he soon passed the two 
 branches of the beautiful and sparkling Almo, wherein the 
 priests of Cybele were wont to lave the statue of their 
 goddess, amid the din of brazen instruments and sacred 
 song; and a little further on, arrived at the cross-road 
 where the way to Ardea, in the Latin country, branched 
 off to the right hand from the great Appian turnpike. 
 
 - 
 
138 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 At this point there was a small temple sacred to Bac 
 chus, and a little grove of elms and plane trees overrun 
 with vines, on which the ripe clusters consecrated to the 
 Grod were hanging yet, though the season of the vintage 
 had elapsed, safe from the hand of passenger or truant 
 school-boy. 
 
 Turning around the angle of this building, Arvina entered 
 a dim lane, overshadowed by the tall trees of the grove, 
 which wound over two or three little hillocks, and then 
 sweeping downward to the three kindred streamlets, which 
 form the sources of the Almo, followed their right bank up 
 the valley of the Muses. 
 
 Had the mind of Arvina been less agitated than it was 
 by dark and ominous forebodings, that walk had been a 
 pleasant one, in the calm and breezeless evening. The 
 stars were shining by thousands in the deep azure sky ; 
 the constant chirrup of the shrill-voiced cicala, not mute as 
 yet, although his days of tuneful life were well nigh ended, 
 rose cheerfully above the rippling murmurs of the waters, 
 and the mysterious rustling of the herbage rejoicing to 
 drink up the copious dew ; and heard by fits and starts 
 from the thick clumps of arbutus on the hills, or the thorn 
 bushes on the water s brink, the liquid notes of the night 
 ingale gushed out, charming the ear of darkness. 
 
 For the first half mile of his walk, the young patrician 
 met several persons on the way two or three pairs of lov 
 ers, as they seemed, of the lower orders, strolling affection 
 ately homeward; a party of rural slaves returning from 
 their labours on some suburban farm, to their master s 
 house ; and more than one loaded chariot ; but beyond this 
 all was lonely and silent, with the exception of the stream, 
 the insects, and the vocal night-bird. 
 
 There was no sound or sight that would seem to indi 
 cate the vicinity of any human being, as Arvina, passing 
 the mouth of a small gorge or hollow scooped out of the 
 bosom of a soft green hill, paused at the arch of a low but 
 richly ornamented grotto, hollowed out of the face of the 
 rock, and supported by a vault of reticulated brick-work, 
 decorated elegantly with reliefs of marble and rich stucco. 
 The soft green mosses and dark tendrils of the waving ivy, 
 which drooped down from the rock and curtained well 
 nigh half the opening, rendered the grotto very dark with- 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 139 
 
 in. And it was a moment or two before Paullus discovered 
 that he was alone in that secluded place, or in the company 
 only of the old marble god, who, reclining on a couch of the 
 same material at the farther end of the cave, poured forth 
 his bright waters from an inverted jar, into the clear cool 
 basin which filled the centre of the place. 
 
 He was surprised not a little at finding himself the 
 first at the place of meeting, for he was conscious that 
 he was behind his time; and had, indeed, come somewhat 
 late on purpose, with a view of taking his stand as if natu 
 rally during the interview, between the conspirator and 
 the cave mouth. 
 
 It was not, however, altogether a matter of regret to him, 
 that he had gained a little time, for the folds of his toga 
 required some adjustment, in order to enable him to get 
 readily at the hilt of his sword, and the mouth-piece of his 
 hunting-horn, which he carried beneath his gown. And he 
 applied himself to that purpose immediately, congratulat 
 ing himself, as he did so, on the failure of his first project, 
 and thinking how much better it would be for him to stand 
 as far as possible from the entrance, so as to avoid even 
 the few rays of dim star-light, which crept in through the 
 tangled ivy. 
 
 This was soon done ; and in accordance with his after 
 thought, he sat down on a projecting angle of the statue s 
 marble couch, in the inmost corner of the vault, facing the 
 door, and having the pool of the fountain interposed be 
 tween that and himself. 
 
 For a few moments he sat thinking anxiously about the 
 interview, which he believed, not without cause, was like 
 ly to prove embarrassing, at least, if not perilous. But, 
 when he confessed to himself, which he was very soon 
 compelled to do, that he could shape nothing of his own 
 course, until he should hear what were the plans in which 
 Catiline desired his cooperation ; and when time fled and 
 the man came not, his mind began to wander, and to think 
 about twenty gay and pleasant subjects entirely discon 
 nected with the purpose for which he had come thither. 
 Then he fell gradually into a sort of waking dream, or vi 
 sion, as it were, of wandering fancies, made up partly of the 
 sounds which he actually heard with his outward ears, 
 though his mind took but little note of them, and partly of 
 
140 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 the occurrences in which he had been mixed up, and the 
 persons with whom he had been brought into contact with 
 in the last two or three days. The gory visage of the mur 
 dered slave, the sweet and calm expression of his own 
 Julia, the truculent eyes and sneering lip of Catiline, and 
 the veiled glance and voluptuous smile of his too se 
 ductive daughter, whirled still before him in a strange 
 sort of human phantasmagoria, with the deep searching 
 look of the consul orator, the wild glare of the slaughtered 
 Volero, and the stern face, grand and proud in his last 
 agony, of the dying Varus. 
 
 In this mood he had forgotten altogether where he was, 
 and on what purpose, when a deep voice aroused him with 
 a start, and though he had neither heard his footstep, nor 
 seen him enter, Catiline stood beside his elbow. 
 
 " What ho !" he exclaimed, " Paullus, have I detained 
 you long in this dark solitude." 
 
 " Nay, I know not how long," replied the other, " for I 
 had fallen into strange thoughts, and forgotten altogether 
 the lapse of time ; but here have I been since the fourth 
 hour." 
 
 "And it is now already past the fifth," said Cataline, "but 
 come, we must make up for the loss of time. Some friends 
 of mine are waiting for us, to whom I wish to introduce you, 
 that you may become altogether one of us, and take the 
 oaths of fidelity. Give me the dagger now, and let us be 
 going on our way." 
 
 " I have it not with me, Catiline." 
 
 "Have it not with you! Wherefore not? wherefore 
 not, I say, boy 1" cried the conspirator, very savagely. "By 
 all the furies in deep hell, you were better not dally with 
 me." 
 
 " Because it is no longer in my possession ; and therefore 
 I could not bring it with me," he replied firmly, for the 
 threats of the other only inflamed his pride, and so increas 
 ed his natural courage. 
 
 " By the Gods, you brave me, then !" exclaimed Catiline ; 
 "fool ! fool ! beware how you tamper with your fate. Speak 
 instantly, speak out : to whom have you dared give it ?" 
 
 " There was no daring in the matter, Catiline," he an 
 swered steadily, keeping an eye on the arch-traitor s move 
 ments ; "before I knew that it was yours, I sent it, as I had 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 141 
 
 promised, to Cicero, with word that Volero could tell him 
 who was the owner of it." 
 
 "Ha, didst thou so 1 ?" said the other, mastering instantly 
 his fury, in his desire to make himself fully acquainted with 
 all that had passed. "When was all this] has he seen 
 Volero, and learned the secret of him, then]" 
 
 " I sent it, Catiline, within an hour of the time I left the 
 Campus yesterday." 
 
 " Before coming to my house to dinner?" 
 
 " Before going to thy house to dinner, Sergius." 
 
 " Before seducing Lucia Orestilla V again sneered the 
 desperate villain. 
 
 "Before yielding," answered the young man, who was 
 now growing angry, for his temper was not of the meekest, 
 "to her irresistible seduction." 
 
 "Ha! yielding well! we will speak of that hereafter. 
 Hath the consul seen Volero ]" 
 
 " He hath seen him dead ; and how dead, Catiline best 
 knoweth." 
 
 "It was, then, thou, whom I saw in the feeble lamplight 
 with the accursed wretch that crosses my path everywhere, 
 the dastard, drivelling dotard of Arpinum ; thou that despite 
 thine oath, didst lead him to detect the man, thou hadst 
 sworn to obey, and follow! Thou! it is thou, then, that hound- 
 est mine enemies upon my track! By the great Gods, I 
 know not whether most to marvel at the sublime, unrivalled 
 folly, which could lead thee to fancy, that thou, a mere boy 
 and tyro, couldst hoodwink eyes like mine ; or at the daring 
 which could prompt thee to rush headlong on thine own ruin 
 in betraying me! Boy, thou hast but one course left; to 
 join us heart and hand ; to go and renew thine oath in such 
 fashion as even thou, premeditated perjurer, wilt not pre 
 sume to break, and then to seal thy faith by the blood" 
 
 "Of whom?" 
 
 "Of this new man ; this pedant consul of Arpinum." 
 
 "Aye!" exclaimed Paullus, as if half tempted to accede 
 to his proposal ; "and if I do so, what shall I gain thereby 1" 
 
 "Lucia, I might say," answered Catiline,, "but seeing 
 that possession damps something at all times the fierce 
 ness of pursuit what if I should reply, the second place in 
 Rome]" 
 
 < In Rome ?" 
 
142 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " When we have beaten down the proud patricians to 
 our feet, and raised the conquering ensign of democratic 
 sway upon the ramparts of the capitol ; when Rome and 
 all that she contains of bright and beautiful, shall be our 
 heritage and spoil ; the second place, I say, in regenerated 
 Rome, linked, too, to everlasting glory." 
 
 " And the first place ]" 
 
 J3y Mars the great avenger ! dost soar so high a pitch 
 already 1 ho ! boy, the first is mine, by right, as by daring. 
 How say you ? are you mine]" 
 
 "If I say no!" 
 
 " Thou diest on the instant." 
 
 " I think not," replied Arvina quietly, "and I do answer 
 No." 
 
 " Then perish, fool, in thy folly." 
 
 And leaping forward he dealt him a blow with a long 
 two-edged dagger, which he had held in his hand naked, 
 during the whole discussion, in readiness for the moment 
 he anticipated ; and at the same instant uttered a loud clear 
 whistle. 
 
 To his astonishment the blade glanced off the breast of 
 the young man, and his arm was stunned nearly to the 
 shoulder by the unexpected resistance of the stout cors 
 let. The whistle was answered, however, the very moment 
 it was uttered ; and just as he saw Paullus spring to the 
 farther side of the cavern, and set Jiis back against the 
 wall, unsheathing a heavy broadsword of the short Roman 
 fashion, three stout men entered the mouth of the cave, 
 heavily armed with weapons of offence, although they wore 
 no defensive armor. 
 
 " Give me a sword," shouted the fierce conspirator, fu 
 rious at being foiled, and perceiving that his whole enter 
 prise depended on the young man s destruction. "He is 
 armed under his gown with a breast-plate ! Give me a sword, 
 and then set on him all at once. So that will do, now, on." 
 
 " Hold, Sergius Catiline," exclaimed Arvina, "hold, or by 
 all the Gods you will repent it. If you have three men at 
 your back I have full five times three within call." 
 
 " Call them, then !" answered the other, making at him, 
 " call them ! think you again to fool me ? Ho, Geta and 
 Arminius, get round the fountain and set on him ! make 
 haste I say kill kill." 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 143 
 
 And with the word he rushed at him, aiming a fierce 
 blow at his head, while the others a moment afterward 
 charged on him from the other side. 
 
 But during the brief parley Arvina had disengaged the 
 folds of his gown from his right shoulder, and wrapped it 
 closely about his left arm, and when Catiline rushed in he 
 parried the blow with his sword, and raising the little horn 
 he carried, to his lips, blew a long piercing call, which was 
 answered by a loud shout close at hand, and by the rush of 
 many feet without the grotto. 
 
 Catiline was himself astonished at the unexpected aid, 
 for he had taken the words of the young patrician for 
 a mere boast. But his men were alarmed and fell back 
 in confusion, while Paul, profiting by their hesitation, 
 sprang with a quick active bound across the basin of the 
 fountain, and gained the cavern s mouth just as his stout 
 freedman Thrasea showed himself in the entrance with a 
 close casque and cuirass of bronze, and a boar spear in 
 his hand, the heads and weapons of several other able- 
 bodied men appearing close behind. 
 
 At the head of these Arvina placed himself instantly, 
 having his late assailants hemmed in by a force, against 
 which they now could not reasonably hope to struggle. 
 
 But Paullus showed no disposition to take undue ad 
 vantage of his superiority, for he said in a calm steady 
 voice, " I leave you now, my friend ; and it will not be 
 my fault, if aught that has passed here, is remembered 
 any farther. None here have seen you, or know who 
 you are ; and you may rest assured that for Tier sake and 
 mine own honor, if I join not your plans, I will not betray 
 you, or reveal your counsels. To that I am sworn, and come 
 what may, my oath shall not be broken." 
 
 "Tush," cried the other, maddened by disappointment, 
 and filled with desperate apprehensions, "men trust not 
 avowed traitors. Upon them, I say, you dogs. Let there be 
 forty of them, but four can stand abreast in the entrance, 
 and we can front them, four as good as they. 
 
 And he again dashed at Arvina, without waiting to see 
 if his gladiators meant to second his attack ; but they hung 
 back, reluctant to fight against such odds ; for, though 
 brave men, and accustomed to risk their lives, without 
 quarrel or excitement, for the gratification of the brute po- 
 
144 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 pulace of Rome, they had come to the cave of Egeria, pre 
 pared for assassination, not for battle; and their antagonists 
 were superior to them as much in accoutrement and arms 
 for their bronze head-pieces were seen distinctly glimmer 
 ing in the rays of the rising moon as in numbers. 
 
 The blades of the leaders clashed together, and several 
 quick blows and parries had been interchanged, during 
 which Thrasea, had he riot been restrained by his young 
 master s orders, might easily have stabbed the conspirator 
 with his boar-spear. But he held back at first, waiting 
 a fresh command, until seeing that none came, and that the 
 unknown opponent was pressing his lord hard ; while 
 the gladiators, apparently encouraged by his apathy, 
 were beginning to handle their weapons, he shifted his 
 spear in his hands, and stepping back a pace, so as to 
 give full scope to a sweeping blow, he flourished the butt, 
 which was garnished with a heavy ball of metal, round his 
 head in a figure of eight, and brought it down so heavily 
 on the felt skull-cap of the conspirator, that his teeth jarred 
 audibly together, a quick flash sprang across his eyes, and 
 he fell, stunned and senseless, at the feet of his intended 
 victim. 
 
 " Hold, Thrasea, hold," cried Paullus, " by the Gods ! you 
 have slain him." 
 
 " No, I have not. No ! no ! his head is too hard for that," 
 answered the freedman ; " I felt my staff rebound from the 
 bone, which it would not have done, had the skull been frac 
 tured. No ! he is not dead, though he deserved to die very 
 richly." 
 
 " I am glad of it," replied Paullus. I would not have him 
 killed, for many reasons. Now, hark ye, ye scoundrels 
 and gallows-birds! most justly are your lives forfeit, whe 
 ther it seem good to me to take them here this moment, or 
 to drag you away, and hand you over to the lictors of the 
 city-praetor, as common robbers and assassins." 
 
 " That you cannot do, whilst we live, most noble," an 
 swered the boldest of the gladiators, sullenly ; " and you 
 cannot, I think, take our lives, without leaving some of 
 your own on our swords points." 
 
 " Brave me not," cried the young man, sternly, " lest you 
 drive me to do that I would not. Your lives, I say, are for 
 feit ; but, seeing that I love not bloodshed, I leave you, for 
 
DATS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 145 
 
 this time, unpunished. Take up the master whom you 
 serve, and bear him home ; and, when he shall be able to re 
 ceive it, tell him Paullus Arvina pardons his madness, 
 pities his fears, and betrays no man s trust least of all 
 his. For the rest, let him choose between enmity and 
 friendship. I care not which it be. . I can defend my own 
 life, and assail none. Beware how you follow us. If you 
 do, by all the Gods ! you die. See, he begins to stir. 
 Come, Thrasea, call off your men ; we will go, ere he come 
 to his senses, lest worse shall befal." 
 
 And with the words he turned his back contemptuously 
 on the crest-fallen gladiators, and strode haughtily across 
 the threshold, leaving the fierce conspirator, as he was be 
 ginning to recover his scattered senses, to the keen agony 
 of conscious villainy frustrated, and the stings of defeated 
 pride and disappointed malice. 
 
 The night^ras well advanced, when he reached his own 
 house, having met no interruption on the way, proud ot 
 his well-planned stratagem, elated by success, and flatter 
 ed by the hope that he had extricated himself by his own 
 energy from all the perils which had of late appeared so 
 -dark and difficult to shun. 
 
 13 
 
146 THE ROMAN TRAITORJ OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE WANTON. 
 
 Durl tnagno sed amore doloreS " " 
 Polluto, notuiuque furens quid feniina possit. 
 JEx. T. 6. VIRGIL. 
 
 IT was not till a late hour on the following day, that 
 Catiline awoke from the heavy and half lethargic slumber, 
 which had fallen upon him after the severe and stunning 
 blow he received in the grotto of Egeria. 
 
 His head ached fearfully, his tongue clove to his palate 
 parched with fever, and all his muscular frame was dis 
 jointed and unstrung, so violently had his nerves been 
 shattered. 
 
 For some time after he awoke, he lay tossing to and 
 fro, on his painful couch, scarce conscious of his own iden 
 tity, and utterly forgetful of the occurrences of the past 
 evening. 
 
 By slow degrees, however, the truth began to dawn 
 upon him, misty at first and Confused, until he brought to 
 his mind fairly the attack on Arvina, and the affray which 
 ensued; with something of an indistinct consciousness that 
 he had been stricken down, and frustrated in his murder 
 ous attempt. 
 
 As soon as the certainty of this was impressed on him, 
 he sprang up from his bed, with his wonted impetuosity, 
 and inquired vehemently of a freedman, who sat in his 
 chamber motionless as a statue in expectation of his wak 
 ing 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 147 
 
 " How came I home, Chserea 1 and at what hour of 
 night?" 
 
 * Grievously wounded, Catiline ; and supported in the 
 arms of the sturdy Germans, Geta and Arminius ; and, 
 for the time, it was past the eighth hour." 
 
 " The eighth hour ! impossible !" cried the conspirator; 
 " why it was but the fifth, when that occurred. What 
 said I, my good Chserea ? What said the Germans ? Be 
 they here now 1 Answer me quick, I pray you." 
 
 " There was but one word on your lips, Catiline ; a con 
 stant cry for water, water, so long as you were awake ; 
 and after we had given you of it, as much as you would 
 take, and you had fallen into a disturbed and feverish 
 sleep, you still muttered in your dreams, water ! The 
 Germans answered nothing, though all the household 
 questioned them; and, in good truth, Catiline, it was 
 not very long that they were capable of answering, for as 
 soon as you were in bed, they called for wine, and in less 
 than an hour were thoroughly besotted and asleep. They 
 are here yet, I think, sleeping away the fumes of their 
 potent flagons." 
 
 " Call me Arminius, hither. Hold ! What is the time 
 of day." 
 
 " The sun is high already ; it must be now near the 
 fourth hour!" 
 
 . " So late ! you did ill, Chaerea, to let me lie so long. 
 Call me Arminius hither ; and send me one of the boys ; 
 or rather go yourself, Chaerea, and pray Cornelius Lentulus 
 the PrEetor, to visit me before he take his seat on the Pu- 
 teal Libonis. It is his day, I think, to take cognizance of 
 criminal matters. Begone, and do my bidding !" 
 
 Within a moment the Athenian freedman, for he was of 
 that proud though fallen city, returned conducting the 
 huge German gladiator, whose bewildered air and blood 
 shot eyes seemed to betoken that he had not as yet recov 
 ered fully from the effect of his last night s potations. 
 
 No finer contrast could be imagined by poet or painter, 
 than was presented by those three men, each eminently 
 striking in his own style, and characteristic of his nation. 
 The tall spare military -looking Roman, with his hawk 
 nose and eagle eye, and close shaved face and short black 
 hair, his every attitude and look and gesture full of prido 
 
148 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 and dominion ; the versatile and polished Greek, beautiful 
 both in form and face, as a marble of Praxiteles, beaming 
 with intellect, and having every feature eloquent of poetry 
 and imagination, and something of contempt for the 
 sterner and harder type of mind, to which he and his 
 countryman were subjugated ; and last, the wild strong- 
 limbed yet stolid-looking German, glaring out with his 
 bright blue eyes, full of a sort of stupid fierceness, from 
 the long curls of his auburn hair, a type of man in his 
 most primitive state, the hunter and the warrior of the 
 forest, enslaved by Rome s insatiate ambition. 
 
 Catiline looked at him fiercely for a moment, and then 
 nodded his head, as if in assent to som3 of his own medi 
 tations ; then muttering to himself, " the boar ! the mast-fed 
 German boar!" he turned to the Greek, saying sharply 
 
 " Art thou not gone to Lentulus ? methought thou 
 hadst been thither, and returned ere this time ! Yet tarry, 
 since thou art here still. Are any of my clients in the 
 atrium any, I mean, of the trustiest!" 
 
 " Rufinus, surnamed Lupus, is without, and several 
 others. Stolo, whom you preserved from infamy, when 
 accused of dolus mains, in the matter of assault with arms 
 on Publius Natro, is waiting to solicit you, I fancy, for 
 some favor." 
 
 " The very man the Wolf is the very man ! and your 
 suitor for favors cannot refuse to confer what he requests. 
 Stay my Chaerea. Send Glycon to summon Lentulus, and 
 go yourself and find out what is Stolo s suit. Assure him ot 
 my friendship and support ; and, hark you, have him and 
 Rufinus into an inner chamber, and set bread before them 
 and strong wine, and return to me presently. Now, then, 
 Arminius," he continued, as the Greek left the room, 
 * what did we do last night, and what befel us ? for 1 can 
 remember nothing clearly." 
 
 The giant shook his tawny locks away from his brow, 
 and gazed into his employer s face with a look of stolid 
 inquiry, and then answered 
 
 " Do ! we did nothing, that I know ! We followed the 
 as in duty bound to that cave by the Almo; and when we 
 had stayed there awhile, we brought thee back again, 
 seeing thou couldst not go alone. What can I tell ? 
 you know yourself why you took us thither." 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 149 
 
 "Thou stupid brute!" retorted Catiline, "or worse 
 than brute, rather for brutes augment not their brutish- 
 ness by gluttony and wine-bibbing thou art asleep yet ! 
 see if this will awaken thee !" 
 
 And with the word he snatched up a large brazen ewer 
 full of cold water, which stood on a slab near him, and 
 hurled it at his head. The gladiator stood quite still, and 
 merely bent his neck a little to avoid the heavy vessel, 
 which almost grazed his temples, and then shook himself 
 like a water spaniel, as the contents flashed full into his 
 face and eyes. 
 
 " Do not do that again," he grunted, " unless you want 
 to have your throat squeezed." 
 
 " By Pollux the pugilist ! he threatens !" exclaimed 
 Catiline, laughing at his dogged anger. " Do you not 
 know, cut-throat, that one word of mine can have your 
 tough hide slashed with whips in the common gaol, till 
 your very bones are bare 1" 
 
 " And do you know what difference it makes, whether 
 my hide be slashed with dog-whips in the gaol, or with 
 broadswords in the amphitheatre 1 A man can only die ! 
 and it were as well, in" my mind, to die having killed a 
 Roman in his own house, as a countryman on the arena." 
 
 " By all the Gods !" cried Catiline, " he is a philosopher ! 
 but, look you here, my German Solon, you were better 
 regard me, and attend to what I tell you; so may you 
 escape both gaol and amphitheatre. Tell me, briefly, dis 
 tinctly, and without delay, what fell out last evening." 
 
 " You led us to assault that younker, whom you know; 
 and when we would have set upon him, and finished his 
 business easily, he blew a hunting horn, and fifteen or 
 sixteen stout fellows in full armor came down the bank 
 from behind and shut up the cave s mouth you know 
 as well as I do." 
 
 " So far I do, most certainly," replied the conspirator, 
 " but what then 1" 
 
 " Why, then, thou wouldest not hear reason ; but, 
 though the youth swore he would not betray thee, must 
 needs lay on, one man against sixteen; and so, as was 
 like, gottest thine head broken by a blow of a boar-spear 
 from a great double-handed Thracian. For my part, I won 
 dered he did not put the sT)par-head through and through 
 
150 THE ROMAN TRAITOR } OR, THE 
 
 you. It was a great pity that he did not ; it would have 
 saved us all, and you especially, a world of trouble." 
 
 " And you, cowardly dogs, forsook me ; and held back, 
 when by a bold rush we might easily have slain him, and 
 cut bur way through the dastard slaves." 
 
 "No! no! we could not; they were all Thracians, 
 Dacians, and Pannonians; and were completely armed, 
 too. We might have killed him, very likely, but we could 
 never have escaped ourselves." 
 
 " And he, he 1 what became of him when I had fallen 1" 
 " He bade us take you up," replied the German, " and 
 carry you home, and tell you to fear nothing, he would 
 betray no man, least of all you. He is a fine young fel 
 low, in my judgment ; for he might just as well have killed 
 us all, as not, if he had been so minded ; and I can t say 
 but that it would have served us rightly, for taking odds 
 of four to one upon a single man. That is, I know, 
 what you Romans call fighting ; beyond the Rhine we 
 style it cowardly and murder ! Then, after that he went 
 off with his men, leaving us scratching our heads, and 
 looking as dastardly and crest-fallen as could be. And 
 then we brought you home hither, after it had got late 
 enough to carry you through the streets, without making 
 an uproar ; and then Lydon and Chaerea put you to bed ; 
 and I, and Geta, and Ardaric, as for us, we got drunk, 
 seeing there was 110 more work to do last night, and not 
 knowing what might be to do, to-day. And so it is all 
 well, very well, as I see it." 
 
 " Well, call you it, when he has got off unscathed, and 
 lives to avenge himself, and betray me]" 
 
 " But he swore he would do neither, Catiline," answer 
 ed the simple-minded son of the forest. 
 
 " Swore !" replied the conspirator, with a fell sneer. 
 " Ay did he, master ! swore by all that was sacred he 
 would never betray any man, and you least of all ; and I 
 believe he will keep his promise." 
 
 "So do I," answered Catiline, bitterly, "I swear he 
 shall ; not for the lack of will, but of means to do other 
 wise ! You are a stupid brute, Arminius ; but useful in 
 your way. I have no need of you to-day, so go and tell 
 the butler to give you wine enough to make all three or 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 151 
 
 you drunk again ; but mind that ye are sound, clear-head 
 ed, and alert at day-break to-morrow." 
 
 " But will he give it to me at my bidding ]" 
 
 "If not, send him to me for orders ; now, begone." 
 
 " I ask for nothing better," replied the gladiator,* and 
 withdrew, without any word or gesture of salutation, 
 in truth, despising the Roman in his heart as deeply for 
 what he deemed his over-craftiness and over-civilization, as 
 the more polished Greek did, for what on his side he con 
 sidered the utter absence of both. 
 
 Scarce had the German left the room, before the Greek 
 returned, smiling, and seemingly well satisfied with the 
 result of his mission. 
 
 Catiline looked at him steadily, and nodding his head, 
 asked him quietly 
 
 " Are they prepared, Cheerea 1" 
 
 " To do anything you would have them, Catiline. Stolo, 
 it seems, is again emperilled another charge ol attempt 
 to murder and he wants you to screen him." 
 
 " And so I will ; and will do more. I will make him 
 rich and great, if he do my bidding. Now go, arid make 
 them understand this. They must swear that they came 
 hither this morning to claim my aid in bringing them to 
 speech with Lentulus, the Praetor, and then thou must be 
 prepared to swear, Choerea, that I have had no speech or 
 communication with them at all which is quite true." 
 
 " That is a pity," answered the Greek, coolly ; " for any 
 one can swear steadily to the truth, but it requires genius 
 to carry out a lie bravely." 
 
 " Oh ! never fear, thou shalt have lies enough to swear to ! 
 Now mark me, when Lentulus comes hither, they must 
 accuse to him Paiillus Ceecilius Arvina, whose person, 
 if they know him not, you must describe to them him who 
 dined with me, you know, the day before yesterday of 
 subornation to commit murder. The place where he did so, 
 the top of the Caelian hill. The time, sunrise on that same 
 day. The person whom he desired them to slay, Volero 
 the cutler, who dwelt in the Sacred Way. They must 
 make up the tale their own way, but to these facts they 
 must swear roundly. Do you understand me T 
 
 " Perfectly ; they shall do it well, and both be in one 
 tale. I will help them to concoct it, and dress it up with 
 
152 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 little truthful incidents that will tell. But are you sure 
 that he cannot prove he was not there 1" 
 
 " Quite sure, Chaerea. For he was there." 
 
 " And no witnesses who can prove to whom he spoke T 
 
 " Only one witness, and he will say nothing, unless call 
 ed upon by Paullus." 
 
 " Arid if so called upon V 9 
 
 " Will most reluctantly corroborate the tale of Stolo and 
 Rufinus !" 
 
 " Ha ! ha !" laughed the freedman, " thou shouldst have 
 been a Greek, Catiline, thou art too shrewd to be a mere 
 Roman." 
 
 " A mere Roman, hang-dog !" answered Catiline, " but 
 thou knowest thine opportunity, and profitest by it ! so let 
 it pass ! Now as for thee, seeing thou dost love lying, 
 thou shalt have thy part. Thou shalt swear that the night 
 before that same morning, at a short time past midnight, 
 thou wert returning by the Wicked street, from the house 
 of Autronius upon the Quirinal, whither I sent thee to bid 
 him to dinner the next day he shall confirm the tale when 
 thou didst hear a cry of murder from the Plebeian grave 
 yard on the Esquiline ; and hurrying to the spot, didst see 
 Arvina, with his freedman Thrasea bearing a torch, con 
 ceal a fresh bleeding body in a broken grave ; and, hidden 
 by the stem of a great tree thyself, didst hear him say, as 
 he left the ground, That dog will tell no tales ! Thou must 
 swear, likewise, that thou didst tell me the whole affair the 
 next morning, and that I bade thee wait for farther proof 
 ere speaking of the matter. And again, that we visited 
 the spot where thou saw st the deed, and found the grass 
 trampled and bloody, but could not find the body. Canst 
 thou do this, thinkest thou ]" 
 
 " Surely I can," said the Athenian, rubbing his hands as 
 if well pleased, "so that no one shalt doubt the truth of it! 
 Arid thou wilt confirm the truth ?" 
 
 " By chiding thee for speaking out of place. See that 
 thou blurt it out abruptly, as if unable to keep silence any 
 longer, as soon as the others have finished their tale. Be 
 gone and be speedy. Lentulus will be here anon !" 
 
 The freedman withdrew silently, and Catiline was left 
 alone in communion with his own bad and bitter thoughts ; 
 and painful, as it seemed, and terrible, even to himself, was 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 153 
 
 that communion, for he rose up from his seat and paced 
 the room impetuously, to and fro, gnashing and grinding 
 his teeth, and biting his lips till the blood sprang out. 
 
 After a while, however, he mastered his passions, and 
 began to dress himself, which he did by fits and starts in a 
 manner perfectly characteristic of the man, uttering hide 
 ous imprecations if the least thing ran counter to his wish 
 es, and flinging the various articles of his attire about the 
 chamber with almost frantic violence. 
 
 By the time he had finished dressing himself, Lentulus 
 was announced, and entered with his dignified and haughty 
 manner, not all unmixed with an air of-indolence. 
 
 " All hail, my Sergius," he exclaimed, as he crossed the 
 threshold. " \Vhat hast thou of so grave importance, that 
 thou must intercept me on my way to the judgment seat . 
 Nothing has gone wrong in our councils ha ]" 
 
 " Nothing that I know," answered Catiline, " but here 
 are two of my trustiest clients, Stolo and Rufinus,have been 
 these three hours waiting for my awakening, that I might 
 gain your ear for them. They sent me word they had a 
 very heavy charge to make to you ;Tmt for my part, I have 
 not seen them, and know not what it is." 
 
 " Tush ! tush ! man ; never tell me that," replied Len 
 tulus, with a grim smile. " Do you think I will believe you 
 have sent for me all the way hither this morning, without 
 some object of your own to serve 1 No ! no ! my friend ; 
 with whomsoever that may pass, it will not go curren*" 
 with Cornelius Lentulus !" 
 
 " Just as you please," said the traitor; " you may believe 
 me or not exactly as you choose ; but it is true, neverthe 
 less, that I have neither seen the men, nor spoken with 
 them. Nor do I know at all what they want." 
 
 " I would, then, you had not sent for me," answered the 
 other. " Come, let us have the knaves in. I suppose they 
 have been robbing some one s hen-roost, and want to lay 
 the blame on some one else !" 
 
 "What ho! Cheerea." 
 
 And as he spoke the word, the curtain which covered 
 the door-way was withdrawn, and the keen-witted freed- 
 man made his appearance. 
 
 " Admit those fellows, Stolo and Rufinus, The praetor is 
 prepared to give them a hearing." 
 
154 THE ROMAN TRAITOR ; OR, THE 
 
 It would have been difficult, perhaps, to have selected 
 from the whole population of Rome at that day, a more 
 murderous looking pair of scoundrels. 
 
 " Well, sirrahs, what secrets of the state have you that 
 weigh so ponderously on your wise thoughts ?" asked 
 Lentulus, with a contemptuous sneer. 
 
 " Murder, most noble Lentulus or at least suborna 
 tion thereof," answered one of the ruffians. 
 
 " Most natural indeed ! I should have thought as much. 
 Well, tell us in a word for it is clear that nobody has 
 murdered either of you whom have you murdered V 1 
 
 " If we have murdered no one, it was not for the lack of 
 prompting, or of bribes either." 
 
 "Indeed! I should have thought a moderate bribe would 
 have arranged the matter easily. But come ! come ! to the 
 point ! whom were ye bribed or instigated to get rid of ] 
 speak ! I am in haste !" 
 
 " The cutler, Caius Volero !" 
 
 " Volero ! Ha !" cried Lentulus, starting. " Indeed ! 
 indeed ! that may well be. By whom, then, were you 
 urged to the deed, and when V 
 
 " Paulus Caecilius Arvina tempted us to the deed, by 
 the offer of ten thousand sesterces ! We met him by ap 
 pointment upon the Caelian hill, at the head of the Miner- 
 vium, a little before sunrise, the day before yesterday." 
 
 "Ha!" and for a moment or two Lentulus fixed his 
 eyes upon the ground, and pondered deeply on what he 
 had just heard. "Have ye seen Volero since ]" 
 
 " No, Prsetor." 
 
 " Nor heard anything concerning him ]" 
 
 "Nothing!" said Stolo. But he spoke with a confused 
 air and in an undecided tone, which satisfied the judge 
 that he was speaking falsely. Rufinus interposed, how 
 ever, saying 
 
 " But 1 have, noble Lentulus. I heard say that he was 
 murdered in his own booth, that same night !" 
 
 " Arid having heard this, you told it not to Stolo ?" 
 
 " I never thought about it any more," answered Rufinus 
 doggedly, seeing that he had got into a scrape. 
 
 " That was unfortunate, and somewhat strange, too, see 
 ing that you came hither together to speak about the very 
 man. Now mark me. Volero ivas that night murdered, 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 155 
 
 and it appears to me, that you are bringing this accusation 
 against a young patrician, in order to conceal your own 
 base handiwork in the deed. Fellows, I grievously sus 
 pect you." 
 
 " Wrongfully, then, you do so," answered Stolo, who 
 was the bolder and more ready witted of the two. " Rufi- 
 nus ever was a forgetful fool ; and I trow I am not to be 
 brought into blame for his folly." 
 
 " Well for you, if you be not brought into more than 
 blame ! Now, mark me well ! can you prove where you 
 were that night of the murder, excellent Stolo 1" 
 
 " Ay ! can I," answered the man boldly. " I was with 
 stout Balatro, the fisherman, helping to mend his nets un 
 til the fourth hour, and all his boys were present, helping 
 us. And then we went to a cookshop to get some supper 
 in the ox forum, and thence at the sixth hour we passed 
 across to Lydia s house in the Cyprian lane, a id spent a 
 merry hour or two carousing with her jolly girls. Will that 
 satisfy you, Lentulus ?" 
 
 "Ay, if it can be proved," returned the Preetor. "And 
 you, Rufinus ; can you also show your whereabout that 
 evening?" 
 
 "I can," replied the fellow, "for I was sick abed; and 
 that my wife can show, and Themison the druggist, who 
 lives in the Sacred Way. For she went to get me aikemetic 
 at the third hour ; and I was vomiting all night. A poor 
 hand should I have made that night at murder." 
 
 " So far, then," replied Lentulus, " you have cleared 
 yourselves from suspicion ; but your charge on Arvina 
 needs something more of confirmation, ere I dare cite a 
 Patrician to plead to such a crime! Have you got wit 
 nesses 1 was any one in sight, when he spoke with you on 
 the Minervium?" 
 
 " There was one ; but I know not if he will choose to 
 speak of it?" 
 
 " Who was it?" exclaimed Lentulus, growing a little 
 anxious on the subject, for though he cared little enough 
 about Arvina, he was yet unwilling to see a Patrician ar 
 raigned for so small a matter, as was in his eyes the mur 
 der of a mechanic. 
 
 " Why should he not speak 1 I warrant you I will find 
 means to make him." 
 
156 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " It was my patron, Lentulus." 
 
 "Your patron! man!" he cried, much astonished. 
 What, Catiline, here 1" 
 
 " Catiline it was! my Praetor." 
 
 " And have you consulted with him, ere you spoke with 
 me V\ 
 
 " Not so ! most noble, for he would not admit us !" 
 
 " Speak, Sergius. Is this so ? did you behold these fel 
 lows in deep converse with Caecilius Arvina, in the Miner- 
 vium 1 But no ! it must be folly ! for what should you 
 have been doing there at sunrise !" 
 
 " I prithee do not ask me, Lentulus," answered Catiline, 
 with an air of well feigned reluctance. " I hate law suits 
 arid judicial inquiries, and I love young Arvina." 
 
 " Then you did see them 1 Nay ! nay! you must speak 
 out. I do adjure you, Catiline, by all the Gods ! were 
 you, at sunrise, on the Ccelian, and did you see Arvina arid 
 these two V 
 
 " I was, at sunrise, on the Caelian ; and I did see them." 
 
 "And heard you what they said 1" 
 
 " No ! but their faces were grave and earnest; and they 
 seemed angry as they separated." 
 
 " Ha ! In itself only, this were a little thing; but when 
 it turns out that the man was slain that same night, the 
 thing grows serious. You, therefore, I shall detain here as 
 witnesses, and partially suspected. Some of your slaves 
 must guard them, Catiline, and I will send a lictor to cite 
 Paullus, that he appear before me after the session at the 
 Puteal Libonis. I am in haste. Farewell !" 
 
 "Me! me! hear me! good Lentulus hear me!" ex 
 claimed Chserea, springing forward, all vehemence and 
 eagerness to speak, as it would seem, ere he should be in 
 terrupted. 
 
 " ChaereaT cried Catiline, looking sternly at him, and 
 shaking his finger, " Remember !" 
 
 "No! "no!" replied Chaerea "no! no! Iwillnothold 
 my peace ! No ! Catiline, you may kill me, if you choose, 
 but I will speak ; to keep this secret any longer would kill 
 me, I tell you." 
 
 " If it do not, I will," answered his master, angrily. 
 
 " This must not be, my Sergius," interposed Lentulus, 
 " let the man speak if he have any light to throw on thia 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 157 
 
 mysterious business. Say on, my good fellow, and I will 
 be your mediator with your master." 
 
 The freedman needed no more exhortation, but pour 
 ed out a flood of eager, anxious narrative, as had been 
 preconcerted between himself and Catiline, speaking with 
 so much vehemence, and displaying so much agitation in 
 all his air and gestures, that he entirely imposed his story 
 upon Lerifulus ; and that Catiline had much difficulty in 
 restraining a smile at the skill of the Greek. 
 
 "Ha! it is very clear," said Lentulus, "he first slew 
 the slave with his ow r n hand, and then would have com 
 passed nay ! I should rather say, has compassed Vole- 
 ro s slaughter, who must some how or other have become 
 privy to the deed. I must have these detained, and him 
 arrested ! There can be no doubt of his guilt, and the peo 
 ple will be, I think, disposed to make an * example; there 
 have of late been many cases of assassination !" 
 
 As soon as they were left alone, Lentulus looked stead 
 ily into the face of his fellow-conspirator for a moment, and 
 then burst into a hoarse laugh. 
 
 " Why all this mummery, my Sergius ?" he added, as 
 soon as he had ceased from laughing, " Or wherefore would 
 you have mystified me too ]" 
 
 " I might have wished to see whether the evidence was 
 like to seem valid to the Judices, from its effect upon the 
 Praetor !" answered the other. 
 
 " And are you satisfied V 
 
 " I am." 
 
 " You may be so, my Sergius, for, of a truth, until 
 Chaerea swore as he did touching Medon, I was myself de 
 ceived." 
 
 " You believe, then, that this will be sufficient to secure 
 his condemnation 1" 
 
 " Beyond doubt. He will be interdicted fire and water, 
 if these men stick to their oaths only. It would be well, 
 perhaps, to convict one of Arvina s slaves of the actual death 
 of Volero. That might be done easily enough, but there 
 must be care taken, that you select one who shall not be 
 able to prove any alibi. But wherefore are you so bent 
 on destroying this youth, and by the law, too, which is ever 
 both perilous and uncertain V 
 
 " He knows too much^ to live without endangering 
 others." 14 
 
158 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 "What knows he?" 
 
 " Who slew Medon Who slew Volero What we pro 
 pose to do, ere long, in the Campus !" answered Catiline, 
 steadily. 
 
 " By all the Gods V 9 cried Lentulus, turning very pale, 
 and remaining silent for some moments. After which he 
 said, with a thoughtful manner, " it would be better to get 
 rid of him quietly." 
 
 " That has been tried too." 
 
 " Well ]" 
 
 " It failed ! He is now on his guard. He is brave, strong, 
 wary. It cannot be done, save thus." 
 
 * He will denounce us. He will declare the whole, ere 
 we can spring the mine beneath him." 
 
 " No ! he will not ; he dares not. He is bound by oaths 
 which " 
 
 " Oaths !" interrupted Lentulus, with a sneer, and in 
 tones of contemptuous ridicule. " What are oaths ] Did 
 they ever bind you ?" 
 
 " I do not recollect," answered Catiline ; " perhaps they 
 did, when I was a boy, and believed in Lemures and Lamia. 
 But Paullus Arvina is not Lucius Catiline, nor yet Corne 
 lius Lentulus ; and I say that his oaths shall bind him, 
 until " 
 
 And I say, they shall not !" A clear high voice interrupt 
 ed him, coming, apparently, through the wall of the cham 
 ber. 
 
 Lentulus started his very lips were white, and his frame 
 shook with agitation, if it were not with fear. 
 
 Catiline grew pale likewise ; but it was rage, not terror, 
 that blanched his swarthy brow. He dashed his hand upon 
 the table 
 
 " Furies of Hell !" 
 
 While the words were yet trembling on his lips, the door 
 was thrown violently open, the curtains which concealed it 
 torn asunder, and, with her dark eyes gleaming a strange 
 fire, and two hard crimson spots gleaming high up on her 
 cheek bones the hectic of fierce passion her bosom 
 throbbing, and her whole frame dilated with anger and ex 
 citement, young Lucia stood before them. 
 
 " And I say," she repeated, " that they shall not bind him ! 
 By all the Gods ! I swear it ! By my own love ! my own 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 15? 
 
 dishonor ! I swear that they shall not ! Fool ! fool ! did 
 you think to outwit me 1 To blind a woman, whose every 
 fear and passion is an undying eye 1 Go to ! go to ! you 
 shall not do it." 
 
 Audacious, as he was, the traitor was surprised, almost 
 daunted ; and while Lentulus, a little reassured, when he 
 saw who was the interlocutor, gazed on him in unmitigated 
 wonder, he faltered out, in tones strangely dissimilar to his 
 accustomed accents of indomitable pride and decision 
 
 " You mistake, girl ; you have not heard aright, if you 
 have heard, at all ; I would say, you are deceived, Lucia !" 
 
 " Then would you lie!" she answered, "for I am not 
 deceived, though you would fain deceive me ! Not heard I 
 not heard 1" she continued. " Think you the walls 
 in the house of Catiline have no eyes nor eais 1" using 
 the very words which he had addressed to her lover; 
 Lucius Catiline! I know all ! 
 
 " You know all V exclaimed Lentulus, aghast. 
 
 "And will prevent all!" replied the girl, firmly, " ir 
 you dare cross my purposes !" 
 
 " Dare ! dare !" replied Catiline, who now, recovering 
 from his momentary surprise, had regained all his natural 
 haughtiness and vigor. " Who are you, wanton, that dare 
 talk to us of daring]" 
 
 " Wanton !" replied the girl, turning fiery red. " Ay ! 
 But who made me the wanton that I am? Who fed my 
 youthful passions ? Who sapped my youthful principles ] 
 Who reared me in an atmosphere, whose very breath was 
 luxury, voluptuousness, pollution, till everydrop of my 
 wholesome blood was turned to liquid flame ? till every 
 passion in my heart became a fettered earthquake 1 Fool ! 
 fool ! you thought, in your impotence of crime, to make 
 Lucia Orestilla your instrument, your slave ! You have 
 made her your mistress ! You dreamed, in your inso 
 lence of fancied wisdom, that, like the hunter-cat of the 
 Persian despots, so long as you fed the wanton s appetite, 
 and basely pandered to her passions, she would leap hood 
 winked on the prey you pointed her. Thou fool ! that 
 hast not half read thy villain lesson ! Thou shouldst have 
 known that the very cat, thou thonghtest me, will tifrn and 
 rend the huntsman if he dare rob her of her portion ! I tell 
 you, Lucius Catiline, you thought me a mere wanton ! a 
 
100 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 mere sensual thing! a soulless animal voluptuary ! Fool! 
 I say, double fool ! Look into thine own heart ; remem 
 her what blood runs in these female veins ! Man ! Fa 
 ther! Vitiator ! My spirit is not female! my blood, my 
 passions, my contempt of peril, my will indomitable and 
 immutable, are, like my mortal body, your begetting ! My 
 crimes, and my corruption, are your teaching ! Beware 
 then, as you know the heat of your own appetites, how 
 you presume to hinder mine ! Beware, as you know your 
 own recklessness in doing and contempt in suffering, how 
 you stir me, your child, to do and suffer likewise ! Beware, 
 as you know the extent of your own crimes, the depth or 
 your own pollution, how you drive me, your pupil, to out 
 do her master ! Beware ! I say ! beware ! This man is 
 mine. Harm but one hair upon his head, and you shall die, 
 like a dog, with the dogs who snarl at your bidding, and 
 your name perish with you. I have spoken !" 
 
 There needed not one tenth part of the wisdom, which 
 the arch-traitor really possessed, to shew him how much he 
 had miscalculated the range of his daughter s intellect ; 
 the fierce energies of her powerful but misdirected mind. 
 
 He felt, for a moment, as the daring archimage whose 
 spells, too potent for their master s safety, have evoked 
 and unchained a spirit that defies their guidance. But, 
 like that archimage, conscious that all depends on the ex 
 ertion of his wonted empire, he struggled hard to regain 
 his lost authority. 
 
 " Girl," he replied, in those firm deep tones of grave 
 authority, wlgich he deemed the best calculated to control 
 her excitement, " You are mad ! Mad, and ungrateful ; 
 and like a frantic dog would turn and rend the hand that 
 feeds you, for a shadow. I never thought of making you 
 an instrument ; fool indeed had I been, to think I could 
 hoodwink such an intellect as yours! If I have striven to 
 clear away the mists of prejudice from before your eyes, 
 which, in your senseless anger, you now call corrupting 
 you, it was because I saw in you a kindred spirit to mine 
 own, capable to soar fearless and undazzled into the very 
 noon of reason. If I have taught you to indulge your 
 passions, opened a universe of pleasures to your ken, it 
 was that I saw in you a woman of mind so manly, that all 
 the weaknesses, which fools call affections, would be but 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 161 
 
 powerless to warp it from its purpose. I would havr 
 made you" 
 
 " The world s scorn !" she interrupted him , bitterly; but 
 he went on, without noticing the interruption 
 
 " The equal of myself in intellect, in energy, and wis 
 dom ; else how had you dared to brave me thus, whom 
 never man yet braved and lived to boast of it ! And now 
 for a mere girlish fancy, a weak feminine caprice for a 
 man, who cares not for you; who has betrayed you ; who, 
 idiot and inconsistent that he is, fresh from your fiery 
 kisses, was whimpering within an- hour at the feet of his 
 cold Julia ; who has, 1 doubt not, boasted of your favors, 
 while he deplored his own infatuation, to her, his pro 
 mised wife ! For a fond frivolous liking of a moment, you 
 would forego gratification, rank, greatness, power, and 
 vengeance ! Is this just toward me, wise toward your 
 self I Is this like Lucia Orestilla ] You would preserve 
 a traitor who deserts you, nay, scorns you in his easy 
 triumph ! You would destroy all those who love you ; 
 vou would destroy yourself, to make the traitor and his 
 minion happy ! Awake ! awake, my Lucia, from this soft 
 foolish fancy ! Awake, and be yourself once more ! Awake 
 to wisdom, to ambition, to revenge !" 
 
 His words were spirited and fiery ; but they struck on 
 no kindred chord in the bosom of his daughter. On the 
 contrary, the spark had faded from her eye and the flush 
 from her cheek, and her looks were dispirited and downcast. 
 But as he ceased, she raised her eye and met his piercing 
 gaze firmly, and replied in a sorrowful yet resolute tone. 
 
 "Eloquent! aye! you are eloquent! Catiline, would I 
 had never learned it to my cost ; but it is too late now ! 
 it is all too late ! for the rest, I am awake ; and so far, at 
 least, am wise, that I perceive the folly of the past, and 
 decypher clearly the sophistry of your false teaching. As 
 for the future, hope is dead, and ambition. Revenge, I seek 
 not ; if I did so, them art there, on whom to wreak it ; for 
 saving thou, and myself only, none have wronged me. 
 More words are needless. See that thou lay aside thy 
 plans, and dare not to harm him, or her. He shall not be 
 tray thee or thine ; for that will I be his surety and hos 
 tage ! Injure them, by deed or by word, and, one and all, 
 you perish ! I ask no promise of you promises bind you 
 14* 
 
1 62 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 not ! but let fear bind you, for /promise you, and be sure 
 that my plight will be kept !" 
 
 " Can this be Lucia Orestilla V 1 exclaimed Catiline, 
 " this puling love-sick girl, this timorous, repentant I had 
 nearly called thee maiden ! Why, thoufool, what would st 
 thou with the man farther 1 Dost think to be his wife T* 
 
 " Wife !" cried the wretched girl, clasping her hands 
 together, and looking piteously in her destroyer s face. 
 " Wife ! wife ! and me ! alas ! alas ! that holy, that dear, 
 honored name ! Never ! never for me the sweet sacred 
 rites ! Never for me the pure chaste kiss, the seat by the 
 happy hearth, the loving children at the knee, the proud 
 approving smile of Oh! ye gods! ye just gods! a 
 loved and loving husband! Wife! wife !" she continued, 
 lashing herself, as she proceeded, into fresh anger; "there 
 is riot in the gaols of Rome the slave so base as to call 
 Lucia Orestilla wife ! And wherefore, wherefore not ] 
 Man ! man ! if that thou be a man, and not a demon, 
 but for thee, and thy cursed teachings, I might have 
 known all this pure bliss, and conscious rectitude, and the 
 respect and love of men. I might have been the happy bride 
 of an honorable suitor, the cherished matron of a respected 
 lord, the proud glad mother of children, that should not 
 have blushed to be sprung from the wanton Lucia ! Thou ! 
 it is thou, thou only that hast done all this ! And why, I 
 say, why should I not revenge 1 Beware ! tempt me no 
 farther ! Do my bidding ! Thou slave, that thought s! but 
 now to be the master, obey my bidding to the letter!" 
 And she stamped her foot on the ground, with the im 
 perious air of a despotic queen. And in truth, crest-fallen 
 and heavy in spirit, were the proud men whom she so su 
 perbly threatened. 
 
 She gazed at them contemptuously for a moment, and 
 then, shaking her fore finger menacingly, " I leave ye," she 
 said, " I leave ye, but imagine not, that I read not your 
 councils. Me, you cannot deceive. With yourselves 
 only it remains to succeed or to perish. For if ye dare to 
 disobey me, the gods themselves shall not preserve you 
 from my vengeance !" 
 
 " I fear you riot, my girl," cried Catiline, " for all that you 
 are now mad with disappointment, and with anger. So 
 you may go, and listen if you will," he added, pointing to 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 163 
 
 the secret aperture concealed in the mouldings of the wall. 
 
 " We shall not speak the less freely for your hearing us." 
 " There is no need to listen now," she answered, " for 
 
 I know everything already." 
 
 " Every thing that we have said, Lucia." 
 
 " Everything that you will do, Sergius Catiline !" 
 
 " Aye ! and everything that I shall do, likewise !" and 
 with the word she left the room. 
 
 "A perilous girl, by all the Gods!" said Lentulus, in 
 Greek, as she disappeared. " Will she do as she threatens 1" 
 " Tush !" replied Catiline in Latin, " she speaks Greek 
 like an Athenian. I am not sure, however, that she could 
 understand such jargon as that is. . No ! she will do none 
 of that. She is the cleverest and best girl living, only a lit 
 tle passionate, for which I love her all the more dearly. 
 No ! she will do none of that. Because she will not be alive, 
 to do it, this time to-morrow," he added, putting his mouth 
 within half an inch of the ear of Lentulus, and speaking 
 in the lowest whisper. 
 
 Lentulus, bold as he was and unscrupulous, started in 
 horror at his words, and his lips were white as he faltered 
 " Your own daughter, Lucius !" 
 
 " Ha ! ha!" laughed the fierce conspirator, aloud ; " ha ! 
 ha ! yes, she is my own daughter, in everything but beauty 
 She is the loveliest creature in all Rome ! But we must 
 yield, I suppose, to her wishes ; the women rule us, aftei 
 all is said, and I suppose I was alarmed needlessly. 
 Doubtless Arvina will be silent. Come, I will walk with 
 you so far on your way to the Forum. What ho ! Chasrea, 
 see that Rufinus and Stolo lack nothing. I will speak with 
 them, when I return home ; and hark you in your ear. 
 Suffer not Lucia Orestilla to leave the house a moment ; 
 use force if it be needed ; but it will not. Tell her it is my 
 orders, and watch her very closely. Come, Lentulus, it 
 is drawing toward noon." 
 
 They left the house without more words, and walked 
 side by side in silence for some distance, when Catiline said 
 in a low voice, " This is unpleasant, and may be danger 
 ous. We must, however, trust to fortune till to-morrow, 
 when my house shall be void of this pest. Then will wo 
 proceed, as we had proposed." 
 
164 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 Lentulus looked at him doubtfully, and asked, with a 
 quick shudder running through his limbs, as he spcke : 
 
 "And will you re ally] " and there he paused, unable 
 
 to complete the question. 
 
 "Remove her?" added Catiline, completing the sentence 
 which he had left unfinished, " Ay ! will I. Just as I 
 would a serpent from my path !" 
 
 "And that done, what is to follow?" Lentulus inquired, 
 with an assumption of coolness, which in truth he did not 
 feel. 
 
 " We will get rid of Arvina. And then, as it wants but 
 four days of the elections, we may keep all things quiet till 
 the time." 
 
 " Be it so !" answered the other. "When do we meet 
 again to settle these things finally ?" 
 
 " To-morrow, at the house of Laeca, at the sixth hour of 
 night." 
 
 " Will all be there ?" 
 
 " All the most faithful; until then, farewell !" 
 
 " Farewell." 
 
 And they parted ; Lentulus hurrying to the Forum, to 
 take his seat on the praetor s chair, and there preside in 
 Judgment fit magistrate ! on men, the guiltiest of whom 
 were pure as the spotless snow, when compared with his 
 own conscious guilt ; and Catiline to glide through dark 
 streets, visiting discontented artizans, debauched mechan 
 ics, desperate gamblers, scattering dark and ambiguous 
 promises, and stirring up that worthless rabble who, with 
 all to gain and nothing to lose by civil strife and tumult, 
 abound in all great cities to violence and thirst of blood. 
 
 Three or four hours at least he spent thus ; and well sat 
 isfied with his progress, delighted by the increasing tur 
 bulence of the fierce and irresponsible democracy, and 
 rejoicing in having gained many new and fitting converts 
 In his creed, he returned homeward, ripe for fresh villainy. 
 Choerea met him on the threshold, with his face pale and 
 haggard from excitement. 
 
 "Catiline," he exclaimed, "she had gone forth already, 
 before you bade me watch her !" 
 
 " She ! Who, slave ] who ?" and knowing perfectly 
 who was meant, yet hoping, in his desperation, that he 
 heard not aright, he caught the freedman by the throat, and 
 shook him furiously, 
 
DATS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 165 
 
 " Lucia Orestiila," faltered the trembling menial. 
 
 " Arid has not returned ]" thundered the traitor. 
 
 " Catiline, no !" 
 
 " Liar ! and fool !" cried the other, gnashing his teeth 
 with rage, as he gave way to his ungovernable fury, and 
 hurling him with all his might against the marble door-post. 
 
 The freedman fell, like a dead man, with the blood gush 
 ing from his nose and mouth ; and Catiline, striding across 
 the prostrate body, retired sullenly and slowly to muse on 
 the disappointment of this his most atrocious project, in 
 the darkness and solitude of his own private chamber 
 whither none dared intrude unsummoned. 
 
166 TIIF. T^OMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE RELEASE. 
 
 And, for that right is right, to follow right 
 Were wisdom, in the scorn of consequence, 
 
 TINKYSOIC. 
 
 PAULLUS ARVINA sat alone in a small chamber of his 
 own house. Books were before him, his favorites ; the 
 authors, whose words struck chords the most kindred in 
 his soul ; but though his eye rested on the fair manuscripts, 
 it was evident that his mind was absent. The slender 
 preparations for the first Roman meal were displayed 
 temptingly on a board, not far from his elbow ; but they 
 were all untouched. His hair was dishevelled ; his face 
 pale, either from watching or excitement ; and his eye wild 
 and haggard. He wore a loose morning gown of colored 
 linen, and his bare feet were thrust^ carelessly into un 
 matched slippers. 
 
 It was past noon already ; nor, though his favorite freed- 
 man Thrasea had warned him several times of the lateness 
 of the hour, had he shewn the least willingness to exert 
 himself, so far even as to dress his hair, or put on attire 
 befitting the business of the day. 
 
 It could not but be seen, at a glance, that he was ill at 
 ease ; and in truth he was much perturbed by what had 
 passed on the preceding night, and very anxious with re 
 gard to the future. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 167 
 
 Nor was it without ample cause that he was restless and 
 disturbed ; within the last three days he had by his own 
 instability of purpose, and vacillating tastes and temper 
 brought himself down from as enviable a position as well 
 can be imagined, to one as insecure, unfortunate, and 
 perilous. 
 
 That he had made to himself in Catiline an enemy, as 
 deadly, as persevering, as relentless as any man could 
 have upon his track ; an enemy against whom force and 
 fraud would most likely be proved equally unavailing, he 
 entertained no doubt. But brave as he was, and fearless, 
 both by principle and practice, he cared less for this, even 
 while he confessed to himself, that he must be on his guard 
 now alway against both open violence and secret murder, 
 than he did for the bitter feeling, that he was distrusted ; 
 that he had brought himself into suspicion and ill-odor 
 with the great man, in whose eyes he would have given so 
 much to stand fairly, and whose good-will, and good opin 
 ion, but two little days before, he flattered himself that he 
 had conciliated by his manly conduct. 
 
 Again, when he thought of Julia, there was no balm to 
 his heart, no unction to his wounded conscience ! What if 
 she knew not, nor suspected anything of his disloyalty, 
 did not he know it, feel it in every nerve 1 Did he not 
 read tacit reproaches in every beam of her deep tranquil 
 eye ] Did he not fancy some allusion to it, in every tone 
 of her low sweet voice 1 Did he not tremble at every air 
 of heaven, lest it should waft the rumor of his infidelity to 
 the chaste ears of her, whom alone he loved and honored! 
 Did he not know that one whisper of that disgraceful truth 
 would break off, and forever, the dear hopes, on which all 
 his future happiness depended ] And was it not most pos 
 sible, most probable, that any moment might reveal to her 
 the fatal tidings 1 The rage of Catiline, frustrated in his 
 foul designs, the revengeful jealousy of Lucia, the vigilance 
 of the distrustful consul, might each or all at any moment 
 bring to light that which he would have given all but life 
 to bury in oblivion. 
 
 For a long time he had sat musing deeply on the perils 
 of his false position, but though he had taxed every ener 
 gy, and strained every faculty to devise some means by 
 which to extricate himself from the toils, into which he 
 
168 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 had so blindly rushed, he could think of no scheme, re 
 solve upon no course of action, which should set him at 
 liberty, as he had been before his unlucky interview with 
 the conspirator. 
 
 At times he dreamed of casting himself at the feet of 
 Cicero, and confessing to that great and generous states 
 man all his temptations, all his trials, all his errors ; of 
 linking himself heart and soul with the determined pa 
 triots, who were prepared to live or die with the consti 
 tution, and the liberties of the republic ; but the oath ! 
 the awful imprecation, by which he had bound himself, by 
 which he had devoted all that he loved to the Infernal 
 Gods, recurred to his mind, and shook it with an earth 
 quake s power. And he, the bold free thinker, the daring 
 and unflinching soldier, bound hand and foot by a silly 
 superstition, trembled aye, trembled, and confessed to 
 his secret soul that there was one thing which he ought 
 to do, yet dared not ! 
 
 Anon, maddened by the apparent hopelessness of ever 
 being able to recur to the straight road ; of ever more re 
 gaining his own self-esteem, or the respect of virtuous 
 citizens forced, as he seemed to be, to play a neutral 
 part the meanest of all parts in the impending strug 
 gle of ever gaining eminence or fame under the banners 
 of the commonwealth; he dreamed of giving himself up, 
 as fate appeared to have given him already up, to the de 
 signs of Catiline ! He pictured to himself rank, station, 
 power, wealth, to be won under the ensigns of revolt ; 
 and asked himself, as many a self-deluded slave of passion 
 has asked himself before, if eminence, however won, be 
 not glory ; if success in the world s eyes be not fame, and 
 rectitude and excellence. 
 
 But patriotism, the old Roman virtue, clear and undying 
 in the hardest and most corrupt hearts, roused itself in 
 him to do battle with the juggling fiends tempting him to 
 his ruin ; aud whenever patriotism half-defeated appeared 
 to yield the ground, the image of his Julia his Julia, 
 never to be won by any indirection, never to be deceived 
 by any sophistry, never to be deluded into smiling for one 
 moment on a traitor rose clear and palpable before him 
 and the mists were dispersed instantly, and the foes of his 
 better judgment scattered to the winds and routed. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 169 
 
 Thus wavering, he sat, infirm of purpose, ungoverned 
 whence indeed all his errors by any principle or unity of 
 action ; when suddenly the sound of a faint and hesitating 
 knock of the bronze ring on the outer door reached his 
 ear. The chamber, which he occupied, was far removed 
 from the vestibule, divided from it by the whole length of 
 the atrium, and fauces ; yet so still was the interior of the 
 house, and so inordinately sharpened was his sense of 
 hearing by anxiety and apprehension, that he recognized 
 the sound instantly, and started to his feet, fearing he knew 
 not what. 
 
 The footsteps of the slave, though he hurried to undo 
 the door, seemed to the eager listener as slow as the pace 
 of the dull tortoise ; and the short pause, which followed 
 after the door had been opened, he fancied to be an hour 
 in duration. Long as he thought it, however, it was too 
 short to enable him to conquer his agitation, or to control 
 the tumultuous beating of his heart, which increased to 
 such a degree, as he heard the freed man ushering the 
 new comer toward the room in which he was sitting 1 , 
 that he grew very faint, and turned as pale as ashes. 
 
 Had he been asked what it was that he apprehended, 
 he could assuredly have assigned no reasonable cause to 
 his tremors. Yet this man was as brave, as elastic in tem 
 perament, as tried steel. Oppose him to any definite 
 and real peril, not a nerve in his frame would quiver ; 
 yet here he was, by imaginary terrors, and the disquietude 
 of an uneasy conscience, reduced to more than woman s 
 weakness. 
 
 The door was opened, and Thrasea appeared alone 
 upon the threshold, with a mysterious expression on his 
 blunt features. 
 
 " How now ]" asked Paullus, " what is this ? Did I not 
 tell you, that I would not be disturbed this morning V 1 
 
 " Yes ! master," answered the sturdy freedman ; " but 
 she said that it was a matter of great moment, and that 
 she would " 
 
 " She ! Who 1" exclaimed Arvina, starting up from the 
 chair, which he had resumed as his servant entered. 
 " Whom do you mean by She ?" 
 
 " The girl who waits in the tablinum, to know if you 
 will receive her." 
 
 15 
 
170 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " The girl ! what girl ? do you know her ?" 
 
 " No, master, she is very tall, and slender, yet round 
 withal and beautifully formed. Her steps are as light as 
 the doe s upon the Haemus, and as graceful. She has the 
 finest foot and ancle mine eyes ever looked upon. I am 
 sure too that her face is beautiful, though she is closely 
 wrapped in a long white veil. Her voice, though exqui 
 sitely sweet and gentle, is full of a strange command, half 
 proud and half persuasive. I could not, for my life, resist 
 her bidding." 
 
 " Well ! well ! admit her, though I would fain be spared 
 the trouble. I doubt not it is some soft votary of Flora; 
 and I am not in the vein for such dalliance now." 
 
 " No! Paullus, no ! it is a Patrician lady. I will wager 
 my freedom on it, although she is dressed plainly, and, as 
 I told you, closely veiled." 
 
 "Not Julia? by the Gods! it is not Julia Serena?" 
 exclaimed the young man, in tones of inquiry, blent with 
 wonder. 
 
 But, as he spokejv the door was opened once more ; 
 and the veiled figure entered, realizing by her appearance 
 all the good freedman s eulogies. It seemed that she had 
 overheard the last words of Arvina; for, without raising 
 her veil, she said in a soft low voice, full of melancholy 
 pathos, 
 
 " Alas ! no, Paullus, it is not your Julia. But it is 
 one, who has perhaps some claim to your attention ; and 
 who, at all events, will not detain you long, on matters 
 most important to yourself. I have intruded thus, fear 
 ing you were about to deny me ; because that which I 
 have to say will brook no denial." 
 
 The freedman had withdrawn abruptly the very moment 
 that the lady entered ; and, closing the door firmly be 
 hind him, stood on guard out of earshot, lest any one 
 should break upon his young lord s privacy. But Paul 
 lus knew not this ; scarce knew, indeed, that they were 
 alone ; when, as she ceased, he made two steps forward, 
 exclaiming in a piercing voice 
 
 "Ye Gods! ye Gods! Lucia Orestilla!" 
 
 "Aye! Paul," replied the girl, raising her veil, and 
 showing her beautiful face, no longer burning with bright 
 amorous blushes, her large soft eyes, no. longer beaming 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 171 
 
 unchaste invitation, but pale, and quiet, and suffused with 
 tender sadness, " it is indeed Lucia. But wherefore this 
 surprise, I might say this terror ? You were not, I re 
 member, so averse, the last time we were alone together." 
 
 Her voice was steady, and her whole manner perfectly 
 composed, as she addressed him. There was neither 
 reproach nor irony in her tones, nor anything that 
 betokened even the sense of injury endured. Yet was 
 Arvina more unmanned by her serene and tranquil bear 
 ing, than he would have been by the most violent re 
 proaches. 
 
 " Alas ! alas ! what shall I say to you," he faltered, 
 " Lucia ; Lucia, whom I dare not call i. ne." 
 
 " Say nothing, Paullus Arvina," she i >lied, " thou art 
 a noble and generous soul ! Say nothing, for I know what 
 thou would st say. I have said it to myself many times 
 already. Oh ! wo is me ! too late ! too late ! But I have 
 come hither, now, upon a brief and a pleasant errand. 
 For it is pleasant, let them scoff who will ! I say, it is 
 pleasant to do right, let what may come of it. Would 
 God, that I had always thought so !" 
 
 " Would God, indeed !" answered the young man, " then 
 had we not both been wretched." 
 
 " Wretched ! aye ! most, most wretched !" cried the girl, 
 a large bright tear standing in either eye. " And art thou 
 wretched, Paullus." 
 
 " Utterly wretched !" he said, with a deep groan, and 
 buried his face for a moment in his hands. " Even be 
 fore I looked upon you, thought of you, I was miserable ! 
 and now, now words cannot paint my anguish, my self- 
 degradation !" 
 
 " Aye ! is it so ]" she said, a faint sad smile flitting 
 across her pallid lips. " Why I should feel abased and 
 self-degraded, I can well comprehend. I, who have fallen 
 from the high estate, the purity, the wealth, the conscious 
 ness of chaste and virtuous maidenhood ! I, the despised, 
 the castaway, the fallen ! But thou, thou ! from thee I 
 looked but for reproaches the just reproaches I have 
 earned by my faithless folly ! I thought, indeed, to have 
 found you wretched, writhing in the dark bonds which I, 
 most miserable, cast around you ; and cursing her who 
 fettered you !" 
 
172 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 "Cursing myself," he answered, "rather. Cursing my 
 own insane and selfish passion, which alone trammelled 
 me, which alone ruined one, better and brighter fifty fold 
 than I ! alas ! alas ! Lucia." 
 
 And forgetful .of all that he had heard to her disparage 
 ment from her bad father s lips, or, if he half remembered 
 discrediting all in that moment of excitement, he flung 
 himself at her feet, and grovelled like a crushed worm on 
 the floor, in the degrading consciousness of guilt. t 
 
 "Arise, arise for shame, young Arvina!" she said. 
 " The ground, at a woman s feet, is no place for a man 
 ever; least of all such a woman s. Arise, and mark me, 
 when I tell you tl t, which to tell you, only, I came hither. 
 Arise, I say, an make me not scorn the man, whom I 
 admire, whom wo is me! I love." 
 
 Paullus regained his feet slowly, and abashed ; it seem 
 ed that all the pride and haughtiness of his character had 
 given way at once. Mute and humiliated, he sank into a 
 chair, while she continued standing erect and self-sustained 
 before him by conscious, though new, rectitude of pur 
 pose. 
 
 " Mark me, I say, Arvina, when I tell you, that you are 
 as free as air from the oath, with which I bound you. 
 That wicked vow compels you only so long as I hold you 
 pledged to its performance.. Lo ! it is nothing any more 
 for I, to whom alone of mortals you are bound, now and 
 forever release you. The Gods, above and below, whom 
 you called to witness it, are witnesses no more against you. 
 For I annul it here ; I give you back your plight. It is as 
 though it never had been spoken !" 
 
 " Indeed ? indeed ? am I free 1 Good, noble, gene 
 rous, dear, Lucia, is it true ] can it be 1 I am free, and al 
 thy bidding V 
 
 lt Free as the winds of heaven, Paullus, that come 
 whence no man knoweth, and go whither they will soever, 
 and no mortal hindereth them ! As free as the winds, Paul 
 lus," she repeated, " and I trust soon to be as happy." 
 
 " But wherefore," added the young man, " have you 
 done this ? You said you would release me never, and now 
 all unsolicited you come and say you are free, Paullus, 
 almost before the breath is cold upon my lips that swore 
 obedience. This is most singular, and inconsistent." 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 173 
 
 , . ^-^ 
 
 " What in the wide world is consistent, Paullus, Qxcept 
 virtue 1 That indeed is immutable, eternal, one, the same 
 on earth as in heaven, present, and past, and forever. But 
 what else, I beseech you, is consistent, or here or anywhere, 
 that you should dream of finding me, a weak wild wanton 
 girl, of firmer stuff than heroes ] Are you, even in your 
 own imagination, are you, I say, consistent ]" 
 
 She spoke eagerly, perhape wildly ; for the very part of 
 self-denial, which she was playing, stirred her mind to its 
 lowest depths ; and the great change, which had been 
 going on within for many hours, and WHS still in powerful 
 progress, excited her fancy, and kindled all her strongest 
 feelings ; and, as is not unfrequently the case, all the 
 profound vague thoughts, which had so long lain mute and 
 dormant, found light at once, and eloquent expression. 
 
 Paullus gazed at her, in astonishment, almost in awe. 
 Could this be the sensual, passionate voluptuary he had 
 known two days since 1 the strange, unprincipled, impul 
 sive being, who yielded like the reed, to every gust of 
 passion this deep, clear, vigorous thinker ! It was indeed 
 a change to puzzle sager heads than that of Arvina ! a 
 transformation, sudden and beautiful as that from the tor 
 pid earthy -grub, to the swift-winged etherial butterfly ! 
 He gazed at her, until she smiled in reply to his look of 
 bewilderment ; and then he met her smile with a sad heavy 
 sigh, and answered 
 
 " Most inconsistent, I ! alas ! that I should say it, far 
 worse than inconsistent, most false to truth and virtue, 
 most recreant to honor ! Have not I,- whose most ardent 
 aspirations were set on glory virtuously won, whose soul, 
 as I fancied, was athirst for knowledge and for truth, have 
 not I bound myself by the most dire and dreadful oaths, 
 to find my good in evil, my truth in a lie, my glory in 
 black infamy 1 Have not I, loving another better than my 
 own life, won thee to love, poor Lucia, and won thee by 
 base falsehood to thy ruin V 
 
 " No ! no !" she interrupted him, " this last thing you 
 have not done, Arvina. Awake! you shall deceive 
 yourself no longer! Of this last wrong you are as inno 
 cent as the unspotted snow ; and I, I only, own the 
 guilt, as I shall bear the punishment ! Hear first, 
 why I release you from your oath ; and then, if you 
 
174 ^ 
 
 care tp listen to a sad tale, you shall know by what 
 infamy of others, one, who might else have been both 
 innocent and happy, has been made infamous and foul 
 and vile, and wretched ; a thing hateful to herself, and 
 loathsome to the world ; a being with but one hope left, 
 to expiate her many crimes by one act of virtue, and then 
 to die ! to die young, very young, unwept, unhonored, 
 friendless, and an orphan aye ! from her very birth, more 
 than an orphan !" 
 
 " Say on," replied the young man, "say on, Lucia ; and 
 would to heaven you could convince me that I have not 
 wronged you. Say on, then ; first, if you will, why you 
 have released me ; but above all, speak of yourself 
 speak freely, and oh ! if I can aid, or protect, or comfort 
 you, believe me I will do it at my life s utmost peril." 
 
 " I do believe you, Paullus. I did believe that, ere you 
 spoke it. First, then, I set you free and free you are 
 henceforth, forever." 
 
 " But wherefore T 
 
 " Because you are betrayed. Because I know all, that 
 fell out last night. Because I know darker villainy plot 
 ted against you, yet to come ; villainy from which, tramel- 
 led by this oath, no earthly power can save you. Because, 
 I know not altogether why or how, my mind has been 
 changed of late completely, and I will lend myself no 
 more to projects, which I loathe, and infamy which I 
 abhor. Because because because, in a word, I loveyou 
 Paullus ! Better than all I have, or hope to have on earth." 
 
 " But you must not," he replied, gravely yet tenderly, 
 "because" 
 
 " You love another," she interrupted him, very quickly, 
 " You love Julia Serena, Hortensia s lovely daughter ; and 
 she loves you, and you are to be wedded soon. You 
 see," she added, with a faint painful smile, " that I know 
 everything about you. I knew it long since ; long, long 
 before I gave myself to you ; even before I loved you, 
 Paul for I have loved you, also, long !" 
 
 " Loved me long !" he exclaimed, in astonishment, 
 " how can that be, when you never saw me until the 
 day before yesterday 1" 
 
 " Oh ! yes I have," she answered sadly. " I have seen 
 you and kno\tfii you many years ; though you have forgot- 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 175 
 
 ten me, if even, which I doubt, you ever noticed me* at aft. 
 But I can bring it to your mind. Have you forgotten how, 
 six summers since, as you were riding down the Collis 
 Hortulorum, yon passed a little girl weeping by the way 
 side ? " 
 
 " Over a wounded kid ] No, I remember very well. 
 A great country boor had hurt it with a stone." 
 
 " And you, " exclaimed the girl, with her eyes flashing 
 fire, " you sprang down from your horse, and chastised him, 
 till he whined like a beaten hound, though he was twice as 
 big as you were ; and then you bound up the kid s wound, 
 and wiped away the tears innocent tears they were of 
 the little girl, and parted her hair, and kissed her on the 
 forehead. That little girl was I, and I have kept that kiss 
 upon my brow, aye, and in my heart too ! until now. No 
 lips of man or woman have ever touched that spot which 
 your lips hallowed. From that day forth I have loved you, 
 I have adored you, Paullus. From that day forth I have 
 watched all your ways, unseen and unsuspected. I have 
 seen you do fifty kind, and generous, and gallant actions ; 
 but never saw you do one base, or tyrannous, or cowardly, 
 or cruel " 
 
 " Until that fatal night!" he said, with a deep groan. 
 " May the Gods pardon me ! I never shall forgive my 
 self." 
 
 * No ! no ! I tell you, no !" cried the girl, impetuously 
 (t I tell you, that I was not deceived, if I fell ; but I did 
 not fall then ! I knew that you loved Julia, years ago. I 
 knew that I never could be yours in honor ; and that put 
 fire and madness in my brain, and despair in my heart. 
 And my home was a hell, and those who should have been 
 my guides and saviours were my destroyers ; and I am 
 what I am; but in that you had no share. On that night, 
 I but obeyed the accursed bidding of the blackest and 
 most atrocious monster that pollutes Jove s pure air by his 
 breath !" 
 
 " Bidding," he exclaimed, starting back in horror, "Ca 
 tiline s bidding V 1 
 
 " My father s," answered the miserable girl. " My own 
 father s bidding !" 
 
 " Ye gods ! ye gods !" His own daughter s purity !" 
 
 " Purity !" she replied, with a smile of sad bitter irony 
 
176 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " Do you think purity could long exist in the same house 
 with Catiline and Orestilla ] Paullus Arvina, the scenes I 
 have beheld, the orgies I have shared, the atmosphere of 
 voluptuous sin I have breathed, almost front my cradle, had 
 changed the cold heart of the virgin huntress into the fiery 
 pulses of the wanton Venus ! Since I was ten years old, I 
 have been, wo is me ! familiar with all luxury, all infamy, 
 all degradation !" 
 
 Great Nemesis !" he cried, turning up his indignant 
 eyes toward heaven. " But, in the name of all the Gods ! 
 wherefore, wherefore ? Even to the worst, the most de 
 based of wretches, their children s honor is still dear." 
 
 "Nothing is dear to Catiline but riot, and debauchery, 
 and murder ! Sin, for its own sake, even more than for 
 the rewards its offers to its votaries ! Paullus, men called 
 me beautiful ! -But what cared I for beauty, that charmed 
 all but him, whom alone I desired to fascinate ] Men 
 called me beautifnl, I say ! and in my father s sight that 
 beauty became precious, when he foresaw that it might 
 prove a means of winning followers to his accursed cause ! 
 Then was I educated in all arts, all graces, all accomplish 
 ments that might enhance my charm? ; and, as those fatal 
 charms could avail him nothing, so long as purity remained 
 or virtue, I was taught, ah ! too easily ! to esteem pleasure 
 the sole good, passion the only guide ! Taught thus, by 
 my own parents ! Curses, curses, and shame upon them ! 
 Pity me, pity me, Paullus. Oh ! you are bound to pity 
 me[! for had I not loved you, fatally, desperately loved, and 
 known that I could not win you, perchance perchance I 
 had not fallen. Oh ! pity me, and pardon " 
 
 " Pardon you, Lucia," he interrupted her. " What 
 have you done to me, or who am I, that you should crave 
 my pardon ]" 
 
 " What have I done ] Do you ask in mockery 1 Have 
 not I made you the partaker of my sin ] Have not I lured 
 you into falsehood, momentary falsehood it is true, yet still 
 falsehood, to your Julia ] Have I not tangled you in the 
 nets of this most foul conspiracy ] Betrayed you, a bound 
 slave, to the monster the soul-destroyer 1 
 
 Arvina groaned aloud, but made no answer, so deeply 
 did his own thoughts afflict, so terribly did her strong words 
 oppress him. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 177 
 
 " But it is over it is over now !" She exclaimed exult- 
 ingly. " His reign of wickedness is over ! The tool, 
 which he moulded for his own purposes, shall be the in 
 strument to quell him. The pitfall which he would have 
 digged in the way of others, shall be to them a door where 
 by they, shall escape his treason, and his ruin. You are 
 saved, my Arvina ! By all the Gods ! you are saved ! 
 And,- if it lost me once, it has preserved me now my wild, 
 unchangeable, and undying love for you, alone of men ! 
 For it has made me think ! Has quenched the insane 
 flames that burned within me ! Has given me new views, 
 new principles, new hopes! Evil no more shall be my 
 good, nor infamy my pride ! If, myself, I am most un 
 happy, I will live henceforth, while I do live, to make 
 others happy ! I will live henceforth for two things re 
 venge and retribution ! By all the Gods ! Julia and you, 
 my Paullus, shall be happy ! By all the Gods ! he who 
 destroyed me for his pleasure, shall be destroyed in turn, 
 for mine !" 
 
 "Lucia ! think ! think ! he is your father !" 
 
 " Perish the monster ! I have not never had father, or 
 
 Vome, or Speak not to me ; speak not of him, or I 
 
 shall lose what poor remains of reason his vile plots have 
 left me. Perish ! by all the powers of hell, he shall pe 
 rish, miserably ! miserably ! And you, you, Paullus, must 
 be the weapon that shall strike him !" 
 
 " Never the weapon in a daughter s hand to strike a 
 father," answered Paullus, " no ! though he were himself 
 a parricide!" 
 
 " He is ! he is a parricide ! the parricide of Rome 
 itself! the murderer of our common mother ! the sacri 
 legious stabber of his holy country ! Hear me, and tremble ! 
 It lacks now two days of the Consular election. If Catiline 
 go not down ere that day cometh, then Rome goes down, 
 on that day, and forever ]" 
 
 " You are mad, girl, to say so." 
 
 " You are mad, youth, if you discredit me. Do not I 
 know 1 am not I the sharer % the tempter to the guilt my 
 self 1 and am not I the mistress of its secrets 1 Was it 
 not for this, that I gave myself to you ] was it not unto 
 this that I bound you by the oath, which now I restore to 
 you 1 was it not by this, that I would have held you my 
 
178 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 minion and my paramour ] And is it not to reveal this, that 
 I now have come 1 I tell you, I discovered, how he would 
 yesternight have slain you by the gladiator s sword ; disco 
 vered how he now would slay you, by the- perverted sword 
 of Justice, as Medon s, as Volero s murderer ; convicting 
 you of his own crimes, as he hath many men before, by his 
 suborned and perjured clients his comrades on the Prae 
 tor s chair ! I tell you, I discovered but just now, that me 
 too he will cut off in the flower of my youth ; in the heat 
 of the passions, he fomented ; in the rankness of the soft 
 sins, he taught me cut me off- me, his own ruined and 
 polluted child by the same poisoned chalice, which made 
 his house clear for my wretched mother s nuptials !" 
 
 " Can these things be," cried Paullus, " and the Gods 
 yet withhold their thunder ?" 
 
 " Sometimes I think," the girl answered wildly, " that 
 there are no Gods, Paullus. Do you believe in Mars and 
 Venus V 
 
 " In Gods, whose worship were adultery and murder 1" 
 said Arvina. " Not I, indeed, poor Lucia." 
 
 " If these be Gods, there is no truth, no meaning in the 
 name of virtue. If not these, what is God ]" 
 
 " All things!" replied the young man solemnly. "What 
 ever moves, whatever is, is God. The universe is but the 
 body, that clothes his eternal spirit ; the winds are his 
 breath ; the sunshine is his smile ; the gentle dews are the 
 tears of his compassion ! Time is the creature of his hand, 
 eternity his dwelling place, virtue his law, his oracles the 
 soul of every living man !" 
 
 " Beautiful," cried the girl. " Beautiful, if it were but 
 true !" 
 
 " It is true as true, as the sur in heaven ; as certain 
 as his course through the changeless seasons." 
 
 " How ] how ]" she asked eagerly. " What makes it 
 certain 1" 
 
 " The certainty of death !" he answered. 
 
 " Ah ! death, death ! that is a mystery indeed. And 
 after that " 
 
 " Everlasting life !" 
 
 " Ha ! do you believe that too ] They tell me all that 
 is a. fable, a folly, and a falsehood !" 
 
 " Perchance it would be well for them it were so." 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 179 
 
 "Yes!" she replied. ^Yes ! But who taught you V 9 
 " Plato ! Immortal Plato !" 
 " Ha ! I will read him ; I will read Plato." 
 " What ! do you understand Greek too, Lucia V 
 " How else should I have sung Anacreon, and learned 
 the Lesbian arts of Sappho ] But we have strayed wide 
 of our subject, and time presses. Will you denounce, me, 
 Catiline ?" 
 
 " Not I ! I will perish sooner." 
 " You will do so, and all Rome with you." 
 " Prove that to me, and But it is impossible." 
 " Prove that to you, will you denounce him V 
 " I will save Rome !" 
 " Will you denounce him 1" 
 
 " If otherwise, I may preserve my country, no." 
 "Otherwise, you cannot. Speak ! will you ?" 
 " I must know all." 
 
 " You shall. Mark me, then judge." And rapidly, 
 concisely, clearly, she revealed to him the dread secret. 
 She concealed nothing, neither the ends of the conspiracy, 
 nor the names of the conspirators. She asseverated to 
 him the appalling fact, that half the noblest, eldest families 
 of Rome, were either active members of the plot, sworn to 
 spare no man, or secret well-wishers, content at first to 
 remain neutral, and then to share the spoils of empire. 
 According to her shewing, the Curii, the Portii, the Syllae, 
 the Cethegi, the great Cornelian house, the Vargunteii, 
 the Autronii, and the Longini, were all for the most part 
 implicated, although some branches of the Portion and 
 Cornelian houses had not been yet approached by the 
 seducers. Crassus, she told him too, the richest citizen 
 of Rome, and Caius Julius Caesar, the most popular, 
 awaited but the first success to join the parricides of the 
 Republic. 
 
 He listened thoughtfully, earnestly, until she had finish 
 ed her narration, and then shook his head doubtfully. 
 
 " I think," lie said, " you must be deceived, poor Lucia. 
 I do not see how these things can be. These men, whom 
 you have named, are all of the first houses of the state ; 
 have all of them, either themselves or their forefathers, 
 bled for the commonwealth. How then should they now 
 wish to destroy it ] They are men, too, of all parties and 
 
180 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 all factions ; the Syllee, the prmidest and haughtiest aristo 
 crats of Rome. Your father, also, belonged to the Dic 
 tator s faction, while the Cornelii and the Curii have be 
 longed ever to the tribunes party. How should this be 1 
 or how should those whose pride, whose interest, whose 
 power alike, rest on the maintenance of their order, desire 
 to mow down the Patrician houses, like grass beneath the 
 scythe, and give their honors to the rabble ? How, above 
 all, should Crassus, whose estate is worth seven thousand 
 talents,* consisting, too, of buildings in the heart of Rome, 
 join with a party whose watch-words are fire and plunder, 
 partition of estates, and death to the rich 1 You see your 
 self that these things cannot be ; that they are not con 
 sistent. You must have been deceived by their insolent 
 and drunken boasting !" 
 
 "Consistent!" she replied, with vehement and angry 
 irony. " Still harping on consistency ! Are virtuous 
 men then consistent, that you expect vicious men to be so 1 
 Oh, the false wisdom, the false pride of man ! You tell me 
 these things cannot be perhaps they cannot ; but they 
 arc ! I know it I have heard, seen, partaken all ! But 
 if you can be convinced only by seeing that the plans of 
 men, whose every action is insanity and frenzy, are wise 
 and reasonable, perish yourself in your blindness, and let 
 Rome perish with you ! I can no more. Farewell ! I 
 leave you to your madness !" 
 
 "Hold! hold!" he cried, moved greatly by her vehe 
 mence, " are you indeed so sure of this 1 What, in the 
 name of all the Gods, can be their motive ]" 
 
 "Sure! sure!" she answered scornfully ; " I thought I 
 was speaking to a capable and clever man of action ; I see 
 that it is a mere dreamer, to whose waking senses I ap 
 peal vainly. If you be not sure, also, you must be weaker 
 than I can conceive. Why, if there was no plot, would 
 Catiline have slaughtered Medon, lest it should be reveal 
 ed \ Why would he, else, have striven to bind you by 
 oaths ; and to what, if not to schemes of sacrilege and 
 treason \ Why would he else have murdered Volero ] why 
 planted ambushes against your life ] why would he now 
 meditate my death, his own child s death, that I am forced 
 
 * Seven, thousand talents, about 7,500,000 dollars. 
 

 DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 181 
 
 to fly his house ] Oh ! in the wide world there is no such 
 folly, as that of the over wise ! Motive motive enough 
 have they ! While the Patrician senate, and the Patrician 
 Consuls hold with firm hands the government, full well they 
 know, that in vain violence or fraud may strive to wrest it 
 from them. Let but the people hold the reins of empire, 
 and the first smooth-tongued, slippery demagogue, the first 
 bloody, conquering soldier, grasps them, and is the King, 
 Dictator, Emperor, of Rome ! Never yet in the history of 
 7iations, has despotism sprung out of oligarchic sway ! 
 Never yet has demociacy but yielded to the first despot s 
 usurpation ! They have not read in vain the annals of 
 past ag- s> if you have done so, Paullus." 
 
 " Ha !" he exclaimed, " look they so far ahead 1 Am 
 bition, then, it is but a new form of ambition ?" 
 
 " Will you denounce them, Paullus 1" 
 
 "At least, I will warn the Consul !" 
 
 "You must denounce them, or he will credit nothing." 
 
 " I will save Rome." 
 
 " Enough ! enough ! I am avenged, and thou shalt be 
 happy. Go to the Consul, straightway ! make your own 
 terms, ask office, rank, wealth, power. He will grant all ! 
 and now, farewell ! Me you will see no more forever ! 
 Farewell, Paullus Arvina, fare you well forever! And 
 sometimes, when you are happy in the chaste arms of Ju 
 lia, sometimes think, Paullus, of poor, unhappy, loving, 
 lost, lost Lucia!" 
 
 " Whither, by all the Gods, I adjure you! whither would 
 you go, Lucia ]" 
 
 Far hence! far hence, my Paullus. Where I may 
 live obscure in tranquil solitude, where I may die when 
 my time comes, in peace and innocence. In Rome I were 
 not safe an hour !" 
 
 " Tell me where ! tell me Lucia, how I may aid, how 
 guard, console, or counsel you." 
 
 "You can do none of these things, Paullus. All is ar 
 ranged for the best. Within an hour I shall be journey- 
 ing hence, never to pass the gates, to hear the turbulent 
 roar, to breathe the smoky skies, to taste the maddening 
 pleasures, of glorious, guilty Rome ! There is but one 
 thing you can do, which will minister to my well-being 
 but one boon you can grant me. Will you?" 
 16 
 
182 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 "And do you ask, Lucia 1 ?" 
 
 " Will you swear V she inquired, with a faint melan 
 choly smile. " Nay ! it concerns no one but myself. 
 You may swear safely." 
 
 "I do, by the God of faith!" 
 
 " Never seek, then, by word or deed, to learn whither I 
 have gone, or where I dwell. Look ! I am armed," and 
 she- drew out a dagger as she spoke. "If I am tracked or 
 followed, whether by friend or foe, this will free me from 
 persecution ; and it shall do so, by the living lights of hea 
 ven ! This, after all, is the one true, the last friend of the 
 wretched. All hail to thee, healer of all intolerable an 
 guish !" and she kissed the bright blade, before she con 
 signed it to the sheath ; and then, stretching out both hands 
 to Paullus, she cried, " You have sworn Remember!" 
 
 " And you promise me," he replied, " that, if at any time 
 you need a friend, a defender, one who would lay down 
 life itself to aid you, you will call on me, wheresoever I 
 may be, fearless and undoubting. For, from the festive 
 board, or the nuptial bed, from the most sacred altar of 
 the Gods, or from the solemn funeral pyre, I will come in 
 stant to thy bidding. Lucia needs Paullus, shall be 
 words shriller than the war-trumpet s summons to my con 
 scious soul." 
 
 " I promise you," she said, " willingly, most willingly. 
 And now kiss me, Paullus. Julia herself would not forbid 
 this last, sad, pious kiss! Not my lips! not my lips! 
 Part my hair on my brows, and kiss me on the forehead, 
 where your lips, years ago, shed freshness, and hope that - 
 has not yet died all away. Sweet, sweet ! it is pure and 
 sweet, it allays the fierce burning of my brain. Fare you* 
 well, Paul, and remember remember Lucia Orestilla." 
 
 She withdrew herself from his arm modestly, as she 
 spoke, lowered her veil, turned, and was gone. Many a 
 day and week elapsed, and weeks were merged in months, 
 ere any one, who knew her, again saw Catiline s unhappy, 
 guilty daughter. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINJ8. 183 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE FORGE. 
 
 I saw a smith stand with his hammer thus, 
 The whilst his iron did on anvil cool. 
 
 KING JOHN. 
 
 IT was the evening of the sixteenth day before the 
 calends of November, or, according to modern numeration, 
 the eighteenth of October, the eve of the consulag elec 
 tions, when a considerable number of rough hardy-look 
 ing men were assembled beneath the wide low-browed 
 arch of a blacksmith s forge, situated near the intersection 
 of the Cyprian Lane with the Sacred Way, and command 
 ing a full view of the latter noble thoroughfare. 
 
 It was already fast growing dark, and the natural 
 obscurity of the hour was increased by the thickness of 
 the lowering clouds, which overspread the whole firma 
 ment of heaven, and seemed to portend a tempest. But 
 from the jaws of the semicircular arch of Roman brick, 
 within which the group was collected, a broad and waver 
 ing sheet of light was projected far into the street, and 
 over the fronts of the buildings opposite, rising and fall 
 ing in obedience to the blast of the huge bellows, which 
 might be heard groaning and laboring within. The whole 
 interior of the roomy vault was filled with a lurid crimson 
 light, diversified at times by a brighter and more vivid 
 glare as a column of living flame would shoot up from the 
 
184 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 embers, or long trains of radiant sparks leap from the 
 bounding anvil. Against this clear back ground the mov 
 ing figures of the strong limbed grimy giants, who plied 
 their mighty sledges with incessant zeal on the red hot 
 metal, were defined sharply and picturesquely ; while 
 alternately red lights and heavy shadows flickered across 
 the forms and features of many other men, who stood 
 around watching the progress of the work, and occasion 
 ally speaking rapidly, and with a good deal of gesticula 
 tion, at intervals when the preponderant din of hammers 
 ceased, and permitted conversation to be carried on 
 audibly. 
 
 At this moment, however, there was no such pause ; 
 for the embers in the furnace were at a white heat, and 
 flashes of lambent flame were leaping out of the chimney 
 top, and vanishing in the dark clouds overhead. A dozen 
 bars of glowing steel had been drawn simultaneously from 
 the charcoal, and thrice as many massive hammers were 
 forging them into the rude shapes of weapons on the an 
 vils, wl ich, notwithstanding their vast weight, appeared 
 to leap and reel, under the blows that were rained upon 
 them faster than hail in winter. 
 
 But high above the roar of the blazing chimney, above 
 the din of the groaning stithy, high pealed the notes of a 
 wild Alcaic ode, to which, chaunted by the stentorian voices 
 of the powerful mechanics, the clanging sledges made a 
 stormy but appropriate music. " Strike, strike the iron," 
 thus echoed the stirring strain, 
 
 Strike, strike the iron, children o Mulciber, 
 Hot from the charcoal cheerily glimmering ! 
 
 Swing, swing, my boys, high swing the sledges ! 
 
 Heave at it, heave at it, all ! Together ! 
 Great Mars, the war God, watches ye laboring 
 Joyously. Joyous watches the gleam o the 
 Bright sparkles, upsoaring the faster, 
 
 Faster as our merry blows revive them. 
 Well knoweth He that clang. It arouses him, 
 Heard far aloof ! He laughs on us hammering 
 The sword, the clear harness of iron, 
 
 Armipotent paramour o Venus. 
 
 Red glows the charcoal. Bend to the task, my boys, 
 Time flies apace, and speedily night cometh, 
 When we no more may ply the anvil ; 
 Fate cometh eke, i the murky midnight. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 185 
 
 Mark ye the pines, which rooted i rocky ground,* 
 Brave Euroclydon s onset at evening. 
 
 Day dawns. The tree, which stood the tallest, 
 
 Preeminent i the leafy greenwood, 
 Now lies the lowest. Safely the arbutus, 
 Which bent before him, flourishes, and the sun 
 Wakens the thrush, which slept securely 
 
 Nestled in its emerald asylum. 
 So, when the war-shout peals i the noon o night, 
 Rousing the sleepers fearful, in ecstacy 
 When slaves avenge their wrongs, arising 
 Strong i the name o liberty new born, 
 When fury spares not beauty nor innocence, 
 First flame the grandest domes. I the massacre, 
 First fall the noblest. Lowly virtue 
 
 Haply the shade o poverty defends. 
 Forge then the broad sword. Quickly the night cometh, 
 When red the streets with gore o the mightiest 
 Shall fiercely flow, like Tiber in flood. 
 
 Rise then, avenger, the time it hath come ! 
 Wake bloody tyrants from merry banquetting, 
 From downy couches, snowy-bosomed women 
 And ruby wine-cups, wake The avenger 
 Springs to his arms, for the time it hath come ! 
 
 The wild strain ceased, and with it the clang of the ham 
 mers, the bars of steel being already beaten into the form 
 of those short massive two-edged blades, which were the 
 Roman s national and all -victorious weapon. But, as it 
 ceased, a deep stern hum of approbation followed, elicited 
 probably by some real or fancied similitude between the 
 imagery of the song, and the circumstances of the audi 
 tors, who were to a man of the lowest order of plebeians^ 
 taught from their cradles to regard the nobles, and perhaps 
 with too much cause, as their natural enemies and oppres- 
 
 * The classical reader will perhaps object to the introduction of the 
 Alcaic measure at this date, 62 A. C., it being generally believed that 
 the Greek measures were first adapted to the Latin tongue by Horace, 
 a few years later. The desire of giving a faint idea of the rhythm 
 and style of Latin song, will, it is hoped, plead in mitigation of this 
 very slight deviation from historical truth the rather that, in spite of 
 Horace s assertion, 
 
 Non ante vulgatas per artes 
 Verba loquor sociata chordis, 
 
 It is .not certain, that no imitations of the Greek measures existed prior 
 to his success. 
 
186 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 sors. When the brief applause was at an end, one of the 
 elder bystanders addressed the principal workman, at the 
 forge, in a low voice. 
 
 " You are incautious, Caius Crispus, to sing such songs 
 as this, and at such a time, too." 
 
 " Tush, Bassus," answered the other, " it is you who 
 are too timid. What harm is there, I should like to know, 
 in singing an old Greek song done into Latin words 1 I 
 like the rumbling measure, for my part ; it suits well with 
 the clash and clang of our rude trade. For the song, there 
 is no offence in it ; and, for the time, it is a very good 
 time ; and, to poor men like us, a better time is coming !" 
 
 " Oh ! well said. May it be so !" exclaimed several 
 voices in reply to the stout smith s sharp words. 
 
 But the old man was not so easily satisfied, for he an 
 swered at once. " If any of the nobles heard it, they would 
 soon find offence in it, my Caius !" 
 
 " Oh ! the nobles the nobles, and the Fathers ! I am 
 tired of hearing of the nobles. For my part, I do not see 
 what makes them noble. Are they a whit stronger, or 
 braver, or better man than I, or Marcus here, or any of 
 us 1 I trow not." 
 
 " Wiser they are at least wiser, Caius," said the old 
 man once more, "in this, if in nothing else, that they 
 keep their own councils, and stand by their own order." 
 
 " Aye ! in oppressing the poor !" replied anew speaker. 
 
 " Right, Marcus," said a second ; " let them wrangle as 
 much as they may with one another, for their dice, their 
 women, or their wine ; in this at least they all agree, in 
 trampling down the poor." 
 
 " There is a good time coming," replied the smith ; 
 " and it is very near at hand. Now, Niger," he continued, 
 addressing one of his workmen, " carry these blades down 
 to the lower workshop ; let Rufus fit them instantly with 
 horn handles ; and then, see you to their grinding ! Never 
 heed polishing them very much, but give them right keen 
 edges, and good stabbing points." 
 
 " I do not know," answered the other man to the first 
 part of the smith s speech. " I am not so sure of that." 
 
 " You don t know what I mean," said Crispus, scorn 
 fully. 
 
DAYS 01 CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 187 
 
 " Yes I do right well. But I am not so confident, as 
 you are, in these new leaders." 
 
 The smith looked at him keenly for a moment, and 
 then said significantly, " do you know V 
 
 " Aye ! do I," said the other ; and, a moment afterward, 
 when the eyes of the bystanders were not directly fixed 
 on him, he drew his hand edgewise across his throat, with 
 the action of one severing the windpipe. 
 
 Caius Crispus nodded assent, but made a gesture of 
 caution, glancing his eye toward one or two of the com 
 pany, and whispering a moment afterward, " I am not sure 
 of those fellows." 
 
 " I see, I see ; but they shall learn nothing from what 
 I say." Then raising his voice, he added, " what I mean, 
 Caius, is simply this, that I have no so very great faith in 
 the promises of this Sergius Catiline, even if he should be 
 elected. He was a sworn friend to Sylla, the people s 
 worst enemy ; and never had one associate of the old 
 Marian party. Believe me, he only wants our aid to set 
 himself up on the horse of state authority ; and when he 
 is firm in the saddle, he will ride us down under the hoofs 
 of patrician tyranny, as hard as any Cato, or Pompey, of 
 them all." 
 
 Six or seven of the foremost group, immediately about 
 the anvil when this discourse was going on, interchanged 
 . quick glances, as the man used the word elected, on which 
 he laid a strong and singular emphasis, and nodded slight 
 ly, as indicating that they -understood his more secret mean 
 ing. All, however, except Crispus, the owner of the forge, 
 seemed to be moved by what he advanced ; and the fore 
 man of the anvil, after musing for a moment, as he leaned 
 on his heavy sledge, said, " I believe you are right ; no 
 one but a Plebeian can truly mean well, or be truly fitted 
 for a leader to Plebeians." 
 
 " You are no wiser than Crispus," interposed the old 
 man, who had spoken first, in a low angry whisper. "Do 
 you want to discourage these fellows from rising to the 
 cry, when it shall be set up ] If this be all that you can 
 do, it were as well to close the forge at once." 
 
 " Which I shall do forthwith," said Caius Crispus ; " for 
 I have got through my work and my lads are weary ; but 
 do not you go away, my gossips ; nor you either," he 
 
188 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 added, speaking to the man whom he had at first suspected, 
 " tarry you, under one pretext or other; we will have a 
 cup of wine, as soon as I have got rid of these fellows. 
 Here, Aulus," turning to his foreman, " take some coin 
 out of my purse, there it hangs by my clean tunic in the 
 corner, and go round to the witfe shop, and bring thence 
 a skinful of the best Sabine vintage ; and some of you bar 
 up the door, all but the little wicket. And now, my 
 friends, good night ; it is very late, and I am going to shut 
 up the shop. Good night ; and remember that the only 
 hope of us working men lies in the election of Catiline to 
 morrow. Be in the Campus early, with all your friends ; 
 and hark ye, you were best take your knives under your 
 tunics, lest the proud nobles should attempt to drive us 
 from the ballot." 
 
 " We will, we will !" exclaimed several voices. " We 
 will not be cozened out of our votes, or bullied out of 
 them either. But how is this ? do not you vote in your 
 class ?" 
 
 " I vote with my class ! with my fellow Plebeians and 
 mechanics, I would say ! What if 1 be one of the armorers 
 of the first class, think you that I will vote with the proud 
 senators and insolent knights 1 No, brethren, not one of 
 us, nor of the carpenters either, nor of the trumpeters, or 
 horn-blowers ! Plebeians we are, and Plebeians we will 
 vote ! and let me tell you to look sharp to me, on the 
 Campus ; and whatever I do, so do ye. Be sure that 
 good will come of it to the people !" 
 
 "We will, we will!" responded all his hearers, now 
 unanimous. " Brave heart ! stout Caius Crispus ! We 
 will have you a tribune one of these days ! but good night, 
 good night !" 
 
 And, with the words, all left the forge, except the smith 
 and his peculiar workmen, and two or three others, all 
 clients of the Praetor Lentulus, and all in some degree 
 associates in the conspiracy. None of them, however, 
 were initiated fully, except Caius himself, his foreman, 
 Aulus, the aged Bassus, and the stranger; who, though 
 unknown to any one present, had given satisfactory evi 
 dence that he was privy to the most atrocious portions 
 of the plot. The wine was introduced immediately, 
 and after a deep draught, circulated more than once, the 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 139 
 
 conversation was resumed by the initiated, who were now 
 left? alone. 
 
 "And do you believe," said the stranger, addressing 
 Caius Crispus, " that Catiline and his companions have 
 any real view to the redress of grievances, the regenera 
 tion of the state, or the equalization of conditions V* 
 
 " Not in the least, I," answered the swordsmith. " Do 
 you ?" 
 
 "I did once." 
 
 " I never did." 
 
 " Then, in the name of all the Gods, why did you join 
 with them V 
 
 " Because by the ruin of the great and noble, the poor 
 must be gainers. Because I owe what I. can never pay. 
 Because I lust for what I can never win luxury, beauty, 
 wealth, and power ! And if there come a civil strife, with 
 proscription, confiscation, massacre, it shall go hard with 
 Caius Crispus, if he achieve not greatness !" 
 
 " And you," said the man, turning short round, without 
 replying to the smith, and addressing the aged Bassus, 
 " why did you join the plotters, you who are so crafty, so 
 sagacious, and yet so earnest in the cause T 
 
 " Because I have wrongs to avenge," answered the old 
 man fiercely ; a fiery flush crimsoning his sallow face, and 
 his eye beaming lurid rage. " Wrongs, to repay which all 
 the blood that flows in patrician veins were but too small 
 a price !" 
 
 "Hal" said the other, in a tone half meditative and 
 half questioning, but in truth thinking little of the speaker, 
 and reflecting only on the personal nature of the motives, 
 which seemed to instigate them all. "Ha, is it indeed 
 so V 
 
 " Man," cried the old conspirator, springing forward 
 and catching him by the arm. " Have you a wife, a child, 
 a sister 1 If so, listen ! you can understand me ! I am, 
 as you see old, very old ! I have scars, also, all in front, 
 honorable scars, of wounds inflicted by the Moorish assa- 
 gays, of Jugurtha s desert horsemen by the huge broad 
 swords of the Teutones and Cimbri. My son, my only 
 son fell, as an eagle-bearer, in the front rank of the hastati 
 of the brave tenth legion for we had wealth in those 
 days, and both fought and voted in the centuries of the 
 
190 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 first class. But our fields were uncultivated, while we 
 were shedding our best blood for the state ; and to com 
 plete the ruin, my rural slaves broke loose, and joined 
 Spartacus the gladiator. Taken, they died upon the cross ; 
 and I was quite undone. Law suits and usury ate up the 
 rest ; and, for these eight years past, old Bassus has been 
 penniless, and often cold, and always hungry. But if this 
 had been all, it is a soldier s part to bear cold and hunger 
 . but not to bear disgrace. Man, there have been gyves on 
 these legs the whip has scarred these shoulders ! Ye 
 great Gods ! the whip ! for what have the poor to do with 
 their Portian or Valerian laws ] Nor was this all the 
 eagle-bearer left a child, a sweet, fair, gentle girl, the 
 image of my gallant boy, the only solace of my famishing 
 old age. 1 told you she was fair fatally fair too fair 
 for a plebeian s daughter, a plebeian s wife ! Her beauty 
 caught the lustful eyes, inflamed the brutal heart of a pa 
 trician, one of the great Cornelii. It is enough ! She was 
 torn from my house, dishonored, and sent home, to die by 
 her own hand, that would not pardon that involuntary sin ! 
 She died ; the censors heard the tale ; and scoffed at the 
 teller of it ! and that Cornelius yet sits in the senate ; those 
 censors who approved his guilt yet live I say live ! Is 
 not that cause enough why I should join the plotters 1" 
 
 "I cannot answer, No !" replied the other ; " and you, 
 Aulus, what is your reason ]" 
 
 " I would win me a noble paramour. Hortensia s Ju 
 lia is very soft and beautiful." 
 
 The stranger looked at him steadily for a moment, and 
 an expression of disgust and horror crept over his bold 
 face. " Alas !" he said at length, speaking, it would 
 seem, to himself rather than to the others, " poor Rome ! 
 unhappy country !" 
 
 But, as he spoke, the strong smith, whose suspicion 
 would seem to have been excited, stepped forward and 
 laid his hand upon the stranger s shoulder. " Look you," 
 he said, " master. None of us know you here, I think, 
 and we should all of us be glad to know, both who you 
 are, and, if indeed you be of the faction, wherefore you 
 joined it, that you so closely scrutinize our motives." 
 
 "Because I was a fool, Caius Crispus ; because I be 
 lieved that, for a great stake, Romans might yet forget self, 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 191 
 
 base and sordid self, and act as becomes patriots and men ! 
 Because I dreamed, smith, till morning light came back, 
 and I awakened, and " 
 
 " And the dream !" asked the smith eagerly, grasping 
 the handle of his heavy hammer firmly, and setting his 
 teeth hard. 
 
 " Had vanished," replied the other calmly, and looking 
 him full in the eye. 
 
 " Bar the door, Aulus," cried the smith, hastily. " This 
 fellow must die here, or he will betray us," and he caught 
 him by the throat, as he spoke, with an iron grip, to pre 
 vent him from calling out or giving the alarm. 
 
 But the stranger, though not to be compared in bulk or 
 muscular proportions with the gigantic artizan, shook off 
 his grasp with contemptuous ease, and answered with 
 a scornful smile, 
 
 " Betray you ! tush, I am Fulvius Flaccus." 
 
 Had a thunderbolt fallen at the feet of the smith, he 
 could not have recoiled with wilder wonder. 
 
 " What, Fulvius Flaccus, to whose great wrongs all in 
 juries endured by us are but as flea-bites ! Fulvius, the 
 grandson of that Fulvius Flaccus, who " 
 
 " Was murdered by Opimius, while striving for the li 
 berties of Romans. But what is this ? By Mars and Qui- 
 rinus ! there is something afoot without!" 
 
 And, as he uttered the words, he sprang to the wicket, 
 which Aulus had not fastened, and gazed out ear 
 nestly into the darkness, through which the regular and 
 steady tramp of men, advancing in ordered files, could now 
 be heard distinctly. 
 
 Tke others were beside him in an instant, with terror 
 and amazement on their faces. 
 
 They had not long to wait, before the cause of their alarm 
 became visible. It was a band of some five hundred stout 
 young men of the upper classes, well armed with swords 
 and the oblong bucklers of the legion, though wearing nei 
 ther casque nor cuirass, led by a curule aedile, who was 
 accompanied by ten or twelve of the equestrian order, 
 completely armed, and preceded by his apparitores or bea 
 dles, and half a dozen torch-bearers. 
 
 These men passed swiftly on, in treble file, marching 
 as fast as they could down the Sacred Way, until they reach- 
 
192 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ed the intersection of the street of Apollo ; by which they 
 proceeded straight up the ascent of the Palatine, whereon 
 they were soon lost to view, among the splendid edifices 
 that covered its slope and summit. 
 
 " By all the Gods ]" cried Caius Crispus, " This is ex 
 ceedingly strange! An armed guard at this time of night!" 
 
 " Hist ! here is something more." 
 
 And, as old Bassus spoke, Antonius, the consul, who was 
 supposed to be attached to the faction of Catiline, came 
 down a bye-street, from the lower end of the Carinae, pre 
 ceded by his torch-bearers, and followed by a lictor* with 
 his fasces. He was in full dress too, as one of the presi 
 ding magistrates of the senate, and bore in his hand his 
 ivory sceptre, surmounted by an eagle. 
 
 As soon as he had passed the door of the forge, Crispus 
 stepped out into the street, motioning his guests to follow 
 him, and desiring his foreman to lock the door. 
 
 " Let us follow the Consul, at a distance," he exclaim 
 ed, " my Bassus ; for, as our Fulvius says, there is assu 
 redly something afoot; and it may be that it shall be well 
 for us to- know it. Come, let us follow quickly." 
 
 They hurried onward, as he proposed ; and keeping 
 some twenty or thirty paces in the rear of the Consul s 
 train, soon reached the foot of the street of Apollo. At 
 this point, however, Antonius paused with his lictor ; for, 
 in the opposite direction coming up from the Cerolian 
 place toward the Forum, another line of torches might be 
 seen flaming through the darkness, arid, even at that dis 
 tance, the axe heads of the lictors were visible, as they 
 flawed out by fits in the red torch-light. 
 
 " By all the Gods!" whispered Bassus, "it is the other 
 consul, the new man from Arpinum. Believe me, my 
 friends, this bodes no good to us ! The Senate must have 
 been convoked suddenly and lo! here come the fathers. 
 Look, look ! this is stern Cato." 
 
 And, almost as he said the words, a powerfully made 
 and very noble looking man passed so near as to brush 
 the person of the mechanic with the folds of his toga. 
 His face, which was strongly marked, was stem cer 
 tainly ; but it was with the sternness of gravity and deep 
 
 *The senior consul, or he whose month it was to preside, had twelve 
 Actors ; the junior but one, while within the city. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 193 
 
 thought, coupled perhaps with something of melancholy 
 for it might be that he despaired at times of man s condition 
 in this world, and of his prospects in the next not of aus 
 terity or pride. His garb was plain in the extreme, and, 
 although his tunic displayed the broad crimson facings, and 
 his robe the passmenting of senatorial rank, both were of 
 the commonest materials, and the narrowest and most sim 
 ple cut. 
 
 "Hail, noble Cato!" said the mechanic, as the senator 
 passed by; but his voice faltered as he spoke, and there 
 was something hollow and heartless in the tones, which 
 conveyed the greeting. 
 
 Cato raised his eyes, which had been fixed on the ground 
 in meditation, and perused the features of the speaker with 
 a severe and scrutinizing gaze ; and then, shaking his head 
 sternly, as if dissatisfied with the result of his observation, 
 
 " This is r.o time of night, sirrah smith," he said, "for 
 thee, or such as thou, to be abroad. Thy daily work done, 
 thou shouldst be at home with thy wife and children, not 
 seeking profligate adventures, or breeding foul sedition in 
 the streets. Go home! go home! for shame .on thee! 
 thou art known and marked." 
 
 And the severe and virtuous noble strode onward, un 
 attended he by any torch-bearer, or freedman, and soon 
 joined his worthy friend^the great Latin orator, who had 
 come up, and having united his train to that of the other 
 consul, was moving up the Palatine. 
 
 In the meantime senator after senator arrived, some 
 alone, with their slaves or freedmen lighting them along 
 the streets ; others in groups of two or three, all hurrying 
 toward the Palatine. The smith and his friends, who had 
 been at first the sole spectators of the shew, were now eve 
 ry moment joined by more and more of the rabble, until 
 a great concourse was assembled ; through which the no 
 bles had some difficulty in forcing their way toward the 
 Temple of Apollo, in which their order was assembling, 
 wherefore as yet they knew not. 
 
 At first the crowd was orderly enough, and quiet ; but 
 gradually beginning to ferment and grow warm, as it were 
 by the closeness of its packing, cheers were heard, and 
 loud acclamations, as any member of the popular faction 
 made his way through it ; and groans and yells and even 
 17 
 
194: THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 curses succeeded, as any of the leaders of the aristocratic 
 party strove to part its reluctant masses. 
 
 And now a louder burst of acclamations, than any which 
 had yet been heard, rang through the streets, causing the 
 very roofs to tremble. 
 
 " What foolery have we here ?" said the smith very sul 
 lenly, w r ho, though he responded nothing to it, had by 
 no means recovered from the rebuke of Cato "Oh ! yes! 
 I see, I see," and he too added the power of his stentorian 
 lungs to the clamor, as a young senator, splendidly dressed, 
 and of an aspect that could not fail to attract attention, 
 entered the little space, which had been kept open at the 
 corner of the two streets, by the efforts of an aedile and his 
 beadles, who had just arrived on the ground. 
 
 He was not much, if at all, above the middle size, but 
 admirably proportioned, whether for feats of agility and 
 strength, or for the lighter graces of society. But it was 
 his face more especially, and the magnificent expression 
 of his features, that first struck the beholder the broad 
 imaginative brow, the keen large lustrous eye, pervading, 
 clear, un.dazzled as the eagle s, the bold Roman nose, the 
 resolute curve of the clean-cut mouth, full of indomitable 
 pride and matchless energy all these bespoke at once the 
 versatile and various genius of the great statesman, orator, 
 and captain, who was to be thereafter. 
 
 At this time," however, although he was advancing toward 
 middle age, and had already shaken off some of the tram 
 mels which luxurious vice and heedless extravagance had 
 cast around his young puissant intellect, he had achieved 
 nothing either of fame or power. He had, it is true, giv 
 en signs of rare intellect, but as yet they were signs only. 
 Though his friends looked forward confidently to the time, 
 when they should see him the first citizen of the repub 
 lic ; and it is more than possible, that in his own heart he 
 contemplated even now the attainment of a more glori 
 ous, if more perilous elevation. 
 
 The locks of this noble looking personage, though not 
 arranged in that effeminate fashion, which has been men 
 tioned as characteristic of Cethegus and some others, were 
 closely curled about his brow for he, as yet, exhibited no 
 tendency to that baldness, for which in after years he was 
 remarkable and reeked with the choicest perfumes. He 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 195 
 
 wore the crimson-bordered toga of his senatorial rank, but 
 under it, as it waved loosely to and fro, might be observed 
 the gaudy hues of a violet colored banqueting dress, sprin 
 kled with flowers of gold, as if he had been disturbed from 
 some festive board by the summons to council. 
 
 As he passed through the crowd, from which loud rose 
 the shout, following him as he moved along "Hail, Caius 
 Ccesar! long live the noble Caesar!" his slaves scattered 
 gold profusely among the multitude, who fought and scram 
 bled for the glittering coin, still keeping up their clamor 
 ous greeting; while the dispenser of the wasteful largesse 
 appearing to know every one, and to forget no face or 
 name, even of the humblest, had a familiar smile and a 
 cheery word for each citizen. 
 
 Ha ! Bassus, my old hero !" he exclaimed, " it is long 
 since thou hast been to visit me. That proves, I hope, 
 that things go better now-a-days at home. But come and 
 see me, Bassus ; I have something for thee to keep the cold 
 from thy hearth, this freezing weather." 
 
 And he paused not to receive an answer, but moved for 
 ward a step or two, till his eye fell upon the swordsmith. 
 
 "What, Caius," he said, "sturdy Caius, absent from his 
 forge so early but I forgot, I forgot ! you are a politician, 
 perhaps you can tell me why they have roused me from 
 the best cup of Massic I have tasted this ten years. What 
 is the coil, Caius Crispus ]" 
 
 " Nay ! I know not/ replied the mechanic, " I was 
 about to ask the same of you, noble Caesar!" 
 
 " I am the worst man living of whom to inquire," re 
 plied the patrician, with a careless smile. " I cannot even 
 guess, unless perchance" but as he spoke, he discovered, 
 standing beside the smith, the man who had called himself 
 Fulvrus Flaccus, and interrupting himself instantly, he fix 
 ed a long and piercing gaze upon him, and then exclaim 
 ed, "Ha! is it thou V 1 with an expression of astonishment, 
 not all unmixed with vexation. 
 
 The next moment he stepped close up to him, whisper 
 ed a word into his ear, and hurried with an altered air up 
 the steep street which scaled the Palatine. 
 
 A minute or two afterward, Crispus turned to address 
 this man, but he too was gone. 
 
 In quick succession senator after senator now came up 
 
196 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 the gentle slope of the Sacred Way, until almost all the dis 
 tinguished men in Rome, whether for good or" for evil, had 
 undergone the scrutiny of the group collected around Cai- 
 us Crispus. 
 
 But it was not till among the last that Catiline strode by, 
 gnawing his nether lip uneasily, with his wild sunken eyes 
 glaring suspiciously about him. He spoke to no one, 
 until he came opposite the smith, on whom he frown 
 ed darkly, exclaiming, " What do you here 1 Go home, 
 sirrah, go home !" and as Caius dropped his bold eyes, 
 crest-fallen and abashed, he added in a lower tone, so that, 
 save Bassus only, none of the crowd could hear him, 
 " Wait for me at my house. Evil is brewing !" 
 
 Not a word more was spoken. Crispus and the old 
 man soon extricated themselves from the throng and went 
 their way ; and in a little time afterward the multitude was 
 dispersed, rather summarily, by a band of armed men un 
 der the Praetor Pomptinus, who cleared with veiy little 
 delicacy the confines of the Palatine, whereon it was an- 
 n/MtTi^ofl that the senate were now in secret session. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 397 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE DISCLOSURE. 
 
 Maria montesque polliceri caepit, 
 Minari interdum ferro, nisi obnoxia foret 
 
 SALLUST. 
 A woman, master. 
 
 LOVE S LABOUB LOST. 
 
 AMONG all those of Senatorial rank and they were 
 very many who were participants of the intended trea 
 son, one alone was absent from the assemblage of the Or 
 der on that eventful night. 
 
 The keen unquiet eye of the arch-traitor missed Curius 
 from his place, as it ran over the known faces of the con- 
 spiratqrs, on whom he reckoned for support. 
 
 Curius was absent. 
 
 Nor did his absence, although it might well be, although 
 indeed it was, accidental, diminish anything of Catiline s 
 anxiety. For, though he fully believed him trusty and 
 faithful to the end, though he felt that the man was linked 
 to him indissolubly by the consciousness of common crimes, 
 he knew him also to be no less vain than he was daring. 
 And, while he had no fear of intentional betrayal, he ap 
 prehended the possibility of involuntary disclosures, that 
 might be perilous, if not fatal, in the present juncture. 
 
 It has been left on record of this Curius, by one who 
 knew him well, and was himself no mean judge of charac 
 ter, that he possessed not the faculty of concealing any 
 17* 
 
198 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 thing ne had heard, or even of dissembling his own crimes ; 
 and Catiline was not one to overlook or mistake so palpa 
 ble a weakness. 
 
 But the truth was, that knowing his man thoroughly, he 
 was aware that, with the bane, he bore about with him, 
 in some degree, its antidote. For so vast and absurd 
 were his vain boastings, and so needless his exaggerations 
 of his own recklessness, blood-thirstiness, and crime, that 
 hitherto his vaporings had excited rather ridicule than fear. 
 
 The time was however coming, when they were to 
 awaken distrust, and lead to disclosure. 
 
 It was perfectly consistent with the audacity of Cati- 
 . line an audacity, which, though natural, stood him well 
 in stead, as a mask to cover deep designs that even 
 now, whe*ri he felt himself to b^more than suspected, in 
 stead of avoiding notoriety, and shunning the companion 
 ship of his fellow traitors, he seemed to covet observation, 
 and to display himself in connection with his guilty part 
 ners, more openly than heretofore. 
 
 But neither Lentulus, nor Vargunteius, nor the Syllae, 
 nor any other of the plotters had seen Curius, or could in 
 form him of his whereabout. And, ere they separated for 
 the night, amid the crash of the contending elements above, 
 and the roar of the turbulent populace below, doubt, and 
 almost dismay, had sunk into the hearts of several the 
 most daring, so far as mere mortal perils were to be en 
 countered, but the most abject, when superstition was 
 joined with conscious guilt to appal and confound them. 
 
 Catiline left the others, and strode away homeward, 
 more agitated and unquiet than his face or words, or any 
 thing in his demeanor, except his irregular pace, and fitful 
 gestures indicated. 
 
 Dark curses quivered unspoken on his tongue the 
 pains of hell were in his heart already. 
 
 Had he but known the whole, how would his fury have 
 blazed out into instant action. 
 
 At the very moment when the Senate was so suddenly 
 convoked on the Palatine, a woman of rare loveliness 
 waited alone, in a rich and voluptuous chamber of a house 
 not far removed from the scene of those grave delibera 
 tions. 
 
 The chamber, in which she reclined alone on a pile of 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 199 
 
 soft cushions, might well have been the shrine of that bland 
 queen of love and pleasure, of whom its fair tenant was 
 indeed an assiduous votaress. For there was nothing, 
 which could charm the senses, or lap the soul in luxurious 
 and effeminate ease, that was not there displayed. 
 
 The walls glowed with the choicest specimens of the 
 Italian pencil, and the soft tones and harmonious colouring 
 were well adapted to the subjects, which were the same 
 in all voluptuous and sensual love. 
 
 Here Venus rose from the crisp-smiling waves, in a 
 rich atmosphere of light and beauty there Leda toyed 
 with the wreathed neck and ruffled plumage of the ena 
 moured swan in this compartment, Danaelay warm and 
 languid, impotent to resist the blended power of the God s 
 passion and his gold i^that, Ariadne clung delighted to 
 the bosom of the rosy wine-God. 
 
 The very atmosphere of the apartment was redolent of 
 the richest perfumes, which streamed from four censers of 
 chased gold placed on a tall candelabra of wrought bronze 
 in tbe corners of the room. A bowl of stained glass on 
 the table was filled with musk roses, the latest of the year; 
 and several hyacinths in full bloom added their almost 
 overpowering scent to the aromatic odours of the burning 
 incense. 
 
 Armed chairs, with downy pillows, covered with choice 
 embroidered cloths of Calabria, soft ottomans and easy 
 couches, tables loaded with implements of female luxury, 
 musical instruments, drawings, arid splendidly illuminated 
 rolls of the amatory bards and poetesses of the Egean 
 islands, completed the picture of the boudoir of the Ro 
 man beauty. 
 
 And on a couch piled with the Tyrian cushions, which 
 yielded to the soft impress of her lovely form, well worthy 
 of the splendid luxury with which she was surrounded, 
 lay the unrivalled Fulvia, awaiting her expected lover. 
 
 If she was lovely in her rich attire, as she appeared at 
 the board of Catiline, with jewels in her bosom, and her 
 bright ringlets of luxuriant gold braided in fair array, far 
 lovelier was she now, as she lay there reclined, with those 
 bright ringlets all dishevelled, and falling in a flood of 
 wavy silken masses, over her snowy shoulders, and palpi 
 tating bosom ; with all the undulating outlines of her su 
 
200 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 perb form, unadorned, and but scantily concealed by a 
 loose robe of snow-white linen. 
 
 Her face was slightly flushed with a soft carnation tinge, 
 her blue eyes gleamed with unusual brightness. And by 
 the fluttering of her bosom, and the nervous quivering of 
 her slender fingers, as they leaned on a tripod of Parian 
 marble which stood beside the couch, it was evident that 
 she was labouring under some violent excitement. 
 
 " He comes not," she said. " And it is waxing late. 
 He has again failed me ! and if he have ruin rum ! 
 Debts pressing me in every quarter, and no hope but from 
 him. Alfenus the usurer will lend no more my farms all 
 mortgaged to the utmost, a hundred thousand sesterces of 
 interest, due these last Calends, and unpaid as yet. What 
 can I do ? what hope for 1 Iflfchim there is no help 
 none ! Nay ! It is vain to think of it ; for he is amorous 
 as ever, and, could he raise the money, would lavish mil 
 lions on me for one kiss. No ! he is bankrupt too ; and 
 all his promises are but wild empty boastings. What, 
 then, is left to me ]" she cried aloud, in the intensity of 
 her perturbation. " Most miserable me ! My creditors 
 will seize on all all all ! and poverty hard, chilling, 
 bitter poverty, is staring in my face even now. Ye Gods ! 
 ye Gods ! And I can not can not live poor. No more 
 rich dainties, and rare wines ! no downy couches and soft 
 perfumes ! No music to induce voluptuous slumbers ! no 
 fairy-fingered slaves to fan the languid brow into luxurious 
 coolness ! No revelry, no mirth, no pleasure ! Pleasure 
 that is so sweet, so enthralling ! Pleasure for which I 
 have lived only, without which I must die ! Die ! By 
 the great Gods ! I will die ! What avails life, when all 
 its joys are gone ] or what is death, but one momentary 
 pang, and then quiet ? Yes ! I will die. And the world 
 shall learn that the soft Epicurean can vie with the cold 
 Stoic in carelessness of living, and contempt of death 
 that the warm votaress of Aphrodite can spend her glow 
 ing life-blood as prodigally as the stern follower of Virtue ! 
 Lucretia died, and was counted great and noble, because 
 she cared not to survive her honour ! Fulvia will perish, 
 wiser, as soon as she shall have outlived her capacity for 
 pleasure !" 
 
 She spoke enthusiastically, her bright eyes flashing a 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 201 
 
 strange fire, and her white bosom panting with the strong 
 and passionate excitement ; but in a moment her mood 
 was changed. A smile, as if at her own vehemence, curl 
 ed her lip ; her glance lost its quick, sharp wildness. She 
 dapped her hands together, and called aloud, 
 
 "Ho! ^Egle! JEgle !" 
 
 And at the call a beautiful Greek girl entered the cham 
 ber, voluptuous as her mistress in carriage and demeanor, 
 and all too slightly robed for modesty, in garments that 
 displayed far more than they concealed of her rare sym 
 metry. 
 
 " Bring wine, my girl," cried Fulvia ; " the richest 
 Massic ; and, hark thee* fetch thy lyre. My soul is dark 
 to-night, and craves a joyous note to kindle it to life and 
 rapture." 
 
 The girl bowed and retired ; but in a minute or two 
 returned, accompanied by a dark-eyed Ionian, bearing a 
 .Tuscan flask of the choice wine, and a goblet of crystal, 
 embossed with emeralds and sapphires, imbedded, by a 
 process known to the ancients but now lost, in the trans 
 parent glass. 
 
 A lyre of tortoiseshell was in the hands of ^Egle, and a 
 golden plectrum with which to strike its chords ; she had 
 cast loose her abundant tresses of dark hair, and decked 
 her brows with a coronal of myrtle mixed with roses, and 
 as she came bounding with sinuous arid graceful gestures 
 through the door, waving her white arms with the daz 
 zling instruments aloft, she might have represented well a 
 young priestess of the Cyprian queen, or the light Muse 
 of amorous song. 
 
 The other girl filled out a goblet of the amber-coloured 
 wine, the fragrance o^ which overpowered, for a moment, 
 as it mantled on the goblet s brim, the aromatic perfumes 
 which loaded the atmosphere of the apartment. 
 
 And Fulvia raised it to her lips, and sipped it slowly, 
 and delightedly, suffering it to glide drop by drop between 
 her rosy lips, to linger on her pleased palate, luxuriating 
 in its soft richness, and dwelling long and rapturously on 
 its flavour. 
 
 After a little while, the goblet was exhausted, a warmer 
 hue came into her velvet cheeks, a brighter spark danced 
 in her azure eves, and as she motioned the Ionian slave- 
 
202 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 girl to replenish the cup and place it on the tripod at her 
 elbow, she murmured in a low languid tone, 
 
 " Sing to me, now sing to me, JEgle." 
 
 And in obedience to her word the lovely girl bent hei 
 fair form over the lute, and, after a wild prelude full ol 
 strange thrilling melodies, poured out a voice as liquid and 
 as clear, aye ! and as soft, withal, as the nightingale s, in 
 a soft Sapphic love-strain full of the glorious poetry of her 
 own lovely language. 
 
 Where in umbrageous shadow of the greenwood 
 Buds the gay primrose i the balmy spring time ; 
 Where never silent, Philomel, the wildest 
 
 Minstrel of ether, 
 
 Pours her high notes, and caroling, delighted 
 In the cool sun-proof canopy of the ilex 
 Hung with ivy green or a bloomy dog-rose 
 
 IdJy r|dundant, 
 
 Charms the fierce noon with melody ; in the moonbeam 
 Where the coy Dryads trip it unmolested 
 All the night long, to merry dithyrambics 
 
 Blissfully timing 
 
 Their rapid steps, which flit across the knot grass 
 Lightly, nor shake one flower of the blue-bell ; 
 Where liquid founts and rivulets o silver 
 
 Sweetly awaken 
 
 Clear forest echoes with unearthly laughter ; 
 There will I, dearest, on a bank be lying 
 Where the wild thyme blows ever, and the pine tree 
 
 Fitfully murmurs 
 
 Slumber inspiring. Come to me, my dearest, 
 On the fresh greensward, as a downy bride-bed, 
 Languid, unzoned, and amorous, reclining ; 
 
 Like Ariadne, 
 
 When the blythe wine-God, from Olympus hoary, 
 Wooed the soft mortal tremulously yielding 
 All her enchantments to the mighty victor 
 
 Happy Ariadne ! 
 
 There will I, dearest, every frown abandon ; 
 Nor do thou fear, nor hesitate to press me, 
 Since, if I chide, tis but a girl s reproval, 
 
 Faintly reluctant. 
 
 Doubt not I love thee, whether I return thy 
 
 Kisses in delight, or avert demurely 
 
 Lips that in truth burn to be kissed the closer, 
 
 Eyes that avoid thee, 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 203 
 
 Loth to confess how amorously glowing 
 
 Pants the fond heart. Oh ! tarry not, but urge me 
 
 Coy to consent ; and if a blush alarm thee, 
 
 Shyly revealing 
 
 Sentiments deep as the profound of Ocean, 
 If a sigh, faltered in an hour of anguish, 
 Serm to implore thee pity not. The maiden 
 
 Often adores thee 
 
 Most if offending. Never, oh ! believe me, 
 Did the faint-hearted win a girl s devotion, 
 Nor the true girl frown when a youth disarmed her 
 
 Dainty denial. 
 
 While she was yet singing, the curtains which covered 
 the door were put quietly aside, and with a noiseless step 
 Curius entered the apartment, unseen by the fair vocalist, 
 whose back was turned to him, and made a sign to Fulvia 
 that she should not appear to notice his arrival. 
 
 The haggard and uneasy aspect, which was peculiar to 
 this man the care-worn expression, half-anxious and half- 
 jaded, which has been previously described, was less con 
 spicuous on this occasion than ever it had been before, 
 since the light lady loved him. There was a feverish flush 
 on his face, a joyous gleam in his dark eye, and a self-sa 
 tisfied smile lighting up all his features, which led her to 
 believe at first that he had been drinking deeply ; and se 
 condly, that by some means or other he had succeeded in 
 collecting the vast sum she had required of him, as the 
 unworthy pjice of future favours. 
 
 In a minute or two, the voluptuous strain ended ; arid, 
 ere she knew that any stranger listened to her amatory 
 warblings, the arm of Curius was wound about her slen 
 der waist, and his half-laughing voice was ringing in her 
 ear, 
 
 " Well sung, myilovely Greek, arid daintily advised ! 
 By my faith! sweet one, I will take thee at thy word!" 
 
 "No! no!" cried the girl, extricating herself from his 
 arms, by an elastic spring, before his lips could touch her 
 cheek. " No ! no ! you shall not kiss me. Kiss Fulvia, 
 she is handsomer than I am, and loves you too. Come, 
 Myrrha, let us leave them." 
 
 And, with an arch smile and coquettish toss of her pretty 
 head, she darted through the door, and was followed in 
 stantly" oy the other slave-girl, well trained to divine the 
 wishes of her mistress. 
 
204 
 
 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " Mgle is right, by Venus !" exclaimed Curius, drawing 
 nearer to his mistress ; " you are more beautiful to-night 
 than ever." 
 
 " Flatterer !" murmured the lady, suffering him to en 
 fold her in his arms, and taste her lips for a moment. But 
 the next minute she withdrew herself from his embrace, 
 and said, half-smiling, half-abashed, " But flattery will not 
 pay my debts. Have you brought me the moneys for Al- 
 fenus, my sweet Curius 1 the hundred thousand sesterces, 
 you promised me 1" 
 
 "Perish the dross!" cried Curius, fiercely. " Out on 
 it ! when I come to you, burning with love and passion, 
 you cast cold water on the flames, by your incessant cry 
 for gold. By all the Gods ! I do believe, that you love 
 me only for that you can wring from my purse." 
 
 " If it be so," replied the lady, scornfully, " I surely do 
 not love you much ; seeing it is three months, since you 
 have brought me so much as a ring, or a jewel for a keep 
 sake ! But you should rather speak the truth out plainly, 
 Curius," she continued, in an altered tone, " and confess 
 honestly that you care for me no longer. If you loved me 
 as once you did, you would not leave me to be goaded by 
 these harpies. Know you not why do I ask 1 ? you do 
 know that my house, my slaves, nay ! that my very jewels 
 and my garments, are mine but upon sufferance. It wantrf 
 but a few clays of the calends of November, and if they 
 find the interest unpaid, I shall be cast forth, shamed, and 
 helpless, into the streets of Rome !" 
 
 " Be it so !" answered Curius, with an expression which 
 she could not comprehend. " Be it so ! Fulvia ; and if 
 it be, you shall have any house in Rome you will, for 
 your abode. What say you to Cicero s, in the Cannae ] 
 or the grand portico of Quintus Catulus, r^eb with the 
 Cimbric spoils 1 or, better yet, that of Crassus, with its 
 Hymettian columns, on the Palatine 1 ? Aye! aye! the 
 speech of Marcus Brutus was prophetic ; who termed it. 
 the other day, the house of Venus on the Palatine ! And 
 you, my love, shall be the goddess of that shrine ! It shal 
 be yours to-morrow, if you will so you will drive awaj 
 the clouds from that sweet brow, and let those eyes beam 
 forth by all the Gods !" he interruDteJ himself " 1 
 will kiss thee !" 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO A^D CAT ALINE. 205 
 
 " By all the Gods ! thou shalt not now, nor for ever 
 more !" she replied, in her turn growing very angry. 
 " Thou foolish and mendacious boaster ! what ? dost thou 
 deem me mad or senseless, to assail me with such dri 
 velling folly ? Begone, fool ! or I will call my slaves I 
 have slaves yet, and, if it be the last deed of service they 
 do for me, they shall spurn thee, like a dog, from my doors. 
 Art thou insane, or only drunken, Curius ?" she added, 
 breaking off from her impetuous railing, into a cool sarcas 
 tic tone, that stung him to the quick. 
 
 " You shall see whether of the two, Harlot !" he replied 
 furiously, thrusting his hand into the bosom of his tunic, 
 as if to seek a weapon. 
 
 " Harlot !" she exclaimed, springing to her feet, the hot 
 blood rushing to her brow in torrents " dare you say this 
 to me ]" 
 
 " Dare ! do you call this daring 1" answered the savage. 
 " This 1 what would you call it, then, to devastate the 
 streets of Rome with flame and falchion to hurl the fabric 
 of the state headlong down from the blazing Capitol to 
 riot in the gore of senators, patricians, consulars ! What, 
 to aspire to be the lords and emperors of the universe V 
 
 " What mean you "?" she exclaimed, moved greatly by 
 his vehemence, and beginning to suspect that this was some 
 thing more than his mere ordinary boasting and exaggera 
 tion. " What can you mean 1 oh ! tell me ; if you do love 
 me, as you once did, tell me, Curius !" and with rare arti 
 fice she altered her whole manner in an instant, all the ex 
 pression of eye, lip, tone and accent, from the excess of 
 scorn and hatred, to blandishment and fawning softness. 
 
 " No !" he replied sullenly. " I will not tell you no ! 
 You doubt me, distrust me, scorn me no ! I will tell you 
 nothing ! I will have all I wish or ask for, on my OWM 
 terms you shall grant all, or die !" 
 
 And he unsheathed his dagger, as he spoke, and grasp 
 ing her wrist violently with his left hand, offered the wea 
 pon at her throat with his right " You shall grant all, or 
 die !" 
 
 " Never !" she answered " never !" looking him stea 
 dily yet softly in the face, with her beautiful blue eyes. 
 " To fear I will never yield, whatever I may do, to love or 
 passion. Strike, if you will strike a weak woman, and 
 18 
 
20G THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 so prove your daring it will oe easier, if not so noble, as 
 slaying senators and consuls !" 
 
 "Perdition!" cried the fierce conspirator, " I will kill 
 her!" And with the word he raised his arm, as if to 
 strike ; and, for a moment, the guilty and abandoned sen 
 sualist believed that her hour was come. 
 
 l r et she shrunk not, nor quailed before his angry eye, 
 nor uttered any cry or supplication. She would have died 
 that moment, as carelessly as she had lived. She would 
 have died, acting out her character to the last sand of life, 
 with the smile on her lip, and the soft languor in her melt 
 ing eye, in all things an Epicurean. 
 
 But the fierce mood of Curius changed. Irresolute, and 
 impotent of evil, in a scarce less degree than he was san 
 guinary, rash, unprincipled, and fearless, it is not one of 
 the least strange events, connected with a conspiracy the 
 whole of which is strange, and much almost inexplicable, 
 that a man so wise, so sagacious, so deep-sighted, as the 
 arch traitor, should have placed confidence in one so fickle 
 and infirm of purpose. 
 
 His knitted brow relaxed, the hardness of his eye re 
 lented, he cast the dagger from him. 
 
 The next moment, suffering the scarf to fall from her 
 white and dazzling shoulders, the beautiful but bad en 
 chantress flung herself upon his bosom, in the abandon 
 ment of her dishevelled beauty, winding her snowy arms 
 about his neck, smothering his voice with kisses. 
 
 A moment more, and she was seated on his knee, with 
 his left arm about her waist, drinking with eager and at 
 tentive ears, that suffered not a single detail to escape 
 them, the fullest revelation of that atrocious plot, the days, 
 the very hours of action, the numbers, names, and rank of 
 the conspirators ! 
 
 A woman s infamy rewarded the base villain s double 
 treason ! A woman s infamy saved Rome ! 
 
 Two hours later, the crash and roar of the hurricane and 
 earthquake cut short their guilty pleasures. Curius rushed 
 into the streets headlong, almost deeming that the insur 
 rection might have exploded prematurely, and found it 
 more than half frustrated. 
 
 Fulvia, while yet the thunder rolled, and the blue light 
 ning flashed above her head, and the earth reeled beneath 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 207 
 
 her footsteps, went forth, strong in the resolution of that 
 Roman patriotism, which, nursed by the institutions of the 
 age, and the pride of the haughty heart, stood with her, as 
 it did with so many others, in lieu of any other principle, 
 of any other virtue. , 
 
 Closely veiled, unattended even by a single slave, that 
 delicate luxurious sinner braved the wild fury of -the ele 
 ments; braved the tumultuous frenzy, and more tumultuous 
 teiror, of the disorganised and angry populace ; braved the 
 dark superstition, which crept upon her as she marked 
 the awful portents of that night, and half persuaded her to 
 the belief that there were Powers on high, who heeded the 
 ways, punished the crimes of mortals. 
 
 And that strange sense grew on her more and more, 
 though she resisted it, incredulous, when after a little while 
 she sat side by side with the wise and virtuous Consul, 
 and marked the calmness, almost divine, of his thoughtful 
 benignant features, as he heard the full details of the aw 
 ful crisis, heretofore but suspected, in which he stood, as 
 if upon the verge of a scarce slumbering volcano. 
 
 What passed between that frail woman, and the wise 
 orator, none ever fully knew. But they parted on his 
 side with words of encouragement and kindness on her s 
 with a sense of veneration approaching almost to religious 
 awe. 
 
 And the next day, the usurer Alfenus received in full 
 the debt, both principal and interest, which he had long 
 despaired of touching. 
 
 But when the Great Man stood alone in his silent study, 
 that strange and unexpected interview concluded, he turn 
 ed his eyes upward, not looking, even once, toward the 
 sublime bust of Jupiter which stood before him, serene in 
 more than mortal grandeur ; extended both his arms, and 
 prayed in solemn accents 
 
 " All thanks to thee, Omnipotent, Ubiquitous, Eternal, 
 ONE ! whom we, vain fools of fancy, adore in many forms, 
 and under many names ; invest with the low attributes of 
 our own earthy nature ; enshrine in mortal shapes, and hu 
 man habitations ! But thou, who wert, before the round 
 world was, or the blue heaven o erhung it ; who wilt be, 
 when those shall be no longer, thou pardonest our mad 
 ness, guidest our blindness, guardest our weakness. Thou, 
 
208 ; THE ROMAN TRAITOR ; OR, THE 
 
 by the basest and most loathed instruments, dost work out 
 thy great ends. All thanks, then, be to thee, by whatso 
 ever name thou wouldest be addressed ; to thee, whose 
 dwelling is illimitable space, whose essence is in every 
 thing that we behold**that moves, that is to thee whom I 
 hail, GOD ! For thou hast given it to me to save my 
 country. And whether I die now, by this assassin s knife, 
 or live a little longer to behold the safety I establish, I 
 have lived long enough, and am content to die ! Whether 
 this death be, as philosophers have told us, a dreamless, 
 senseless, and interminable trance ; or, as I sometimes 
 dream, :i brief and passing slumber, from which we shall 
 awaken into a purer, brighter, happier being I have lived 
 long enough ! and when thou callest me, will answer to 
 thy summons, glad and grateful ! For Rome, at least, sur 
 vives me, and shall perchance survive, till time itself is 
 ended, the Queen of Universal Empire !" 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 213 
 
 mality in the augural rites sufficing to gpterrupt them 
 that little objection was made in any quarter, to the mo 
 tion of Cicero, that the comitia should be delayed, until 
 the matter could be thoroughly investigated. For he 
 professed only as yet to possess a clue, which he promised 
 hereafter to unravel to the end. 
 
 Catiline had, however, so far recovered from his con 
 sternation, that he had risen to address the house, when 
 the first words he uttered were drowned by a strange and 
 unearthly sound, like the rumbling of ten thousand cha- 
 iots over a stony way, beginning, as it seemed, under 
 neath their feet, and rising gradually until it died away 
 over head in the murky air. Before there was time for 
 any comment on this extraordinary sound, a tremulous 
 motion crept through the marble pavements, increasing 
 every moment, until the doors flew violently open, and the 
 vast columns and thick walls of the stately temple reeled 
 visibly in the dread earthquake. 
 
 Nor was this all, for as the portals opened, in the black 
 skies, right opposite the entrance, there stood, glaring 
 with red and lurid light, a bearded star or comet; which, 
 to the terror-stricken eyes of the Fathers, seemed a por 
 tentous sword, brandished above the city. 
 
 The groans and shrieks of the multitude, rushed in with 
 an appalling sound to increase their superstitious awe ; 
 and to complete the whole, a pale and ghastly messenger 
 was ushered into the house, announcing that a bright lam 
 bent flame was sitting on the lance-heads of the Praetor s 
 guard, which had been summoned to protect the Senate 
 in its deliberations. 
 
 A fell sneer curled the lip of Catiline. He was not 
 even superstitious. Self-vanity and confidence in his own 
 powers, and long impunity in crime, had hardened him, 
 had maddened him, almost to Atheism. Yet he dared 
 not attack the sacred prejudices of the men, whom, but 
 for that occurrence, he had yet hoped to win to their 
 own undoing. 
 
 But, as he saw their blanched visages, and heard their 
 mutterings of terror, he saw likewise that an impression 
 was made on their minds, which no words of his could 
 for the present counteract. And, with a sneering smile 
 at fears which he knew not, and a smothered curse at 
 
214 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 the accident, as \jf termed it, which had foiled him, he sat 
 down silent. 
 
 " The Gods have spoken!" exclaimed Cicero, flinging 
 his arms abroad majestically. " The guilty are struck 
 dumb ! The Gods have spoken aloud their sympathy for 
 Home s peril ; and will ye, ye its chosen sons, whose all 
 of happiness and life lie in its sanctity and safety, will 
 ye, I say, love your own country, your own mother, less 
 than the Gods love her?" 
 
 The moment was decisive, the appeal irresistible. By 
 acclamation the vote was carried ; no need to debate or 
 to divide the House that the elections be deferred until 
 the eleventh day before the Calends, and that the Senate 
 meet again to-morrow, shortly after sunrise, to deliberate 
 what shall be done to protect the Republic ] 
 
 Morning came, dark indeed, and lurid, and more like the 
 close, than the opening of day. Morning came, but it 
 brought no change with it ; for not a head in Rome had 
 lain that night upon a pillow, save those of the unburied 
 dead, or the bedridden. Young men and aged, sick and 
 sound, masters and slaves, had wooed no sleep during the 
 hours of darkness, so terribly, so constantly was it illu 
 minated by the broad flashes of blue lightning, and the 
 strange meteors, which rushed almost incessantly athwart 
 the sky. The winds too had been all unchained in their 
 fury, and went howling like tormented spirits, over the 
 terrified and trembling city. 
 
 It was said too, that the shades of the dead had arisen, 
 and were seen mingling in the streets with the living, 
 scarcely more livid than the half-dead spectators of portents 
 so ominous. No rumour so absurd or fanatical, but it found 
 on that night, implicit credence. Some shouted in the 
 streets and open places, that the patricians and the knights 
 were arming their adherents for a promiscuous massacre 
 of the people. Some, that the gladiators had broken loose, 
 and slain thousands of citizens already ! Some, that there 
 was a Gallic tumult, and that the enemy would be at the 
 gates in the morning ! Some that the Gods had judged 
 Rome to destruction ! 
 
 And so they raved, and roared, and sometimes fought ; 
 and would have rioted tremendously ; for many of the 
 commoner conspirators w T ere abroad, ready to take advan- 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALIXE. 215 
 
 tage of any casual incident to breed an affray ; but that a 
 strong force of civil magistrates patrolled the streets with 
 armed attendants ; and that, during the night several 
 cohorts were brought in, from the armies of Quintus Mar- 
 cius Rex, and Quintus Metellus Creticus, with all their 
 armor and war weapons, in heavy marching order ; and 
 occupied the Capitol, the Palatine, and the Janiculum, and 
 all the other prominent and commanding points of the city, 
 with an array that set opposition at defiance. 
 
 So great, however, were the apprehensions of many of 
 the nobles, that Rome was on the eve of a servile insur 
 rection, that many of them armed their freedmen, and im 
 prisoned all their slaves ; while others, the more generous 
 and milder, who thought they could rely on the attachment 
 of their people, weaponed their slaves themselves, and 
 fortified their isolated dwellings against the anticipated 
 onslaught. 
 
 Thus passed that terrible and tempestuous night; the 
 roar of the elements, unchained as they were, and at their 
 work of havoc, not sufficing to drown the dissonant and 
 angry cries of men, the clash of weapons, and the shrill 
 clamor of women ; which made Rome more resemble the 
 Pandemonium than the metropolis of the world s most 
 civilized and mightiest nation. 
 
 But now morning had come at length ; and gradually, as 
 the storm ceased, and the heavens resumed their natural 
 appearance, the terrors and the fury of the multitude 
 subsided; and, partly satisfied by the constant and well- 
 timed proclamations of the magistrates, partly convinced 
 that for the moment there was no hope of successful out 
 rage, and yet more wearied out with their own turbulent 
 vehemence, whether of fear or anger, the crowd began to 
 retire to their houses, and the streets were left empty and 
 bilent. 
 
 As the day dawned, there was no banner hoisted on 
 the Janiculum, although its turrets might be seen brist 
 ling with the short massive javelins of the legions, and 
 gleaming with the tawny light that flashed from their 
 brazen casques and corslets. 
 
 There was no augural tent pitched on the hills without 
 the city walls, wherefrorn to take the auspices. 
 
 And above all, there were no loud and stirring- calls of 
 
216 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 the brazen trumpets of the centuries, to summon forth 
 the civic army of the Roman people to the Campus, there 
 to elect their rulers for the ensuing year. 
 
 It was apparent therefore to all men, that the elections 
 would not be held that day, though none knew clearly 
 wherefore they had been deferred. 
 
 While the whole city was loud with turbulent confusion 
 for, as morning broke, arid it was known that the comi 
 tia were postponed, the agitation of terror succeeded to 
 that of insubordination Hortensia and her daughter sat 
 together, pale, anxious, arid heartsick, yet firm and free 
 from all unworthy evidences of dismay. 
 
 During the past night, which had been to both a sleep 
 less one, they had sate listening, lone and weak women, 
 to the roar of tumultuous streets, and expecting at every 
 moment they knew not what of violence and outrage. 
 
 Paullus Arvina had come in once to reassure them : and 
 informed them that the vigilance of the Consul had been 
 crowned with success, and that the danger of a con 
 flict in the streets was subsiding every moment. 
 
 Still, the care which he bestowed on examining the fas 
 tenings of the doors, and such windows as looked into the 
 streets, the earnestness with which he inculcated watch 
 ful heed to the armed slaves of the household, and the 
 positive manner in which he insisted on leaving Thrasea 
 and a dozen of his own trustiest men to assist Hortensia s 
 people, did more to obliterate the hopes his own words 
 would otherwise have excited, than the words themselves 
 to excite them. 
 
 Nor was it, indeed, to be wondered that Hortensia 
 should be liable, above other women, not to base terror, 
 for of that from her high character she was incapable 
 but to a settled apprehension and distrust of the Roman 
 Populace. 
 
 It was now four-arid-twenty years since the city had 
 been disturbed by plebeian violence or aristocratic ven 
 geance. Twenty-four years ago, the avenging sword of 
 Sylla had purged the state of its bloodthirsty demagogues, 
 and their brute followers ; twenty-four years ago his pow 
 erful hand had reestablished Rome s ancient constitution, 
 full of checks and balances, which secured equal rights to 
 every Roman citizen ; which secured all equality, in short 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 217 
 
 to all men, save that which no human laws can give, equal 
 ity of social rank, and equality of wealth. 
 
 The years, however, which had gone before that resto 
 ration, the dreadful massacres and yet more dreadful pro 
 scriptions of Cinna and Marios, had left indelible and san 
 guinary traces on the ancestral tree of many a noble house ; 
 and on none deeper than on that of Hortensia s family. 
 
 Her brother, Caius Julius, an orator second to none in 
 those days, had been murdered by the followers of Marius, 
 almost before his sister s eyes, with circumstances of ap 
 palling cruelty. Her house had been forced open by the 
 infuriate rabble, her husband hewn down with unnum 
 bered wounds, on his own hearth-stone, and her first 
 born child tossed upon die revolutionary pike heads. 
 
 Her husband indeed recovered, almost miraculously, 
 from his wounds, and lived to see retribution fall upon the 
 guilty partizans of Marius ; but he was never well again, 
 and after languishing for years, died at last of the wounds 
 he received on that bloody day. 
 
 Good cause, then, had Hortensia to tremble at the ten 
 der mercies of the people. 
 
 Nor, though they struck the minds of these high-born 
 ladies with less perplexity and awe than the vulgar souls 
 without, were the portents and horrors of the heaven, 
 without due effect. No mind in those days, however 
 clear and enlightened, but held some lingering belief 
 that such things were ominous of coming wrath, and sent 
 by the Gods to inform their faithful worshippers. 
 
 It was moreover fresh in her memory, how two years be 
 fore, during the consulship of Cotta and Torquatus, in a 
 like terrible night-storm, the fire from heaven had stricken 
 down the highest turrets of the capitol, melted the bra 
 zen tables of the law, and scathed the gilded effigy of 
 Romulus and Remus, sucking their shaggy foster-mother, 
 which stood on the Capitoline. 
 
 The augurs in those days, collected from Etruria and 
 all parts of Italy, after long consultation, had proclaimed 
 that unless the Gods should be appeased duly, the end 
 of Rome and her empire was at hand. 
 
 And now what though for ten whole days consecu 
 tive the sacred games went on ; what though nothing 
 had been omitted whereby to avert the immortal indignation 
 
 19 
 
218 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 did not this heaven-born tempest prove that the wrath 
 was not soothed, that the decree yet stood firm 1 
 
 In such deep thoughts, and in the strong excitement 
 of such expectation, Hortensia and her daughter had 
 passed that awful night; not without high instructions 
 from the elder lady, grave and yet stirring narratives 
 of the great men of old how they strove fiercely, ener 
 getically, while strife could avail anything; and how, 
 when the last hope was over, they folded their hands in 
 stern and awful resignation, and met their fate unblench- 
 ing, and with but one care that the decorum of their 
 deaths should not prove unworthy the dignity of their 
 past lives. 
 
 Not without generous and noble resolutions on the 
 part of both, that they too would not be found wanting. 
 
 But there was nothing humble, nothing soft, in their 
 stern and proud submission to the inevitable necessity. 
 Nothing of love toward the hand which dealt the blow 
 nothing of confidence in supernal justice, much less 
 in supernal mercy ! Nothing of that sweet hope, that 
 undying trust, that consciousness of self-unworthiness, 
 that full conviction of a glorious future, which renders 
 so beautiful and happy the submission of a dying chris- 
 tian. 
 
 No ! there were none of these things ; for to the wisest 
 and best of the ancients, the foreshadowings of the soul s 
 immortality were dim, faint, and uncertain. The legends 
 of their mythology held up such pictures of the sen 
 suality and vice of those whom they called Gods, that 
 it was utterly impossible for any sound understanding to 
 accept them. And deep thinkers were consequently 
 driven into pure Deism, coupled too often with the 
 Epicurean creed, that the Great Spirit was too grand 
 and too sublime to trouble himself with the brief doings 
 of mortality. 
 
 The whole scope of the Roman s hope and ambition, 
 then, was limited to this world ; or, if there was a long 
 ing for anything beyond the term of mortality, it was 
 for a name, a memory, an immortality of good report. 
 
 And pride, which the Christian, better instructed, knows 
 to be the germ and root of all sin, was to the Roman, the 
 sole spring of honourable action, the sole source of virtue. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 219 
 
 Now, with the morning, qaiet was restored both to the 
 angry skies, and to the restless city. 
 
 Worn out with anxiety, and watching, sleep fell upon the 
 eyes of Julia, as she sat half recumbent in a large softly- 
 cushioned chair of Etruscan bronze. Her fair head fell 
 back on the crimson pillow, with all its wealth of auburn 
 ringlets flowing dishevelled ; and that soft still shadow, 
 which is yet, in its beautiful serenity, half terrible, so near 
 ly is it allied to the shadow of that sleep from which there 
 comes no waking, fell over her pale features. 
 
 The mother gazed on her for a moment, with more gen 
 tleness in her eye, and a milder smile on her face, than her 
 indomitable pride often permitted her to manifest. 
 
 " She sleeps" she said, looking at her wistfully " she 
 sleeps ! Aye ! the young sleep easily, even in their afflic 
 tion. They sleep, and forget their sorrows, and awaken, 
 either to fresh woes, as soon to be obliterated, or to vain 
 joys, yet briefer, and more fleeting. Thoughtlessness to 
 the young anguish to the old such is mortality ! And 
 what beyond ? aye, what ? what that we should so toil, 
 so suffer, to be virtuous 1 Is it a dream, all a dream this 
 futurity 1 I fear so" and, with the words, she lapsed into 
 a fit of solemn meditation, and stood for many minutes si- 
 let, and absorbed. Then a keen light came into her dark 
 eyes, a flash of animation coloured her pale cheeks, she 
 stretched her arms aloft, and in a clear sonorous voice 
 " No ! no !" she said, "Honour honour immortal hon 
 our ; thou, at least, art no dream thou art worth dying, 
 suffering, aye ! worth living to obtain ! For what is life 
 but the deeper sorrow, to the more virtuous and the 
 nobler 1" 
 
 A few minutes longer she stood gazing on her daughter s 
 beautiful face, until the sound of voices louder than usual, 
 and a slight bustle, in the peristyle, attracted her attention. 
 Then, after throwing a pallium, or shawl, of richly embroi 
 dered woollen stuff over the fair form of the sleeper, she 
 opened the door leading to the garden colonnade, and left 
 the room silently. 
 
 Scarcely had Hortensia disappeared, before the opposite 
 door, by which the saloon communicated with the atrium, 
 was opened, and a slave entered, bearing a small folded 
 note, secured by a waxen seal, on a silver plate. 
 
220 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 He approached Julia s chair, apparently in some hesita 
 tion, as if he felt that it was his duty, and was yet half 
 afraid to awaken her. At length, however, he made up 
 his mind, and addressed a word or two to her, which were 
 sufficiently distinct to arouse her for she started up and 
 gazed wildly about her but left no clear impression of 
 tlieir meaning on her mind. 
 
 This, however, the man did not appear to notice ; at all 
 events, he did not wait to observe the effect of his commu 
 nication, but quitted the room hastily, and in considerable 
 trepidation, leaving the note on the table. 
 
 Julia was sleeping very heavily, at the moment when 
 she was so startled from her slumber; and, as is not un- 
 frequently the case, a sort of bewilderment and nervous 
 agitation fell upon her, as she recovered her senses. Per 
 haps she had been dreaming, and the imaginary events of 
 her dream had blended themselves with the real occur 
 rence which awakened her. But for a minute or two, 
 though she saw the note, and the person who laid it on the 
 table, she could neither bring it to her mind who that per 
 son was, nor divest herself of the impression that there was 
 something both dangerous and supernatural in what had 
 passed. 
 
 In a little while this feeling passed away, and, though 
 still nervous and trembling, the young girl smiled at her 
 own alarm, as she took up the billet, which was directed 
 to herself in a delicate feminine hand, with the usual form 
 of superscription 
 
 " To Julia Serena, health" 
 although the writer s name was omitted. 
 
 She gazed at it for a moment, wondering from whom it 
 could come ; since she had no habitual correspondent, arid 
 the hand-writing, though beautiful, was strange to her. 
 She opened it, and read, her wonder and agitation increa 
 sing with every line 
 
 " You love Paullus Arvina," thus it ran, " and are loved 
 by him. He is worthy all your affection. Are you wor 
 thy of him ] I know not. I love him also, but alas ! less 
 happy, am not loved again, nor hope to be, nor indeed de 
 serve it ! They tell me you are beautiful ; I have seen 
 you, and yet I know not they told me once that I too was 
 beautiful, and yet I know not ! I know this only, that I 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 221 
 
 am desperate, and base, and miserable ! Yet fear me not, 
 nor mistake me. I love Paullus, yet would not have him 
 mine, now ; no ! not to be happy as to be his would ren 
 der me. Yet had it not been for you, I might have been 
 virtuous, honourable, happy, his for winning him from 
 me, you won from me hope ; and with hope virtue ; and 
 with virtue honour ! Ought I not then to hate you, Julia ] 
 Perchance I ought to do so were at least Roman and 
 hating to avenge ! Perchance, if I hoped, I should. But 
 hoping nothing, I hate nothing, dread nothing, and wish 
 nothing. Yea ! by the Gods ! I wish to know Paullus 
 happy yea ! more, I wish, even at cost of my own misery, 
 to make him happy. Shall I do so, by making him yours, 
 Julia ] I think so, for be sure be sure, he loves you. 
 Else had he yielded to my blandishments, to my passion, to 
 my beauty ! for I am by the Gods ! I am, though he sees 
 it not, as beautiful as thou. And I am proud likewise or 
 was proud once for misery has conquered pride in me ; 
 or what is weaker yet, and baser love ! 
 
 " I think you will make him happy. You can if you 
 will. Do so, by all the Gods ! I adjure you do so ; and if 
 you do not, tremble ! tremble, I say for think, if I sac 
 rifice myself to win bliss for him think, girl, how gladly, 
 how triumphantly, I would destroy a rival, who should fail 
 to do that, for which alone I spare her. 
 
 " Spare her ! nay, but much more ; for I can save her 
 can and will. 
 
 "Strange things will come to pass ere long, and terrible ; 
 and to no one so terrible as to you. 
 
 " There is a man in Rome, so powerful, that the Gods, 
 only, if there be Gods, can compare with him so haughty 
 in ambition, that stood he second in Olympus, he would 
 risk all things to be first so cruel, that the dug-drawn 
 Hyrcanian tigress were pitiful compared to him so reck 
 less of all things divine or human, that, did his own mother 
 stand between him and his vengeance, he would strike 
 through her heart to gain it. 
 
 " This man hath Paullus made his foe he hath crossed 
 his path ; he hath foiled him ! 
 
 " HE never spared man in his wrath, or woman in hia 
 passion. 
 
 " He hateth Paullus ! 
 
222 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " He hath looked on Julia ! 
 
 " Think, then, when lust and hate spur such a man to 
 gether, what will restrain him. 
 
 " Now mark me, and you shall jet be safe. All means 
 will be essayed to win you, for he would torture Paul by 
 making him his slave, ere he make you his victim. 
 
 " And Paul may waver. He hath wavered once. Chance 
 only, and I, rescued him ! I can do no more, for Rome 
 must know me no longer ! See, then, that thou hold him 
 constant in the right firm for his country ! So may he 
 defy secret spite, as he hath defied open violence. 
 
 " Now for thyself beware of w r omen ! Go not forth 
 alone ever, or without armed followers ! Sleep not, 
 but with a woman in thy chamber, and a watcher at thy 
 door! Eat not, nor drink, any thing abroad; nor at home, 
 save that which is prepared by known hands, and tasted by 
 the slave who serves it ! 
 
 " Be true to Paullus, and yourself, and you have a friend 
 ever watchful. So fear not, nor despond ! 
 
 " Fail me and, failing truth and honour, failing to 
 make Paullus happy, you do fail me ! Fail me, and no 
 thing, in the world d history or fable, shall match the great 
 ness of my vengeance of your anguish! 
 
 " Fail me ! and yours shall be, for ages, the name that 
 men shall quote, when they would tell of untold misery, of 
 utter shame, and desolation, and despair. 
 
 " Farewell." 
 
 The letter dropped from her hand ; she sat aghast and 
 speechless, terrified beyond measure, and yet unable to 
 determine, or divine, even, to what its dark warnings and 
 darker denunciations pointed. 
 
 Just at this instant, as between terror and amazement 
 she was on the verge of fainting, a clanging step was 
 heard without ; the crimson draperies that covered the 
 door, were put aside ; and, clad in glittering armour, 
 Paullus Arvina stood before her. 
 
 She started up, with a strange haggard smile flashing 
 across her pallid face, staggered a step or two to meet 
 him, and sank in an agony of tears upon his bosom. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 223 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE CONFESSION. 
 To err is human ; to forgive divine ! 
 
 THE astonishment of Paullus, at this strange burst of 
 feeling on the part of one usually so calm, so self-controll 
 ed, and seemingly so unimpassioned as that sweet lady, 
 may be more easily imagined than described. 
 
 That she. whose maidenly reserve had never heretofore 
 permitted the slightest, the most innocent freedom of her 
 accepted lover, should cast herself thus into his arms, 
 should rest her head on his bosom, was in itself enough to 
 surprise him ; but when to this were added the violent 
 convulsive sobs, which shook her whole frame, the flood of 
 tears, which streamed from her eyes, the wild and dis 
 jointed words, which fell from her pale lips, he was struck 
 dumb with something not far removed from terror. 
 
 That it was fear, which shook her thus, he could not cre 
 dit ; for during all the fearful sounds and rumours of the 
 past night, she had been as firm as a hero. 
 
 Yet he knew not, dared not think, to what other cause 
 he might attribute it. 
 
 He spoke to her soothingly, tenderly, but his voice fal 
 tered as he spoke. 
 
 "Nay! nay! be not alarmed, dear girl!" he said. 
 The tumults are all, long since, quelled ; the danger has 
 
224 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 all vanished with the darkness, and the storm. Cheer up, 
 my own, sweet, Julia." 
 
 And, as he spoke, he passed his arm about her graceful 
 form, and drew her closer to his bosom. 
 
 But whether it was this movement, or something in his 
 words that aroused her, she started from his arms in a mo 
 ment ; and stood erect and rigid, pale still and agitated, 
 but no longer trembling. She raised her hands to her 
 brow, and put away the profusion of rich auburn ringlets, 
 which had fallen down dishevelled over her eyes, and gazed 
 at him stedfastly, strangely, as she had never gazed at him 
 before. 
 
 " Your own Julia !" she said, in slow accents, scarce 
 louder than a whisper, but full of strong and painful mean 
 ing. " Oh ! I adjure you, by the Gods ! by all -you love ! 
 or hope ! Are you false to me, Paullus !" 
 
 " False! Julia !" he exclaimed, starting, arid the blood 
 rushing consciously to his bold face. 
 
 "I am answered!" she said, collecting herself, with a 
 desperate effort. " It is well the Gods guard you ! 
 Leave me !" 
 
 " Leave you !" he cried. " By earth, and sea, and hea 
 ven, and all that they contain ! I know not what you mean." 
 
 " Know you this writing, then ]" she asked him, reach 
 ing the letter from the table, and holding it before his eyes. 
 
 " No more than I know, what so strangely moves you," 
 he answered ; and she saw, by the unaffected astonishment 
 which pervaded all his features, that he spoke truly. 
 
 " Read it," she said, somewhat more composed ; " and 
 tell me, who is the writer of it. You must know." 
 
 Before he had read six lines, it was clear to him that 
 it must come from Lucia, and no words can describe the 
 agony, the eager intense torture of anticipation, with which 
 he perused it, devouring every word, and at every word 
 expecting to find the damning record of his falsehood in 
 scribed in characters, that should admit of no denial. 
 
 Before, however, he had reached the middle of the let 
 ter,, he felt that he could bear the scrutiny of that pale girl 
 no longer ; and, lowering the strip of vellum on which it 
 was written, met her eye firmly. 
 
 For he was resolute for once to do the true and honest 
 thing, let what might come of it. The weaker points of 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 225 
 
 his character were vanishing rapidly, and the last few 
 eventful days had done the work of years upon his mind; 
 and all that work was salutary. 
 
 She, too, read something in the expression of his eye, 
 which led her to hope what, she knew not; and she 
 smiled faintly, as she said 
 
 " You know the writer, Paullus V 
 
 " Julia, 1 know her," he replied steadily. 
 
 " Her!" she said, laying an emphasis on the word, but 
 how affected by it Arvina could not judge. " It is then a 
 woman V 
 
 " A very young, a very beautiful, a very wretched, girl !" 
 he answered. 
 
 " And you love her V she said, with an effort at firm 
 ness, which itself proved the violence of her emotion. 
 
 * By your life ! Julia, I do not !" he replied, with an 
 energy, that spoke well for the truth of his asseveration. 
 
 " Nor ever loved her V 
 
 " Nor ever loved her, Julia." But he hesitated a little 
 as he said it; and laid a peculiar stress on the word loved, 
 which did not escape the anxious ears of the lovely being, 
 whose whole soul hung suspended on his speech. 
 
 " Why not ]" she asked, after a moment s pause", " if 
 she be so very young, and so very beautiful 1" 
 
 " I might answer, because I never saw her, till I loved 
 one more beautiful. But " 
 
 " But you will not !" she interrupted him vehemently. 
 "Oh ! if you love me, if you do love me, Paullus, do not 
 answer me so." 
 
 And wherefore not V he asked her, half smiling, 
 though little mirthful in his heart, at her impetuosity. 
 
 " Because if you descend to flatter," answered the fair 
 girl quietly, " I shall be sure that you intended to de 
 ceive me." 
 
 " It would be strictly true, notwithstanding. For though, 
 as she says, we met years ago,^he was but a child then ; 
 and, since that time, I never saw her until four or five 
 days ago " 
 
 " And since then, how often V Julia again interrupted 
 him ; for, in the intensity of her anxiety, she could not 
 wait the full answer to one question, before another sug 
 gested itself to her mind, and found voice at the instant. 
 
226 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " Once, Julia." 
 
 " Only once V 9 
 
 " Once only, by the Gods !" 
 
 " You have not told me wherefore it was, that you ne 
 ver loved her !" 
 
 " Have I not told you, that I never saw her till a few 
 days, a few hours, I might have said, ago ] and does not 
 that tell you wherefore, Julia ?" 
 
 " But there is something more. There is another rea 
 son. Oh ! tell me, I adjure you, by all that you hold dear 
 est, tell me !" 
 
 " There is another reason. I told you that she was very 
 young, and very beautiful; but, Julia, she was also very 
 guilty !" 
 
 " Guilty !" exclaimed the fair girl, blushing fiery red, 
 " guilty of loving you ! Oh ! Paullus ! Paullus !" and be 
 tween shame, and anger, and the repulsive shock that eve 
 ry pure and feminine mind experiences in hearing of a 
 Bister s frailty, she buried her face in her hands, and wept 
 aloud. 
 
 " Guilty, before I ever heard her name, or knew that 
 she existed," answered the young man, fervently ; but his 
 heart smote him somewhat, as he spoke ; though what he 
 said was but the simple truth, and it was well for him per 
 haps at the present moment, that Julia did not see his face. 
 For there was much perturbation in it, and it is like that 
 she would have judged even more hardly of that pertur 
 bation than it entirely deserved. He paused for a moment, 
 and then added, 
 
 " But if the guilt of woman can be excusable at all, she 
 can plead more in extenuation of her errors, than any of 
 her sex that ever fell from virtue. She is most penitent ; 
 and might have been, but for fate and the atrocious wic 
 kedness of others, a most noble being as she is now a 
 most glorious ruin." 
 
 There was another pa0se, during which neither spoke 
 or moved, Julia overpowered by the excess of her feel 
 ings he by the painful consciousness of wrong; the dif 
 ficulty of explaining, of extenuating his own conduct; and 
 above all, the dread of losing the enchanting creature, 
 whom he had never loved so deeply or so truly as he did 
 now, when he had well nigh forfeited all claim to her af 
 fection. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 227 
 
 At length, she raised her eyes timidly to his, and said, 
 
 " This is all very strange there must be much, that I 
 have a right to hear." 
 
 " There is much, Julia ! much that will be very pain 
 ful for me to tell ; and yet more so for you to listen to." 
 
 " And will you tell it to me V 
 
 "Julia, I will!" 
 
 " And all 1 and truly V 9 
 
 " And all, and truly, if I tell you at all ; but you " 
 
 " First," she said, interrupting him, " read that strange 
 letter to the end. Then we will speak more of these 
 things. Nay V she continued, seeing that he was about 
 to speak, " I will have it so. It must be so, or all is at an 
 end between us two, now, and for ever. I do not wish to 
 watch you ; there is no meanness in my mind, Paullus, no 
 jealousy ! I am too proud to be jealous. Either you are 
 worthy of my affection, or unworthy ; if the latter, I cast 
 you from me without one pang, one sorrow ; if the first, 
 farther words are needless. Read that wild letter to the 
 end. I will turn my back to you." And seating herself 
 at the table, she took up a piece of embroidery, and made 
 as if she would have fixed her mind upon it. But Paul 
 lus saw, as his glance followed her, that, notwithstanding 
 the firmness of her words and manner, her hand trembled 
 so much that she could by no means thread her needle. 
 
 He gazed on her for a moment with passionate, de 
 spairing love, and as he gazed, his spirit faltered, and he 
 doubted. The evil genius whispered to his soul, that 
 truth must alienate her love, must sever her from him for 
 ever. There was a sharp and bitter struggle in his heart 
 for that moment but it passed ; and the better spirit was 
 again strong and clear within him. 
 
 "No!" he said to himself, "No! I have done with 
 fraud, and falsehood ! I will not win her by a lie ! If by 
 the truth I must lose her, be it so ! I will be true, and at 
 least I can die !" 
 
 Thereon, without another word, he read the letter to 
 the end, neither faltering, nor pausing ; arid then walked 
 calmly to the table, and laid it down, perfectly resolute and 
 tranquil, for his mind was made up for the worst. 
 
 " Have you read it V she asked, and her voice trem 
 bled, as much as her hand had done before. 
 
228 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " I have, Julia, to the end. It is very sad and much 
 of it is true." 
 
 " And who is the girl, who wrote it V 1 
 
 " Her name is Lucia Orestilla." 
 
 " Orestilla ! Ye Gods ! ye Gods ! the shameless wife 
 of the arch villain Catiline !" 
 
 " Not so but the wretched, ruined daughter of that 
 abandoned woman !" 
 
 * Call her not woman ! By the Gods that protect pu 
 rity ! call her not woman ! Did she not prompt the wretch 
 to poison his own son ! Oh ! call her anything but wo- 
 man ! But what what in the name of all that is good 
 or holy, can have brought you to know that awful being s 
 daughter ?" 
 
 " First, Julia, you must promise me never, to mortal 
 ears, to reveal what I now disclose to you." 
 
 " Have you forgotten, Paullus, that I am yet but a young 
 maiden, and that 1 have a mother V 
 
 " Hortensia !" exclaimed the youth, starting back, a- 
 ghast ; for he felt that from her clear eye and powerful 
 judgment nothing could be concealed, and that her iron 
 will would yield in nothing to a woman s tenderness, a 
 woman s mercy. 
 
 " Hortensia," replied the girl gently, " the best, the wi 
 sest, and the tenderest of mothers." 
 
 " True 1 she is all that you say more than all ! But 
 she is resolute, withal, as iron ; and stern, and cold, and 
 unforgiving in her anger !" 
 
 " And do you need so much forgiveness, Paullus 1" 
 
 " More, I fear, than my Julia s love will grant me." 
 
 14 T think, my Paullus, you do not know the measure of 
 a girl s honest love. But may I tell Hortensia 1 If not, 
 you have said enough. What is not fitting for a girl to 
 speak to her own mother, it is not fitting that she should 
 hear at all least of all from a man, and that man her 
 lover!" 
 
 " It is not that, my Julia. But what I have to say con 
 tains many lives mine among others ! contains Rome s 
 safety, nay ! existence ! One whisper breathed abroad, 
 or lisped in a slave s hearing, were the World s ruin. But 
 be it as you will as you thir.k best yourself and 
 If you will, tell Hortensia." 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 229 
 
 " I shall tell her, Paullus. 1 tell her everything. Since 
 I could babble my first words, I never had a secret from 
 her !" 
 
 " Be it so, sweet one. Now I implore you, hear me to 
 the end, before you judge me, and then judge mercifully, 
 as the Gods are merciful, and mortals prone to error." 
 
 " And will you tell me the whole truth V 
 
 " The whole." 
 
 " Say on, then. I will hear you to the end ; and your 
 guilt must be great, Paullus, if you require a more partial 
 arbitress." 
 
 It was a trying and painful task, that was forced upon 
 him, yet he went through it nobly. At every word the 
 difficulties grew upon him. At every word the temptation, 
 to swerve from the truth, increased. At every word the 
 dread of losing her, the agony of apprehension, the dull 
 cold sense of despair, waxed heavier, and more stunning. 
 The longer he^poke, the more certain he felt that by his 
 own words he was destroying his own hope ; yet he man 
 ned his heart stoutly, resisted the foul tempter, and, firm 
 in the integrity of his present purpose, laid bare the se 
 crets of his soul. 
 
 Beginning from his discovery of Medon s corpse upon 
 the Esquiline, he now narrated to her fully all that had 
 passed, including much that in his previous tale he had 
 omitted. He told of his first meeting with Cataline upon 
 the Ccelian ; of his visit to Cicero ; of his strange conver 
 sation with the cutler Volero ; of his second encounter 
 with the traitor in the field of Mars, not omitting the care 
 less accident by which he revealed to him Volero s recog 
 nition of the weapon. He told her of the banquet, of the 
 art with which Catiline plied him with wine, of the fasci 
 nations of that fair fatal girl. And here, he paused awhile, 
 reluctant to proceed. He would have given worlds, had 
 he possessed them, to catch one glance of her averted eye, 
 to read her features but one moment. But she sat, with 
 her back toward him, her head downcast, tranquil and 
 motionless, save that a tremulous shivering at times ran 
 through her frame perceptible. 
 
 He was compelled perforce to continue his narration; 
 and now he was bound to confess that, for the moment, he 
 had been so bewitched by the charms of the siren, that he 
 20 
 
230 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 had bound himself by the fatal oath, scarce knowing what 
 he swore, which linked him to the fortunes of the villain 
 father. Slightly he touched on that atrocity of Catiline, 
 by telling which aloud he dared not sully her pure ears. 
 He then related clearly and succinctly the murder of the 
 cutler Volero, his recognition of the murderer, the forced 
 deception which he had used reluctantly toward Cicero, 
 and the suspicions and distrust of that great man. And 
 here again he paused, hoping that she would speak, and 
 interrupt him, if it were even to condemn, for so at least 
 he should be relieved from the sickening apprehension, 
 which almost choked his voice. 
 
 Still, she was silent, and, in so far as he could judge, 
 more tranquil than before. For the quick tremors had 
 now ceased to shake her, and her tears, he believed, had 
 ceased to flow. 
 
 But was not this the cold tranquillity^* a fixed resolu 
 tion, the firmness of a desperate, self-corfjolling effort 1 
 
 He could endure the doubt no longer. And, in a softer 
 and more humble voice, 
 
 " Now, then," he said, " you know the measure of my 
 sin the extent of my falsehood. All the ill of my tale is 
 told, faithfully, frankly. What remains, is unmixed with 
 evil. Say, then ; have I sinned, Julia, beyond the hope of 
 forgiveness ] If to confess that, my eyes dazzled with 
 beauty, my blood inflamed with wine, my better self 
 drowned in a tide of luxury unlike aught 1 had ever known 
 before, my senses wrought upon by every art, and every 
 fascination if to confess, that my head was bewildered, 
 my reason lost its way for a moment though my heart 
 never, never failed in its faith and by the hopes, frail 
 hopes, which I yet cling to of obtaining you the dread of 
 losing you for ever ! Julia, by these I swear, my heart 
 never did fail or falter ! If, 1 say, to confess this be suffi 
 cient, and I stand thus condemned and lost for ever, spare 
 me the rest I may as well be silent !" 
 
 She paused a moment, ere she answered ; and it was 
 only with an effort, choking down a convulsive sob, that 
 she found words at all. 
 
 " Proceed," she said, " with your tale. I cannot answer 
 you." 
 
 But, catching at her words, with all the elasticity of 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 231 
 
 youthful hope, he fancied that she had answered him, and 
 cried joyously and eagerly 
 
 " Sweet Julia, then you can, you will forgive me." 
 " 1 have not said so, Paullus," she began. But he inter 
 rupted her, ere she could frame her sentence 
 
 " No ! dearest ; but your speech implied it, and " 
 But here, in her turn, she interrupted him, saying 
 " Then, Paullus, did my speech imply what I did not in 
 tend. For I have not forgiven do not know if I can for 
 give, all that has passed. All depends on that which is to 
 come. You. made me promise not to interrupt your tale. 
 I have not done so ; and, in justice, I have the right to ask 
 that you should tell it out, before you claim my final an 
 swer. So I say, once again, Proceed." 
 
 Unable, from the steadiness of her demeanour, so much 
 even as to conjecture what were her present feelings, yet 
 much dispirited at finding his mistake, the young man 
 proceeded with his narrative. Gaining courage, however, 
 as he continued speaking, the principal difficulties of his 
 story being past, he warmed and spoke more feelingly, 
 more eloquently, with every word he uttered. 
 
 He told her of the deep depression, which had fallen on 
 him the following morning, when her letter had called 
 him to the house of Hortensia. He again related the at 
 tack made on him by Catiline, on the same evening, in 
 Egeria s grotto ; and spoke of the absolute despair, in 
 which he was plunged, seeing the better course, yet una 
 ble to pursue it ; aiming at virtue, yet forced by his fatal 
 oath to follow vice ; marking clearly before him the bea 
 con light of happiness and honour, yet driven irresistibly 
 into the gulf of misery, crime, and destruction. He told 
 her of Lucia s visit to his house ; how she released him 
 from his fatal oath ! disclaimed all right to his affection, 
 nay ! to his respect, even, and esteem ! encouraged him 
 to hold honour in his eye, and in the scorn of consequence 
 to follow virtue for its own sake ! He told her, too, of 
 the conspiracy, in all its terrible details of atrocity and 
 guilt that dark and hideous scheme of treason, cruelty, 
 lust, horror, from which he had himself escaped so nar 
 rowly. 
 
 Then, with a glow of conscious rectitude, he proved to 
 her that he had indeed repented ; that he was now, how- 
 
232 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 soever he might have been deceived into error and to the 
 brink of crime, firm, and resolved ; a champion of the 
 right ; a defender of his country ; trusted and chosen by 
 the Great Consul; and, in proof of that trust, commission 
 ed by him now to lead his troop of horsemen to Praeneste, 
 a strong fortress, near at hand, which there was reason to 
 expect might be assailed by the conspirators. 
 
 " And now, my tale is ended," he said. " I did hope 
 there would have been no need to reveal these things to 
 you ; but from the first, I have been resolved, if need 
 were, to open to you my whole heart to^how you its 
 dark spots, as its bright ones. I have sinned, Julia, deeply, 
 against you ! Your purity, your love, should have guaid- 
 ed me ! Yet, in a moment of treacherous self-confidence, 
 my head grew dizzy, and I fell. But oh ! believe me, 
 Julia, my heart never once betrayed you ! Now say 
 can you pardon me trust me love me be mine, as you 
 promised 1 If not speed me on my way, and my first 
 battle-field shall prove my truth to Rome and Julia." 
 
 " Oh ! this is very sad, my Paullus," she replied ; " ve 
 ry humiliating very, very bitter. I had a trust so perfect 
 in your love. I could as soon have believed the sunflower 
 would forget to turn to the day-god, as that Paul would 
 forget Julia. I had a confidence so high, so noble, in your 
 proud, untouched virtue. And yet I find, that at the first 
 alluring glance of a frail beauty, you fall off from your 
 truth to me at the first whispering temptation of a de 
 mon, you half fall off from patriotism honour virtue ! 
 Forgive you, Paullus ! I can forgive you readily. For 
 well, alas ! I know that the best of us all are very frail, 
 and prone to evil. Love you ] alas ! for me, I do as much 
 as ever but say, yourself, how can I trust you 1 how can 
 I be yours 1 when the next moment you may fall again 
 into temptation, again yield to it. And then, what would 
 then remain to the wretched Julia, but a most miserable 
 life, and an untimely grave ]" 
 
 The proud man bowed his head in bitter anguish ; he 
 buried his face in his hands ; he gasped, and almost groan 
 ed aloud, in his great agony. His heart confessed the 
 truth of all her words, and it was long ere he could an 
 swer her. Perhaps he would not have collected courage 
 to do so at all, but would have risen in his agony of pride 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 233 
 
 and despair, and gone his way to die, heart-broken, hope 
 less, a lost man. 
 
 But she for her heart yearned to her lover arose and 
 crossed the room with noiseless step to the spot where he 
 sat, and laid her fair hand gently on his shoulder, arid 
 whispered in her voice of silvery music, 
 
 " Tell me, Paullus, how can I trust you V 
 
 " Because I have told you all this, truly ! Think you 
 I had humbled myself thus, had I not been firm to resist] 
 think you I have had no temptation to deceive you, to keep 
 back a part, to palliate ] and lo ! I have told you all the 
 shameful, naked truth ! How can I ever be so bribed 
 again to falsehood, as I have been in this last hour, by 
 hope of winning, and by dread of losing you, my soul s 
 idol ] Because I have been true, now to the last, I think 
 that you may trust me." 
 
 " Are you sure, Paullus V she said, with a soft sad 
 smile, yet suffering him to retain the little hand he had 
 imprisoned while he was speaking " very, very sure ]" 
 
 " Will you believe me, Julia]" 
 
 " Will you be true hereafter, Paullus V 
 
 By all" 
 
 " Nay ! swear not by the Gods," she interrupted him ; 
 " they say the Gods laugh at the perjury of lovers ! But 
 oh ! remember, Paullus, that if you were indeed untrue to 
 Julia, she could but die !" 
 
 He caught her to his heart, and she for once resisted 
 not ; and, for the first time permitted, his lips were press 
 ed to hers in a long, chaste, holy kiss. 
 
 " And now," he said, " my own, own Julia, I must say 
 fare you well. My horse awaits me at your door my 
 troopers are half the way hence to Praeneste." 
 
 "Nay!" she replied, blushing deeply, "but you will 
 surely see Hortensia, ere you go." 
 
 " It must be, then, but for a moment," he answered. 
 " For duty calls me ; and you must not tempt me to break 
 my new-born resolution. But say, Julia, will you tell all 
 these things to Hortensia V 1 
 
 She smiled, and laid her hand upon his mouth ; but he 
 kissed it, and drew it down by gentle force, and repeated 
 his question, 
 
 " Will you V * 
 
234 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " Not a word of it, Paul. Do you think me so foolish V 
 " Then I will one day, but not now. Meanwhile, let 
 
 us go seek for her." 
 
 And, passing his arm around her slender waist, he led 
 
 her gently from the scene of so many doubts and fears, of 
 
 BO much happiness. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 235 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE SENATE. 
 
 Moat potent, grave, and reverend Seniors. 
 
 OTHELLO. 
 
 THE second morning had arrived, after that regularly 
 appointed for the Consular elections. 
 
 No tumult had occurred, nor any overt act to justify the 
 apprehensions of the people ; yet had those apprehensions 
 in no wise abated. The very indistinctness of the rumor 
 ed terror perhaps increased its weight ; and so wide 
 spread was the vague alarm, so prevalent the dread and 
 excitement, that in the hagard eyes and pale faces of the 
 frustrated conspirators, there was little, if anything, to call 
 attention ; for whose features wore their natural expres 
 sion, during those fearful days, each moment of which 
 might bring forth massacre and conflagration 1 Whose, 
 but the great Consul s ? 
 
 The second morning had arrived ; and the broad orb of 
 the newly risen sun, lurid and larger than his wont, as it 
 struggled through the misty haze of the Italian autumn, 
 had scarcely gained sufficient altitude to throw its beams 
 over the woody crest of the Esquiline into the hollow of 
 the Sacred Way. 
 
 The slant light fell, however, full on the splendid terra 
 ces and shrines of the many-templed Palatine, playing up 
 on their stately porticoes, and tipping their rich capitals 
 with golden lustre. . 
 
 And at that early hour, the ancient hill was thronged 
 with busy multitudes. 
 
 The crisis was at hand the Senate was in solemn ses 
 sion. The knights were gathered in their force, all arm- 
 
236 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ed. The younger members of the patrician houses were 
 mustered with their clients. The fasces of the lictors dis 
 played the broad heads of the axes glittering above the 
 rods, which bound them the axes, never borne in time ol 
 peace, or within the city walls, save upon strange emer 
 gency. 
 
 In the old temple of Jupiter Stator, chosen on this occa 
 sion for the strength of its position, standing on the very 
 brink of the steep declivity of the hill where it overlooked 
 the great Roman forum, that grand assembly sate in grave 
 deliberation. 
 
 The scene was worthy of the actors, as were the actors 
 of the strange tragedy in process. 
 
 It was the cella, or great circular space of the inner 
 temple. The brazen doors of this huge hall, facing the 
 west, as was usual in all Roman temples, were thrown 
 open ; and without these, on the portico, yet so placed that 
 they could hear every word that passed within the build 
 ing, sat on their benches, five oil each side of the door, the 
 ten tribunes* of the people. 
 
 Within the great space, surrounded by a double peris 
 tyle of tall Tuscan columns, and roofed by a vast dome, 
 richly carved ajid gilded, but with a circular opening at 
 the summit, through which a flood of light streamed down 
 on the assembled magnates, the Seriate was in session. 
 
 Immediately facing the doors stood the old Statue of 
 the God, as old, it was believed by some, as the days of 
 Romulus, with the high altar "at its base, hung round with 
 votive wreaths, and glittering with ornaments of gold. 
 
 Around this altar were grouped the augurs, each clad, 
 as was usual on occasions of high solemnity, in his trabca, 
 or robe of horizontal stripes, in white and purple ; each 
 holding in his hand his lituus, a crooked staff whereby to 
 designate the temples of the heaven, in which to observe 
 the omens. 
 
 * The Tribunes of the people were, at this period of the Republic, 
 Senators ; the Atinian law, the data of which is not exactly fixed, hav 
 ing undoubtedly come into operation soon after A. C. 130. I do not, 
 however, find it mentioned, that their seats were thereupon transferred 
 into the body of the Senate ; and I presume that such was not the case ; 
 as they were not real senators, but had only the right of speaking with 
 out voting, as was the case with all who sat by the virtue of their offi 
 ces,- without regular election. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 237 
 
 On every side of the circumference, except that occu 
 pied by the altar and the idol, were ranged in circular 
 state the benches of the order. 
 
 Immediately to the right of the altar, were placed the 
 curule chairs, rich with carved ivory and crimson cushions, 
 of the two consuls; and behind them, erect, with their 
 shouldered axes, stood the stout lictors. 
 
 Cicero, as the first chosen of the consuls, sat next the 
 statue of the God; calm in his outward mien, as the se 
 vere and placid features of the marble deity, although 
 within him the soul labored mightily, big with the fate of 
 Rome. Next him Antonius, a stout, bold, sensual-looking 
 soldier, filled his place worthily, indeed, so far as stature, 
 mien, and bearing were concerned ; but with a singular 
 expression in his eye, which seemed to indicate embar 
 rassment, perhaps apprehension. 
 
 After these, the presiding officers of the Republic, were 
 present, each according to his rank, the conscript fathers 
 first, the Prince of the Senate, and then the Consulars, Cen- 
 Borians, and Praetorians, down to those who had filled the 
 lowest office of the state, that of Quaestor, which gave its 
 occupant, after his term of occupancy expired, admission to 
 the grand representative assembly of the commonwealth. 
 
 For much as there has been written on all sides of this 
 subject, there now remains no doubt that, from the earli 
 est to the latest age of Rome, the Senate was strictly, 
 although an aristocratical, still an elective representative 
 assembly. 
 
 The Censors, themselves, elected by the Patricians out 
 of their own order, in the assembly of the Curiae, had the 
 appointment of the Senators ; but from those only who 
 had filled one of the magistracies, all of which were con 
 ferred by the popular vote of the assembly of the centu 
 ries ; and all of which, at this period of the Republic, 
 might be, and sometimes were, conferred on Plebeians 
 as in the case of Marius, six times elected Consul in spite 
 of Patrician opposition. 
 
 Such was the constitution of the Senate, purely elective, 
 though like all other portions of the Roman constitution, 
 under such checks and balances as were deemed sufficient 
 to ensure it from becoming a democratical assembly. 
 
 And such, in fact, it never did become. .For having 
 U 
 
238 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 been at first an elective body chosen ffom an hereditary 
 aristocracy, it was at that time, save in the varying prin 
 ciples of individuals, wholly aristocratic in its nature. 
 Nor, after the tenure of the various magistracies, which 
 conferred eligibility to the Senate, was thrown open to 
 the plebeians, did any great change follow ; since the pre 
 ponderance of patrician influence in the assembly of the 
 centuries, and the force perhaps of old habit, combined to 
 continue most of the high offices of state in the hands of 
 members of the Old Houses. Again, when plebeians were 
 raised to office, and became, as they were styled, New 
 Men, they speedily were merged in the nobility ; and 
 were no less aristocratic in their measures, than the oldest 
 members of the aristocracy. 
 
 For when have plebeians, anywhere, when elevated to 
 superior rank, been true to their origin ; been other than 
 the fellest persecutors of plebeians ] 
 
 The senate was therefore still, as it had been, a calm 
 and conservative assembly. 
 
 It was not indeed, what it had been, before Marius first, 
 and then Sylla, the avenger, had decimated it of their foes 
 with the sword ; and filled the vacancies with unworthy 
 friends and partizans. 
 
 Yet it was still a grand, a wise, a noble body when 
 viewed as a body and, for the most part, its decisions 
 were worthy of its dignity and power were sage, con 
 servative, and patriotic. 
 
 On this occasion, all motives had conspired to produce 
 a full house ; doubt, anger, fear, excitement, curiosity, 
 the love of country, the strong sense of right, the fiery im 
 pulses of interest, hate, vengeance, had urged all men of 
 all parties, to be participants in the eventful business of 
 the day. 
 
 About five hundred senators were present ; men of all 
 ages from thirty-two years* upward that being the ear 
 liest at which a man could fill this eminent seat. But the 
 majority were of those, who having passed the prime of 
 active life, might be considered to have reached the high 
 est of mental power and capacity, removed alike from the 
 
 * The age of senatorial eligibility is nowhere distinctly named. But 
 the queestorship, the lowest office which gave admission to the Curia, re 
 quired the age of thirty-one in its occupant. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 239 
 
 greenness of inconsiderate youth, and the imbecility of 
 extreme old age. 
 
 The rare beauty of the Italian race the strength and 
 symmetry of the unrivalled warrior nation, of which these 
 were, for the most part, the noblest and most striking speci 
 mens ; the grand flow of the snow-white draperies, faced 
 with the broad crimson laticlave the classic grace of their 
 positions the absence of all rigid angular lines, of any 
 thing mean or meagre, fantastic or tawdry in the garb of 
 the solemn concourse, rendered the meeting of Rome s 
 Fathers a widely different spectacle from the convention 
 of any other representative assembly, the world has ever 
 witnessed. 
 
 There was no flippancy, no affectation, no light converse 
 The members, young or old, had come thither to perform 
 a great duty, in strength of purpose, singleness of spirit 
 and all felt deeply the weight of the present moment, the 
 vastness of the interests concerned. The good and the 
 true were there convened to defend the majesty, perhaps 
 the safety, of their country the wicked to strive for inte 
 rest, for revenge, for life itself! 
 
 For Catiline well knew, and had instilled his know 
 ledge carefully into the minds of his confederates, that now 
 to conquer was indeed to triumph ; that now to be defeated 
 was to fail, probably, forever to die, it was most like, by 
 the dread doom of the Tarpeian. 
 
 Not one of the conspirators but was in his appointed place, 
 firm, seemingly unconscious, and unruffled; and as the 
 eye of the great consul glanced from one to another of that 
 guilty throng, he could not, even amid his detestation of 
 their crimes, but admire the cool hardihood with which 
 they sat unmoved on the brink of destruction ; could not 
 but think, within himself, how vast the good that might be 
 wrought by such resolution, under a virtuous leader, and 
 in an upright cause. Catiline noticed the glance; and as 
 he marked it run along the crowded benches, dwelling a 
 moment on the face of each one of his own confederates, he 
 saw in an instant, that all was discovered ; and, as he saw, 
 resolved that since craft had failed to conceal, henceforth 
 he would trust audacity alone to carry out his detected 
 villainy. 
 
 But now the augurs had performed their rites; the day 
 
240 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 was pronounced fortunate; the assembly formal; and no 
 thing more remained, but to proceed to the business of the 
 moment. 
 
 A little pause ensued, after the sanction of the augurs 
 had been given ; a short space, during which each man 
 drew a deep breath, as though he were aware that ere 
 long he should hear words spoken, that would thrill his eve 
 ry nerve with excitement, and hold him breathless with 
 awe and apprehension. 
 
 There was not a voice, not a motion, not the rustling of 
 a garment, through the large building ; for every living 
 form was mute, as the marble effigies around them, with 
 intense expectation. 
 
 Every eye of conspirator, or patriot, was riveted upon 
 the consul, the new man of Arpinum. 
 
 He rose, not unobservant of the general expectation, 
 nor ungratified ; for that great man, with all his grand 
 genius, solid intellect, sound virtue, had one small misera 
 ble weakness ; he was not proud, but vain ; vain beyond the 
 feeblest and most craving vanity of womanhood. 
 
 Yet now he showed it not perhaps felt it, in a less de 
 gree than usual; it might be, it was crushed within him for 
 the time, by the magnitude of vast interests, the conscious 
 ness of right motives, the necessity of extraordinary efforts. 
 
 He rose ; advanced a step or two, in front of his curule 
 chair, and in a clear slow voice gave utterance to the sol 
 emn words, which formed the exordium to all senatorial 
 business. 
 
 "May this be good, and of good omen, happy, and fortu 
 nate to the Roman people, the Quirites; which now I lay 
 before you, Fathers, arid Conscript Senators." 
 
 He paused, emphatically, with the formula ; and then 
 raising his voice a little, and turning his eyes slowly round 
 the house, as if in mute appeal to all the senators. 
 
 " For that," he said, " on which you must this day de 
 termine, concerns not the majesty or magnitude of Rome 
 the question is not now of insolent foes to be chastised, 
 or of faithful friends to be rewarded is not, how the city 
 shall be made more beautiful, the state more proud and 
 noble, the empire more enduring. No, conscript fathers ; 
 for the round world has never seen a city, so flourishing in 
 all rare beauty, so decorated with the virtue of her living 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 241 
 
 citizens, so noble in the memories of her dead heroes the 
 sun has never shone upon a state, so solidly established ; 
 upon an empire so majestical and mighty; extending from 
 the Herculean columns, the far limits of the west, beyond 
 the blue Symplegades; from Hyperborean snows, to the 
 parched sands of Ethiopia ! no! Conscript Fathers, for 
 we have no foes unsubdued, from the wild azure-tinctu 
 red hordes of Oaul to the swart Eunuchs of the Pontic 
 king for we have no friends unrewarded, unsheltered by 
 the wings of our renown. 
 
 " No ! it is not to beautify, to stablish, to augment but to 
 preserve the empire, that I now call upon you; that I now 
 urge you, by all that is sweet, is sacred, is sublime in the 
 name of our country ; that I implore you, by whatever earth 
 contains of most awful, and heaven of most holy ! 
 
 " I said to preserve it ! And do you ask from whom ? 
 Is there a Gallic tumult] Have Cimbric myriads again 
 scaled the Alps, and poured their famished deluge over 
 our devastated frontiers ? Hath Mithridates trodden on 
 the neck of Pompey! By the great gods ! hath Carthage 
 revived from her ashes 1 is Hannibal, or a greater one 
 than Hannibal, again thundering at our gates, with Punic 
 engines visible from the Janiculum 1 
 
 " If it were so, I should not despair of Rome my heart 
 would not throb, as it now does, nor my voice tremble with 
 anxiety. 
 
 " Cisalpine Gaul is tranquil as the vale of Arno ! No 
 bow is bended in the Teutonic forests, unless against the 
 elk or urus ! The legions have not turned their backs be 
 fore the scymetars of Pontus ! The salt sown in the mar 
 ket-place of Carthage hath borne no crop, but desolation. 
 The one-eyed conqueror is nerveless in the silent grave ! 
 
 "But were all these, now peaceful, subjugated, lifeless, 
 were all these, I say, in arms, victorious, present, upon 
 this soil of Italy, around these walls of Rome, I should 
 doubt nothing, fear nothing, expect nothing, but present 
 strife, and future victory ! 
 
 " There is there is, that spark of valor, that clear light 
 of Roman virtue, alive in every heart; yea! even of our 
 maids and matrons, that they would brook no hostile step 
 even upon the threshold of our empire ! 
 
 "What then do I foresee ? what fear? Massacre 
 21 
 
242 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 parricide conflagration treason ! Treason in Rome it 
 self in the Forum in the Campus here ! Here in this 
 holiest and safest spot ! Here in the shrine of that great 
 God, who, ages since, when this vast Rome was but a mud- 
 built hamlet, that golden capitol, a straw-thatched shed, 
 rolled back the tide of war, and stablished here, here, where 
 my foot is fixed, the immortal seat of empire ! 
 
 " Even now as I turn my eyes around me they fall abhor 
 rent on the faces, they read indignant the designs, of their 
 country s parricides ! 
 
 "Aye! Conscript Fathers, praetorians, patricians of the 
 great old houses, I see them in their places here ; ready to 
 vote immediately on their own monstrous schemes ! I see 
 them here, adulterers, forgers of wills, assassins, spend 
 thrifts, poisoners, defilers of vestal virgins, contemners of 
 the Gods, parricides of the Republic! I see them, with 
 daggers sharpened against all true Romans, lurking be 
 neath their fringed and perfumed tunics ! Misled by 
 strange ambition, maddened with lust, drunk with despair 
 ing guilt, athirst for the blood of citizens ! 
 
 " I see them ! you all see them ! Will you await in 
 coward apathy, until they shake you from your lethargy 
 until the outcries of your murdered children, of your ra 
 vished wives arouse you, until you awake from your sleep 
 and find Rome in ashes ] 
 
 "You hear me you gaze on me in wonder, you ask me 
 with your eyes what it is that I mean ] who are the trai 
 tors ] Lend me your ears then, and fix well your minds, 
 lest they shrink in disgust and wonder. Lend me your 
 ears only, and I fear not that you will determine, worthily 
 of yourselves, and of the Republic! 
 
 "You all well know that on the 16th day before the ca 
 lends of November, which should have been the eve of the 
 consular Elections, I promised that I would soon lay be 
 fore you ample proofs of the plot, which then I foretold to 
 you but darkly. 
 
 " Mark, now, the faces of the men I shall address, and 
 judge whether I then promised vainly; whether what I 
 shall now disclose craves your severe attention your im 
 mediate action." 
 
 He paused for a moment, as if to note the effect of his 
 words; then turning round abiuptly upon the spot, where 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 243 
 
 Catiline sat, writhing with rage and impatience, and gnaw 
 ing his nether lip, until the blood trickled down his chin, 
 he flung forth his arm with an indignant gesture, and in 
 stantly addressed him by his name, in tones that rang 
 beneath the vaulted roof, over the heads of the self-convict 
 ed traitors, like heaven s own thunder, and found a fearful 
 echo in their dismayed and guilty souls. 
 
 " Where wert thou, Catiline T he thundered forth the 
 charge, amid the mute astonishment of all " Where wert 
 thou on the evening of the Ides 1 what wert thou doing 1 
 Speak ! Unless guilt and despair hold thee silent, I say to 
 thee, speak, Catiline!" 
 
 Again he stopped in mid-speech, as if for an answer, fix 
 ed his eye steadily on the face of the arch conspirator. 
 But he, though he spoke not to reply, quailed not, nor 
 shunned that steady gaze, but met it with a terrible and 
 portentous glare, pregnant with more than mortal hatred. 
 
 " Thou wilt not can st not darest not ! Now hear 
 and tremble ! Hear, arid know that no step of thine, or 
 deed, or motion escapes my eye no, traitor, not one move 
 ment ! 
 
 " On the eve of the Ides, thou wert in the street of the 
 Scythemakers ! Ha ! does thy cheek burn now ? In the 
 house of a senator of Marcus Porcus Lseca. But thou 
 wert not there, till thou hadst added one more deed of 
 murder to those which needed no addition. Thou wert, I 
 say, in the house of Laeca ; and many whom I now see 
 around me, with trim and well-curled beards, with long- 
 sleeved tunics and air-woven togas, many whom I could 
 name, and will, if needs be, were there with thee ! 
 
 " What beverage didst thou send around ] what oath 
 didst thou administer, thou to thy foul associates 1 and on 
 the altar of what God ? 
 
 ^Fathers, my mind shrinks, as I speak, with horror 
 that bowl mantled to the brim with the gore of a human 
 victim ; those lips reeked with that dread abomination ! 
 His lips, and those of others, fitter to sip voluptuous nectar 
 from the soft mouths of their noble paramours than to quaff 
 such pollution ! 
 
 " That oath was to destroy Rome, utterly, with fire and 
 the sword, till not one stone should stand upon another, to 
 mark the site of empire ! 
 
244 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " The silver eagle WPS the god to whom he swore ! . The 
 silver eagle, whose wings were dyed so deep in massacre 
 by Harms to whom he had a shrine in his own house, con 
 secrated by what crimes, adored by what sacrilege, I say 
 not! 
 
 " The consular election was the day fixed ; and, had the 
 people met on that day in the Campus, on that day had 
 Rome ceased to be ! 
 
 " To murder me in my robes of peace, at the Comitia, 
 to murder the consuls elect, to murder the patricians to a 
 man, was his own task, most congenial to his own savage 
 nature ! 
 
 " To fire the city in twelve several places was destined 
 to his worthy comrades, whose terror my eye now beholds, 
 whose names for the present my tongue shall not disclose. 
 For I would give them time to repent, to change their fran 
 tic purpose, to cast away their sin oh ! that they would 
 do so ! oh ! that they would have compassion on their 
 prostrate and imploring country compassion on them 
 selves on me, who beseech them to turn back, ere it be 
 too late, to the ways of virtue, happiness, and honor ! 
 
 " But names there are, which I will speak out, for to con 
 ceal them would avail nothing, since they have drawn the 
 sword already, and raised the banner of rebellion against 
 the majesty of Rome. 
 
 " Septimius of Camerinum has stirred the slaves even now 
 to a fresh servile war ! has given out arms ! has appointed 
 leaders ! by the Gods ! has a force on foot in the Picene 
 district ! Julius is soliciting the evil spirits of Apulia ; and, 
 ere four days have flown, you shall have tidings from the 
 north, that Caius Maulius is in arms at Faesulee. Already 
 he commands more than two legions ; not of raw levies, 
 not of emancipated slaves, or enfranchised gladiators 
 though these ere long will swell his host. No ! Sylla s 
 veterans muster under his banner the same swords gleam 
 around him which conquered the famed Macedonian pha 
 lanx at bloody Chaeronea, which stormed the long walls of 
 Piraeus, which won Bithynia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, 
 which drove great Mithridates back to his own Pontus ! 
 
 "Nor is this all for, if frustrated by the postponement 
 of the consular comitia, believe not that the rage of the 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 245 
 
 parricide is averted, or his thirst for the blood of Romans 
 o 4 uenched forever. 
 
 No, Fathers, he hath but deferred the day ; and even 
 now he hath determined on another. The fifth before the 
 calends ! Await that day in quiet, and ye will never rue 
 your apathy. For none of you shall live to rue it, save those 
 who now smile grimly, conscious of their own desperate 
 resolve, expectant of your apathy. 
 
 " Nor is his villainy all told, even now ; for so securely 
 and so wisely has he laid his plans, that, had not the great 
 Gods interfered and granted it to me to discover all, he 
 must needs have succeeded ! On the night of the calends 
 themselves he would have been the master of Prasneste, 
 that rich and inaccessible strong-hold, by a nocturnal esca 
 lade ! That I myself have already made impossible the 
 magistrates are warned, the free burghers armed, and the 
 castle garrisoned by true men, and impregnable. 
 
 " Do ye the like, Fathers and Conscript Senators, and 
 Rome also shall be safe, inaccessible, immortal. Give me 
 the powers to save you, and I devote my mind, my life. 
 I am here ready to die at this instfmt far worse than death 
 to a noble mind, ready to go hence, and be forgotten, if I 
 may rescue Rome from this unequalled peril !" 
 
 Again, he ceased speaking for a moment, and many 
 thought that he had concluded his oration ; but in a second s 
 space he resumed, in a tone more spirited and fiery yet, 
 his eyes almost flashing lightning, and his whole frame ap 
 pearing to expand, as he confronted the undaunted traitor. 
 " Dost thou not now see, Catiline, that in all things thou 
 art my inferior 1 Dost thou not feel thyself caught, de 
 tected like a thief? baffled? defeated? beaten? and wilt 
 thou not now lay down thine arms, thy rage, thy hate, 
 against this innocent republic ? wilt thou not liberate me 
 now from great fear, great peril, and great odium ? 
 
 " No ! thou wilt not the time hath flown ! thou canst 
 not repent canst not forgive, or be forgiven the Gods 
 have maddened thee to thy destruction thy crimes are 
 full-blown, and ripening fast for harvest earth is aweary of 
 thy guilt Hades yawns to receive thee ! 
 
 " Tremble, then, tremble ! Yea ! in the depths of thy 
 secret soul for all thine eye glares more with hate than 
 terror, and thy lip quivers, not with remorse but rage 
 21* 
 
246 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 yea ! thou dost tremble for thou dost see, feel, know, 
 thy schemes, thy confederates, thyself, detected, frustrated, 
 devoted to destruction ! 
 
 "Enough! It is for you, my Fathers, to determine; 
 for me to act your pleasure. And if your own souls, your 
 own lives, your own interests, yea! your own fears, cry 
 not aloud to rouse you, with a voice stronger than the eter 
 nal thunder, why should I seek to warn you 1 Whom his 
 own, his wife s, children s, country s safety, the glory of 
 his great forefathers, the veneration of the everlasting 
 Gods awaiting his decision from the tottering pinnacle of 
 Rome s capitol whom all these things excite not to action 
 no voice of man, no portent of the Gods themselves can 
 stir to energy or valor ; and I but waste my words in 
 exhorting you to manhood ! 
 
 "But they will burst the bonds of your long stupor; 
 they will re-kindle, in your hearts, that blaze of Roman 
 virtue, which may sleep for a while, but never can be all 
 extinguished ! and ye will stir yourselves like men ; ye 
 will save your country! For this thing I do not believe ; 
 that the immortal Gods would have built up this commrtn- 
 wealth of Rome to such a height of beauty, of glory, of pu 
 issance, had they foredoomed it to destruction, by hands 
 so base as those now armed against it. Nor, had it been 
 their pleasure to abolish its great name, and make it such 
 as Troy and Carthage, would they have placed me here, the 
 consul, endowed by themselves with power to discern, but 
 with no power "to avert destruction!" 
 
 His words had done their work. The dismayed blank 
 faces of all the conspirators, with the exception of the arch 
 traitor only, whom it would seem that nothing could dis 
 concert or dismay, confirmed the impression made upon 
 all minds by that strong appeal. For, though he had men 
 tioned no man s name save Catiline s and Laeca s only, sus 
 picion was called instantly to those who were their known 
 associates in riot and debauchery; and many eyes were 
 scrutinizing the pale features, which struggled vainly to ap 
 pear calm and unconcerned. 
 
 The effect of the speech was immediate, universal. 
 There were not three men of the order present who were 
 not now convinced as fully in their own minds of the truth 
 of Cicero s accusation, as they would, had it come forth in 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 2.47 
 
 thunder from the cold lips of the marble God, who over 
 looked their proud assembly. 
 
 There was a long drawn breath, as he ceased speaking 
 one, and simultaneous through the whole concourse ; 
 and, though there were a few men there, Crassus, especi 
 ally, and Caius Julius Caesar, who, though convinced of 
 the existence of conspiracy, would fain have defended the 
 conspirators, in the existing state of feeling, they dared not 
 attempt to do so. 
 
 Then Cicero called by name on the Prince of the Sen 
 ate, enquiring if he would speak on the subject before the 
 house, and on receiving from him a grave negative gesture, 
 he put the same question to the eldest of the consulars, and 
 thence in order, none offering any opinion or showing any 
 wish to debate, until he came to Marcus Cato. He rose 
 at once to speak, stern and composed, without the least 
 sign of animation on his impassive face, without the least 
 attempt at eloquence in his words, or grace in his ges 
 tures ; yet it was evident that he was heard with a degree 
 of attention, which proved that the character of the man 
 more than compensated the unvarnished style and rough 
 phraseology of the speaker. 
 
 " As it appears to me," he said, " Fathers arid Conscript 
 Senators, after the very luminous and able oration which 
 our wise consul has this day held forth, it would be great 
 folly, and great loss of time, to add many words to it. 
 This I am not about to do, 1 assure you, but I arise in my 
 place to say two things. Cicero has told you that a con 
 spiracy exists, and that Catiline is the planner, and will be 
 the executor of it. This, though I know not by what sa 
 gacity or foresight, unless from the Gods, he discovered it 
 this, I say, I believe confidently, clearly all things de 
 clare it not least the faces of men ! I believe therefore, 
 every word our consul has spoken ; so do you all, my 
 friends. Nevertheless, it is just and right, that the man, 
 villain as he may be, shall be heard in his own behalf. Let 
 him then speak at once, or confess by his silence ! This is 
 the first thing I would say the next follows it ! If he 
 admit, or fail clearly to disprove his guilt, let us not be 
 wanting to ourselves, to our country, or to the great and 
 prudent consul, who, if man can, will save us in this crisis. 
 Let us, I say, decree forthwith, THAT THE CONSULS SEE 
 
248 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 THE REPUBLIC TAKES NO HARM ! and let us hold the consular 
 election to-morrow, on the field of Mars There, with our 
 magistrates empowered to act, our clients in arma to defend 
 us, let us see who will dare to disturb the Roman people ! 
 Let who would do so, remember that not all the power or 
 favor of Great Marius could rescue Saturninus from the 
 death he owed the people remember that we have a con 
 sul no less resolute and vigorous, than he is wise and good 
 that there are axes in the fasces of the Lictors that 
 there stands the Tarpeian !" 
 
 And as he spoke, he flung wide both his arms; pointing 
 with this hand to the row of glittering blades which shone 
 above the head of the chief magistrate, with that, through 
 the open door-way of the temple, to the bold front of the 
 precipitous and fatal rock, all lighted up by the gay sun 
 beams, as it stood fronting them, beyond the hollow Vela- 
 bruin, crowned with the ramparts of the capitol. 
 
 A general hum, as if of assent, followed, and without 
 putting the motion to the vote, Cicero turned his eye ra 
 pidly to every face, and receiving from every senator a 
 slight nod of assent, he looked steadily in the fierce and 
 ghastly face of the traitor, and said to him ; 
 
 " Arise, Catiline, and speak, if you will ! But take my 
 counsel, confess your guilt, go hence, and be forgiven !" 
 
 " Forgiven !" cried the traitor, furious and desperate 
 " Forgiven ! this to a Roman citizen ! this to a Roman 
 noble ! Hear me, Fathers and Conscript Senators hear 
 me ! who am a soldier and a man, and neither driveller 
 nor dotard. 1 tell you, there is no conspiracy, hath been 
 none, shall be none save in the addled brains of yon prater 
 from Arpinum, who would fain set his foot upon the neck 
 of Romans. All is, all shall be peace in Rome, unless the 
 terror of a few dastards drive you to tyranny and perse 
 cution, and from persecution come resistance 1 For my 
 self, let them who would ruin me, beware. My hand has 
 never yet failed to protect my head, nor have many foes 
 laughed in the end at Sergius Catiline ! unless," he added 
 with a ferocious sneer " they laughed in their death-pang. 
 For my wrongs past, I have had some vengeance ; for these, 
 though I behold the axes, though I see, whence I stand, 
 the steep Tarpeian, I think I shall have more, and live to 
 feast my eyes with the downfall of my foes. Fathers, there 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 249 
 
 are tw6 bodies in the State, one weak, with a base but 
 crafty head the other powerful and vast, but headless. 
 Urge me a little farther, and you shall find that a wise arid 
 daring head will not be wanting long, to that bold and 
 puissant body. Urge me, and I will be that head ; oppress 
 me, and " 
 
 But insolence such as this, was not tolerable. There 
 was an universal burst, almost a shout, of indignation from 
 that assembly, the wonted mood of which was so stern, so 
 cold, so gravely dignified, and silent. Many among the 
 younger senators sprang to their feet, enraged almost be 
 yond the control of reason ; nor did the bold defiance of the 
 daring traitor, who stood with his arms folded on his breast, 
 and a malignant sneer of contempt on his lip, mocking their 
 impotent displeasure, tend to disarm their wrath. 
 
 Four times he raised his voice, four times aery of indig 
 nation drowned his words, and at length, seeing that he 
 could obtain no farther hearing, he resumed his seat with 
 an expression fiendishly malignant, and a fierce impreca 
 tion on Rome, and all that it contained. 
 
 After a little time, the confusion created by the audacity 
 of that strange being moderated ; order and silence were 
 restored, and, upon Cato s motion, the Senate was divided. 
 
 Whatever might have been the result had Catiline been 
 silent, the majority was overwhelming. The very parti 
 sans and favorers of the conspiracy, not daring to commit 
 themselves more openly, against so strong fc, manifestation, 
 passed over one by one, and voted with me consul. 
 
 Catiline stood alone, against the vote of the whole order. 
 Yet stood and voted resolute, as though he had been con 
 scious of the right. 
 
 The vote was registered, the Senate declared martial 
 law, investing the consuls with dictatorial power, by the 
 decree which commanded them to SEE THAT THE REPUB 
 LIC TAKES NO HARM. 
 
 The very tribunes, factious and reckless as they were, 
 potent for ill and powerless for good, presumed not to in 
 terpose. Not even Lucius Bestia, deep as he was in the 
 design Bestia, whose accusation of the consul from the ros 
 trum was the concerted signal for the massacre, the con 
 flagration not Bestia himself, relied so far on the inviola 
 bility of his person, as to intrude his VETO. 
 
250 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 The good cause had prevailed the good Consul tri 
 umphed ! The Senate was dismissed, and as the stream 
 of patrician togas flowed through the temple door con 
 spicuous, the rash and reckless traitor shouldered the mass 
 to and fro, dividing it as a brave galley under sail divides 
 the murmuring but unresisting billows. 
 
 Once in the throng he touched Julius Caesar s robe as 
 he brushed onward, and as he did so, a word fell on his 
 ear. in the low harmonious tones which marked the orator, 
 second to none in Rome, save Cicero alone ! 
 
 " Fear not," it said " another day will come ! " 
 
 " Fear ! " exclaimed the Conspirator in a hoarse cry, 
 half fury, half contempt. " What is fear 1 I know not the 
 thing, nor the word! Go, prate of fear to Cicero, and 
 he will understand you !" 
 
 These words perhaps alienated one who might have 
 served him well. 
 
 But so it ever is ! Even in the shrewdest and most 
 worldly wise of men, passion will often outweigh interest ; 
 and plans, which have been framed for years with craft 
 arid patience, are often wrecked by the impetuous rashness 
 of a moment. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
THE ROMAN TRAITOR: 
 
 OB, THE DATS OF 
 
 CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE, 
 
 A TRUE TALE OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 ^BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, 
 
 AUTHOR OP "CROMWELL/* "MARMADUKE WYVIL," "BROTHERS," ETC. 
 
 Why not a Borgia or a Catiline ? POPE. 
 
 YOLUME II. 
 
 This is one of the most powerful Eoman stories in the English language, and is 
 of itself sufficient to stamp the writer as a powerful man. The dark intrigues of the 
 days which Csesar, Sallust and Cicero made illustrious ; when Cataline defied and 
 almost defeated the Senate; when the plots which ultimately overthrew the Roman 
 Republic were being formed, are described in a masterly manner. The book deserves 
 a permanent position by the side of the great Bdlwm Oatdlinarium of Sallust, and if 
 we mistake not will not fail to occupy a prominent place among those produced in 
 America. 
 
 T. B. PETERSON, NO. 102 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
 T. B. PETERSON, 
 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States, in 
 and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY GEORQE CHARLES, 
 
 No. 9 Sansom Street. 
 

 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; 
 
 OR, THE DAYS OP 
 
 CICERO, CATO AND CATALINB. 
 
 A TRUE TALE OE THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE OLD PATRICIAN, 
 
 A Roman father of the olden time. 
 
 MS. PLAY. 
 
 IN a small street, not far from the Sacred Way and the 
 Roman Forum, there was a large house, occupying the 
 whole of one insula, as the space contained between four 
 intersecting streets was called by the ancients. 
 
 But, although by its great size and a certain rude mag 
 nificence, arising from the massy stone-work of its walls, 
 and the solemn antiquity of the old Oscan columns which 
 adorned its entrance, it might be recognised at once as the 
 abode of some Patrician family ; it was as different in 
 many respects from the abodes of the aristocracy of that 
 day, as if it had been erected in a different age and coun 
 try. 
 
 It had no stately colonnades of foreign marbles, no tes- 
 selated pavement to the vestibule, no glowing frescoes on 
 the walls, no long lines of exterior windows, glittering 
 with the new luxury of glass. All was decorous, it is true j 
 but all, at the same time, was stern, and grave, and singu 
 lar for its antique simplicity. 
 
 On either hand of the entrance, there was, in accordance 
 
 with the custom of centuries long past, when Rome s 
 
 Consulars were tillers of the ground, a large shop with an 
 
 open front, devoted to the sale of the produce of the own- 
 
 22 (3) 
 
THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 er s farm. And, strange lo say, although the custom had 
 been long disused in these degenerate times, it seemed 
 that the owner of this time-honored mansion adhered stur 
 dily to the ancient usage of his race. 
 
 For, in one of these large cold unadorned vaults, a tall 
 greyheaded slave, a rural laborer, as it required no second 
 glance to perceive, was presiding over piles of cheese, 
 stone-jars of honey, baskets of autumn fruits, and sacks of 
 grain, by the red light of a large smoky flambeau ; while a 
 younger man, who from his resemblance to the other 
 might safely be pronounced his son, was keeping an ac 
 count of the sales by a somewhat complicated system of 
 tallies. 
 
 In the other apartment, two youths, slaves likewise 
 from the suburban or rustic farm, were giving samples, to 
 such as wished to buy, of different qualities of wine from 
 several amphora or earthen pitchers, which stood on a 
 stone counter forming the sill of the low-browed window. 
 
 It was late in the evening already, arid the streets were 
 rapidly growing dark; yet there were many passengers 
 abroad, more perhaps than was usual at that hour; and 
 now and then, a little group would form about one or the 
 other of the windows, cheapening and purchasing provi 
 sions, and chatting for a few minutes, after their business 
 was finished, with their gossips. 
 
 These groups were composed altogether of the lowest 
 order of the free citizens of Rome, artizans, and small 
 shop keepers, and here and there a woman of low origin, 
 or perhaps a slave, the house steward of some noble fami 
 ly, mingling half reluctantly with his superiors. For the 
 time had not arrived, when the soft eunuchs of the East, 
 and the bold bravnes of the heroic North, favorites and 
 tools of some licentious lord, dared to insult the freeborn 
 men of Rome, or gloried in the badges of their servi 
 tude. 
 
 The conversation ran, as it was natural to expect, on 
 tne probable results of the next day s election ; and it was 
 a little remarkable, that among these, who should have 
 been the supporters of the democratic faction, there ap 
 peared to be far more of alarm and of suspicion, concern 
 ing the objects of Catiline, than of enthusiasm for the pop 
 ular cause. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 5 
 
 " He a man of the people, or the people s friend !" said 
 an old grave-looking mechanic ; " No, by the Gods ! no 
 more than the wolf is the friend of the sheepfold !" 
 
 " He may hate the nobles," said another, " or envy the 
 great rich houses ; but he loves nothing of the people, un 
 less it be their purses, if he can get a chance to squeeze 
 them" 
 
 "Or their daughters," interrupted a third, " if they be 
 fair and willing" 
 
 " Little cares he for their good- will," cried yet a fourth, 
 " so they are young and handsome. It is but eight days 
 since, that some of his gang carried off Marcus , the but 
 cher s, bride, Icilia, on the night of her bridal. They 
 kept her three days ; and on the fourth sent her home dis 
 honored, with a scroll, that she was now a fit wife for a 
 butcher !" 
 
 " By the Gods !" exclaimed one or two of the younger 
 men, " who was it did this thing V 
 
 " One of the people s friends !" answered the other, 
 with a sneer. 
 
 " The people have no friends, since Caius Marius died," 
 said the deep voice of Fulvius Flaccus, as he passed ca 
 sually through the crowd. 
 
 " But what befel the poor Icilia V 1 asked an old matron, 
 who had been listening with greedy sympathy to the dark 
 tale. 
 
 " Why, Marcus would yet have taken her to his bosom, 
 seeing she had no share in the guilt ; but she bore a heart 
 too Roman to bring disgrace upon one she loved, or to 
 survive her honor. Icilia is no longer." 
 
 " She died like Lucretia !" said an old man, who stood 
 near, with a clouded brow, which flashed into stormy 
 light, as the same deep voice asked aloud, 
 
 " Shall she be so avenged T 
 
 " But the transient gleam faded instantly away, and the 
 sad face was again blank and rayless, as he replied 
 
 " No for who should avenge her ]" 
 
 " The people ! the people !" shouted several voices, for 
 the mob was gathering, and growing angry 
 
 " The Roman People should avenge her!" 
 
 " Tush !" answered Fulvius Flaccus. " There is no 
 Roman people !" 
 
6 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " And who are you," exclaimed two or three of the 
 younger men, " that dare tell us so ]" 
 
 " The grandson," answered the republican, " of one, 
 who, while there yet was a people, loved it" 
 
 " His name 1 his name ]" shouted many voices. 
 
 " He hath no name" replied Fulvius. " He lost that, 
 and his life together." 
 
 " Lost them for the people 1" inquired the old man, 
 whom he had first addressed, and who had been scrutiniz 
 ing him narrowly. 
 
 " And by the people," answered the other. " For the 
 people s cause ; and by the people s treason ! as is the 
 case," he added, half scornfully, half sadly, " with all who 
 love the people." 
 
 "Hear him, my countrymen," said the old man. "Hear 
 him. If there be any one can save you, it is he. It is Ful 
 vius, the son of Gains, the son of Marcus Flaccus. Hear 
 him, I say, if he will only lead you." 
 
 " Lead us ! speak to us ! lead us !" shouted the fickle 
 crowd. " Love us, good Fulvius, as your fathers did of 
 old." 
 
 " And die, for you, as they died !" replied the other, in 
 a tone of melancholy sarcasm. " Hark you, my masters," 
 he added, " there are none now against whom to lead you; 
 and if there were, I think there would be none -to follow. 
 Keep your palms unsoiled by the base bribes of the nobles! 
 Keep your ears closed to the base lies of the demagogues ! 
 Keep your hearts true and honest ! Keep your eyes open 
 and watchful ! Brawl not, one with the other; but be 
 faithful, as brethren should. Be grave, laborious, sober, 
 arid above all things humble, as men who once were free 
 and great, and now, by their own fault, are fallen and de 
 graded. Make yourselves fit to be led gloriously ; and, 
 when the time shall come, there will be no lack of glorious 
 leaders !" 
 
 " But to-morrow 1 what shall we do to-morrow ?" cried 
 several voices ; but this time it was the elder men, who 
 asked the question, "for whom shall we vote to-morrow]" 
 * For the friend of the people !" answered Flaccus. 
 " Where shall we find him T was the cry ; " who is the 
 friend of the people 1" 
 
 " Not he who would arm them, one against the other," 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 7 
 
 he replied. " Not he, who would burn their workshops, 
 and destroy their means of daily sustenance ! Not he, by 
 all the Gods ! who sports with the honor of their wives, 
 the virtue" 
 
 But he was interrupted here, by a stern sullen hum 
 among his audience, increasing gradually to a fierce sa 
 vage outcry. The mob swayed to and fro ; and it was 
 evident that something was occurring in the midst, by 
 which it was tremendously excited. 
 
 Breaking off suddenly in his speech, the democrat 
 leaped on a large block of stone, standing at the corner of 
 the large house in front of which the multitude was gather 
 ed, and looked out anxiously, if he might descry the cause 
 of the tumult. 
 
 Nor was it long ere he succeeded. 
 
 A young man, tall and of a slender frame, with features 
 singularly handsome, was making his way, as best he 
 could, with unsteady steps, and a face haggard and pale 
 with debauchery, through the tumultuous and angry con 
 course. 
 
 His head, which had no other covering than its long 
 curled and perfumed locks, was crowned with a myrtle 
 wreath ; he wore a long loose saffron-colored tunic richly 
 embroidered, but ungirt, and flowing nearly to his 
 ankles ; and from the dress, and the torch-bearers, who 
 preceded him, as well as from his wild eye and reeling 
 gait, it was evident that he was returning from some 
 riotous banquet. 
 
 Fulvius instantly recognised him. It was a kinsman of 
 his own, Aulus, the son of Aulus Fulvius, the noblest of 
 the survivors of his house, a senator of the old school, a 
 man of stern and rigid virtue, the owner of that grand 
 simple mansion, beside the door of which he stood. 
 
 But, though he recognised his cousin, he was at a loss 
 for a while to discover the cause of the tumult ; till, 
 suddenly, a word, a female name, angrily murmured 
 through the crowd, gave a clue to its meaning. 
 
 " Icilia ! Icilia !" 
 
 Still, though the crowd swayed to and fro, and jostled, 
 and shouted, becoming evidently more angry every mo 
 ment, it made way for the young noble, who advanced 
 fearlessly, with a sort of calm and scornful insolence, 
 22* 
 
8 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 contemning the rage which his own vile deed had 
 awakened. 
 
 At length one of the mob, bolder than the rest, thrust 
 himself in between the torch bearers and their lord, and 
 meeting the latter face to face, cried out, so that all the 
 crowd might hear, 
 
 " Lo ! Aulus Fulvius ! the violator of Icilia! the friend 
 of the people !" 
 
 A loud roar of savage laughter followed ; and then, 
 encouraged by the applause of his fellows, the man 
 added, 
 
 " Vote for Aulus Fulvius, the friend of the people ! 
 vote for good Aulus, and his virtuous friend Catiline !" 
 
 The hot blood flashed to the brow of the young noble, 
 at the undisguised scorn of the plebeian s speech. Inso 
 lence he could have borne, but contempt ! and contempt 
 from a plebeian ! 
 
 He raised his hand ; and slight and unmuscular as he 
 appeared, indignation lent such vigor to that effeminate 
 arm, that the blow whirh he dealt him on the face, cast 
 the burly mechanic headlong, with the blood spouting 
 from his mouth and nostrils. 
 
 A fearful roar of the mob, and a furious rush against 
 the oppressor, followed. 
 
 The torch-bearers fought for their master gallantly, 
 with their tough oaken staves ; and the young man showed 
 his patrician blood by his patrician courage in the fray. 
 Flaccus, too, wished and endeavored to interpose, not so 
 much that he cared to shield his unworthy kinsman, as 
 that he sought to preserve the energies of the people for 
 a more noble trial. The multitude, moreover, impeded 
 one another by their own violent impetuosity ; and to this 
 it was owing, more than to the defence of his followers, 
 or the intercession of the popular Flaccus, that the young 
 libertine was not torn to pieces, on the threshold of his 
 own father s house. 
 
 The matter, however, was growing very serious 
 stones, staves, and torches flew fast through the air the 
 crash of windows in the neighboring houses was an 
 swered by the roar of the increasing mob, and every 
 thing seemed to portend a very dangerous tumult ; when, 
 at the same moment, the door of the Fulvian House was 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 9 
 
 thrown open, and the high-crested helmets of a cohort 
 were seen approaching, in a serried line, above the bare 
 heads of the multitude. 
 
 Order was restored very rapidly ; for a pacific party 
 had been rallying around Fulvius Flaccus, and their 
 efforts, added to the advance of the levelled pila of the 
 cohort, were almost instantly successful. 
 
 Nor did the sight, which was presented by the opening 
 door of the Fulvian mansion, lack its peculiar influence 
 on the people. 
 
 An old man issued forth, alone, from the unfolded 
 portals. 
 
 He was indeed extremely old ; with hair as white as 
 snow, and a long venerable beard falling in waves of 
 silver far down upon his chest. Yet his eyebrows were 
 black as night, and these, with the proud arch of his 
 Roman nose, and the glance of his eagle eyes, untamed 
 by time or hardship, almost denied the inference drawn 
 from the white head and reverend chin. 
 
 His frame, which must once have been unusually 
 powerful and athletic, was now lean and emaciated ; 
 yet he held himself erect as a centennial pine on Mount 
 Algidus, and stood as firmly on his threshold, looking 
 down on the tumultuous concourse, which waved and 
 fluctuated, like the smaller trees of the mountain side, 
 beneath him. 
 
 His dress was of the plain and narrow cut, peculiar to 
 the good olden time ; yet it had the distinctive marks of 
 the senatorial rank. 
 
 It was the virtuous, severe, old senator the noblest, 
 alas ! soon to be the last, of his noble race. 
 
 " What means this tumult ]" he said in a deep firm 
 sonorous voice, " Wherefore is it, that ye shout thus, 
 and hurl stones about a friendly door ! For shame ! for 
 shame ! What is it that ye lack ] Bread 1 Ye have 
 had it ever at my hands, without seeking it thus rudely." 
 
 " It is not bread, most noble Aulus, that we would 
 have," cried the old man, who had made himself some 
 what conspicuous before, " but vengeance !" 
 
 " Vengeance, on whom, and for what ]" exclaimed the 
 noble Roman. 
 
 But ere his question could be answered, the crowd 
 
10 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 opened before him, and his son stood revealed, sobered 
 indeed by the danger he had run, but pale, haggard, 
 bleeding, covered with mud and filth, and supported by 
 one of his wounded slaves. 
 
 " Ah !" cried the old man, starting back aghast, 
 " What is this ] What fresh crime 1 What recent in 
 famy 1 What new pollution of our name ?" 
 
 " Icilia ! Icilia ! vengeance for poor Icilia !" cried the 
 mob once again ; but they now made no effort to inflict 
 the punishment, for which they clamored ; so perfect was 
 their confidence in the old man s justice, even against his 
 own flesh and blood. 
 
 At the next moment a voice was heard, loud and clear 
 as a silver trumpet, calling upon the people to disperse. 
 
 It was the voice of Paullus, who now strode into the 
 gap, left by the opening concourse, glittering in the full 
 panoply of a decurion of the horse, thirty dismounted 
 troopers arranging themselves in a glittering line behind 
 him. 
 
 At the sight of the soldiery, led by one whose face was 
 familiar to him, the audacity of the young man revived ; 
 and turning round with a light laugh toward Arvina, 
 
 " Here is a precious coil," he said, " my Paullus, about 
 a poor plebeian harlot !" 
 
 " I never heard that Icilia was such, - replied the young 
 soldier sternly, for the dark tale was but too well known ; 
 " nor must you look to me, Aulus Fulvius, for counte 
 nance in deeds like these, although it be my duty to pro 
 tect you from violence ! Come my friends," he con 
 tinued, turning to the multitude, " You must disperse, at 
 once, to your several homes ; if any have been wronged 
 by this man, he can have justice at the tribunal of the 
 Praetor ! But there must be no violence !" 
 
 " Is this thing true, Aulus V asked the old man, in 
 tones so stern and solemn, that the youth hung his head 
 and was silent. 
 
 " Is this thing true ?" the Senator repeated. 
 
 " Why, hath he not confessed it ]" asked the old man, 
 who had spoken so many times before ; and who had 
 lingered with Fulvius Flaccus, and a few others of the 
 crowd. " It is true." 
 
 " Who art thou V 1 asked the old Patrician, a terrible 
 suspicion crossing his mind. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 11 
 
 " The father of that daughter, whom thy son forcibly 
 dishonored !" 
 
 "Enter!" replied the senator, throwing the door, in 
 front of which he stood, wide open, " thou shalt have 
 justice !" 
 
 Then, casting a glance full of sad but resolute deter 
 mination upon the culprit, all whose audacity had passed 
 away, he said in a graver tone, 
 
 " Enter thou likewise ; thou shalt have punishment !" 
 
 "Punishment!" answered the proud youth, his eye 
 flashing, " Punishment ! and from whom 1" 
 
 " Punishment from thy father ! wilt thou question it 1 
 Punishment, even unto death, if thou shalt be found worthy 
 to die ! the law is not dead, if it have slept awhile ! 
 Enter!" 
 
 He dared not to reply he dared not to refuse. Slow, 
 sullen, and crest-fallen, he crossed his father s thresh- 
 hold ; but, as he did so, he glared terribly on Paullus, 
 and shook his hand at him, and cried in tones of deadly 
 hatred, 
 
 " This is thy doing ! curses curses upon thee ! thou 
 shalt rue it !" 
 
 Arvina smiled in calm contempt of his impotent re 
 sentment. 
 
 The culprit, the accuser, and the judge passed inward; 
 the door closed heavily behind them ; the crowd dis 
 persed ; the soldiery marched onward ; and the street, 
 in front of the Fulvian House, was left dark and silent. 
 
 An hour perhaps had passed, when the door was again 
 opened, and the aged plebeian, Icilia s father, issued into 
 the dark street. 
 
 "Scourged!" he cried, with a wild triumphant laugh, 
 "Scourged, like a slave, at his own father s bidding! 
 Rejoice, exult, Julia ! thy shame is half avenged !" 
 
12 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 C HAPTER II. 
 
 THE CONSULAR COMITIA. 
 
 Your voices ! 
 
 CORIOLANTTS. 
 
 THE morning had at length arrived, big with the fate of 
 Rome. The morning of the Consular elections. 
 
 The sun shone broad and bright over the gorgeous city, 
 and the wide green expanse of the field of Mars, whereon, 
 from an hour before the first peep of dawn, the mighty 
 multitude of Roman citizens had stood assembled. 
 
 All the formalities had been performed successfully. The 
 Consul Cicero, who had gone forth beyond the walls to 
 take the auspices, accompanied by an augur, had declared 
 the a.v*^uries favorable. 
 
 The separate enclosures, with the bridges, as they were 
 termed, across which the centuries must pass to give their 
 votes, had J?een erected ; the distributors of the ballots, 
 and the guardians of the ballot-boxes, had been appointed. 
 
 And now, as the sun rushed up with his crown of living 
 glory into the cloudless arch of heaven, the brazen trum 
 pets of the centuries pealed long and loud, calling the civic 
 army to its ranks, in order to commence their voting. 
 
 That was the awful moment ; and scarce a breast was 
 there, but beat high with hope or fear, or dark and vague 
 anticipation. 
 
 The Consul and the friends of order were, perhaps, 
 calmer and more confident, than any others of that mighty 
 concourse ; for they were satisfied with their preparations; 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 13 
 
 they were firm in the support of the patrician houses, and 
 in the unanimity of the Roman knights conciliated by Ci 
 cero. 
 
 Scarcely less confident were the conspirators ; for with 
 so much secrecy had the arrangements of the Consul been 
 made, that although Catiline knew himself suspected, knew 
 that his motives were perspicuous, and his measures in 
 some sort anticipated, he yet believed that the time was 
 propitious. 
 
 He hoped, and believed as fully as he hoped, that Cice 
 ro and his party, content with the triumph they had ob 
 tained in the Senate, and with the adjudication by that 
 body of dictatorial power to the consuls, were now decei 
 ved into the idea that the danger was already over. 
 
 Still, his fierce heart throbbed violently ; and there was 
 a feeling of hot agonizing doubt blent with the truculent 
 hope, the savage ambition, the strong thirst of blood, which 
 goaded him almost to madness. 
 
 From an early hour he had stood surrounded by his 
 friends, the leaders of that awful faction, hard by the por 
 tico of the diribitorium, or pay-office, marking with a keen 
 eye every group that entered the field of Mars, and ad 
 dressing those, whom he knew friendly to his measures, 
 with many a fiery word of greeting and encouragement. 
 
 Cassius and Lentulus, a little way behind him, leaned 
 against the columns of the gateway, with more than a thou 
 sand of the clients of their houses lounging about in groups, 
 seemingly inattentive, but really alive to every word or 
 glance of their leaders. 
 
 These men were all armed secretly with breast plates, 
 and the puissant Roman sword, beneath their peaceful to 
 gas. 
 
 These men, well-trained in the wars of Sylla, hardy and 
 brave, and acting in a body, were destined to commence 
 the work of slaughter, by slaying the Great Consul, so 
 soon as he should open the comitia. 
 
 Cethegus had departed, already, to join his gladiators, 
 who, to the number of fifteen hundred, were gathered be 
 yond the Janiculum, ready to act upon the guard, and to 
 beat down the standard which waved there, the signal of 
 election. 
 
 Statilius, Gabinius, and Caeparius, were ready with their 
 
14 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 armed households and insurgent slaves, prepared at a mo- 
 merit s notice to throw open the prison doors, and fire the 
 city in twelve places. 
 
 Fearless, unanimous, armed, and athirst for blood, the 
 foes of the republic stood, and marked with greedy eyes 
 and visages inHamed and fiery, their victims sweep through 
 the gates, arrayed in their peaceful robes, unarmed, as it 
 would seem, and unsuspecting. 
 
 Not a guard was to be seen anywhere; not a symptom 
 of suspicion ; much less of preparation. The wonted co 
 hort only was gathered about the standard on the bridge 
 gate of the Janiculum ; but even these bore neither shields, 
 nor javelins; and sat or lounged about, unconcerned, and 
 evidently off their guard. 
 
 But the keen eye of Catiline, could mark the band of 
 grcy-tunicked Gladiators, mustered, and ready to assume 
 the offensive at a moment s notice, though now they were 
 sauntering about, or sitting down or lying in the shade, or 
 chatting with the country girls and rustic slaves, who cov 
 ered the sloping hill-sides of the Janiculum, commanding a 
 full view of the Campus Martius. 
 
 "The Fools!" muttered Catiline. "The miserable, 
 God-deserted idiots ! Does the man of Arpinum deem 
 me then so weak, to be disarmed by an edict, quelled by a 
 paltry proclamation ?" 
 
 Then, as the stout smith, Caius Crispus, passed by him, 
 with a gang of workmen, and a rabble of the lowest citi 
 zens, 
 
 " Ha!" he exclaimed, " hail, Crispus hail, brave hearts! 
 all things look well for us to-day well for the people ! 
 Your voices, friends ; I must have your voices !" 
 
 "You shall Catiline!" replied the smith "and our 
 hands also !" he added, with a significant smile and a dark 
 glance. 
 
 " Catiline ! Catiline all friends of the good people, all 
 foes of the proud patricians, give noble Catiline your voi 
 ces !" 
 
 " Catiline ! Catiline for the persecuted people !" and, 
 with a wild and stirring shout, the mob passed inward 
 through the gate, leaving the smith behind^tiowever ; who 
 stopped as if to speak with one of the Cornelian clients^ 
 but in reality to wait further orders. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 15 
 
 " When shall we march" he asked, after a moment or 
 two, stealthily approaching the chief conspirator. " Before 
 they have called the prerogative century to vote, or when 
 the knights are in the bridges V 
 
 " When the standard goes down, fool !" replied Catiline, 
 harshly. " Do not you know your work ?" 
 
 At this moment, a party of young and dissipated nobles 
 came swaggering along the road, with their ungirded tu 
 nics flowing down to their heels, their long sleeves fringed 
 with purple falling as far as to their wrists, and their curled 
 ringlets floating on their shoulders. Among them, with a 
 bloodshot eye, a pale and haggard face, and a strange terri 
 ble expression, half-sullen, half-ashamed, on all his features, 
 as if he fancied that his last night s disgrace was known to 
 all men, strode Aulus Fulvius, the son of that stern sena 
 tor. 
 
 " Your voices ! noblemen, your voices !" cried Catiline, 
 laughing with feigned gayety " Do but your work to-day, 
 and to-night" 
 
 " Wine and fair women !" shouted one ; but Aulus smiled 
 savagely, and darkly, and answered in one word " Re 
 venge !" 
 
 Next behind them, came Bassus, the veteran father of 
 the dead eagle-bearer ; he who had told so sad a tale of 
 patrician cruelty to Fulvius Flaccus, in the forge. 
 
 " Why, Bassus, my brave veteran, give me your hand," 
 cried the conspirator, making a forward step to meet him. 
 " For whom vote you to-day, for Muroena and Silanus 1 
 Ha]" 
 
 " For Catiline and justice !" answered the old man, "jus 
 tice on him who wronged the Eagle-bearer s child! who 
 sits in the senate even yet, defiled with her pure blood ! 
 the infamous Cornelius !" 
 
 Another man had paused to listen to these words, and he 
 now interposed, speaking to Bassus, 
 
 "Verily Catiline is like to do thee justice, my poor Bassus, 
 on a member of the Cornelian house ! Is t Lentulus, I 
 prithee, or Cethegus, on whom thou would st have justice!" 
 
 But the old man replied angrily, " The people s friend 
 shall give the people justice ! who ever knew a noble pity 
 or right a poor man 1" 
 
 " Ask Aulus Fulvius" replied the other, with a sarcas- 
 23 
 
16 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 tic tone, and a strange smile lighting up his features. " Be 
 sides, is not Catiline a noble ]" 
 
 At the word Aulus Fulvius leaped on him like a tiger, 
 with his face crimsoning, and his heart almost bursting with 
 fury. 
 
 He could not speak for rage, but he seized the man who 
 had uttered those mysterious words by the throat, and bran 
 dished a long poniard, extricated in a second s space from 
 the loose sleeve of his tunic, furiously in the air. 
 
 As the bright blade flashed in the sunlight, there was a 
 forward rush among the conspirators, who, anxious to 
 avert any casual affray, that might have created a distur 
 bance, would have checked the blow. 
 
 But their aid would have come too late, had not the man 
 thus suddenly assaulted, by an extraordinary exertion of 
 strength, vigor, and agility, wrenched the dagger from 
 Aulus hand, and, tripping him at the same moment with 
 his foot, hurled him upon his back in the dust, which 
 surged up Jn a great cloud, covering his perfumed hair and 
 snow-white toga, with its filthy and foetid particles. 
 
 "Ha! ha!" he cried with a loud ringing laugh, as he 
 tossed the weapon high into the sunny air, that all around 
 might see it " Here is one of your noble people s friends ! 
 Do they wear daggers all, for the people s throats 1 Do 
 they wave torches all, against the people s workshops V 
 
 The matter seemed to be growing serious, and while two 
 o three of the conspirators seized Aulus, and compelled 
 him with gentle violence to desist from farther tumult, Cae- 
 parius whispered into the ear of Catiline, " This knave 
 knows far too much. Were it not best three or four of our 
 friend Crispus* men should knock him on the head 1" 
 
 "No! no! "cried Catiline " By Hades ! no! It is too 
 late, I tell you. The whole thing will be settled within 
 half an hour. There goes the second trnmpet." 
 
 And as he spoke, the shrill blast of the brazen instru 
 ments rose piercingly and almost painfully upon the ear ; 
 and the people might be seen collecting themselves rapidly 
 into the centuries of their tribes, in order to give their 
 votes in their places, as ascertained by lot. 
 
 " And the third" exclaimed Cassius, joyfully " Will 
 give the signal for election I " Catiline interrupted him, as if 
 fearful that he would say something that should commit the 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 17 
 
 party. " But see," he added, pointing with his hand across 
 the wide plain toward a little knoll, on which there stood a 
 group of noble-looking men, surrounded by a multitude of 
 knights and patricians, " See yonder, how thickly the lati- 
 clavian tunics muster, and the crimson-edged togas of the 
 nobles all the knights are there too, methinks. And look ! 
 look the consuls of the year ! and my competitors ! Come, 
 my friends, come ; we must toward the consul. He is 
 about to open the comitia." 
 
 "Catiline! Catiline! the people s friend !" again shout 
 ed Caius Crispus ; and Bassus took the word, and repeat 
 ed it in the shrill quavering accents of old age " All those 
 who love the people vote for the people s friend vote for 
 the noble Catiline !" 
 
 And at once thousands of voices took the cry, " Catiline ! 
 Catiline ! Hail, Catiline, that shall be Consul !" 
 
 And, in the midst of these triumphant cries, hardened 
 and proud of heart, and confident of the success of his 
 blood-thirsty schemes, he* hurried forward, accompanied by 
 Lentulus and his armed satellites, panting already with 
 anticipated joy, and athirst for slaughter. 
 
 But, as he swept along, followed by the faction, a great 
 body of citizens of the lower orders, decent substantial 
 men, came crowding toward the Campus, and paused to 
 inquire the cause of the tumult, which had left its visible 
 effects in the flushed visages and knotted brows of many 
 present. 
 
 Two or three voices began to relate what had passed ; 
 but the smith Crispus, who had lingered with one or two 
 of his ruffians, intent to murder the man who had crossed 
 his chief, so soon as the signal should be given, rudely 
 broke in, and interrupted them with the old cry, " The 
 people s friend ! All ye who love the people, vote for the 
 people s friend, vote for the noble Catiline !" 
 
 " Had mighty Marius been alive, Marius of Arpinum, or 
 the great Gracchi, they had cried, Vote rather for the man 
 of the people ! vote for Cicero of Arpinum ! " 
 
 " Tush, what knows he of Marius V 1 replied the smith. 
 
 " What knows he of the great Gracchi ]" echoed one of 
 his followers. 
 
 " Whether should best know Marius, they who fought 
 by his side, or they who slew his friends "? Who should 
 
18 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 best know the great Gracchi if not Fulvius, the grandson 
 of that Fulvius Flaccus, who died with them, in the fo 
 rum, by the hands of Saturninus 1" 
 
 " Vote for Catiline ! vote for Catiline ! friends of the 
 people !" shouted the smith again, reechoed by all his sa 
 vage and vociferous gang, seeking to drown the voice of 
 the true man of the people. 
 
 " Aye " exclaimed Fulvius, ironically, springing upon 
 a stone horse-block, thence to address the people, who 
 shouted " Flaccus! Flaccus!" on all sides. " Live Fulvius 
 Flaccus ! Speak to us, noble Fulvius !" 
 
 "Aye!" he exclaimed, "friends of the people, follow 
 ers of Marius, vote, if ye be wise men, for the murderer of 
 his kinsman for Catiline, who slew Marius Gratidianus !" 
 
 " No ! no ! we will none of them ! no Catfiine ! no fol 
 lower of Sylla ] To your tribes, men of Rome to your 
 tribes !" 
 
 The mingled cries waxed wild and terrible ; and it was 
 clear that the popular party was broken, by the bold words 
 of the speaker, into two bodies, if ever it had been united. 
 But little cared the conspirators for that, since they had 
 counted, not upon winning by a majority of tribes, but by 
 a civic massacre. 
 
 And now even as that roar was the loudest, while 
 Flaccus in vain strove to gain a hearing, for the third time 
 the brazen trumpets of the centuries awoke their stirring 
 symphonies, announcing that the hour had arrived for the 
 tribes to commence their voting. 
 
 Those who were in the secret looked eagerly over the 
 field. The hour had come the leader was at their head 
 they waited but the signal ! 
 
 That signal, named by Catiline, in the house of Laeca, 
 the blood of Cicero ! 
 
 They saw a mass of men, pressing on like a mighty 
 wedge through the dense multitude ; parting the waves of 
 the living ocean as a stout galley parts the billows ; strug 
 gling on steadily toward the knoll, whereon, amid the mag 
 nates of the land, consulars, senators, and knights, covering 
 it with the pomp of white and crimson gowns, gemmed 
 only by the flashing axe-heads of the lictors, stood the 
 great Consul. 
 
 They saw the gladiators forming themselves into a sepa- 
 
19 
 
 rate band, on the slopes of the Janiculum, with a senator s 
 robe distinct among the dark gray tunics. 
 
 Catiline and his clients were not a hundred paces dis 
 tant from Cicero, and the assembled nobles. They had 
 halted ! Their hands were busy in the bosom of their 
 gowns, griping the hilts of their assassin s tools ! 
 
 Cethegus and his gladiators were not a hundred paces 
 distant from the bridge-gate of the Janiculum, and the co 
 hort s bannered eagle. 
 
 They, too, had halted ! they, too, were forming in battle 
 order they too were mustering their breath for the dread 
 onset they too were handling their war weapons ! 
 
 Almost had Caius Crispus, in his mad triumph, shouted 
 victory. 
 
 One moment, and Rome had been the prize for the win 
 ner in the gladiators battle. 
 
 And the notes of the brazen trumpets had not yet died 
 away, among the echoing hills. 
 
 They had not died away, before they were taken up and 
 repeated, east, west, and north and south, by shriller, more 
 pervading clangors. 
 
 It burst over the heads of the astonished people like hea 
 ven s thunder, the wild prolonged war-flourish of the le 
 gions. From the Tarpeian rock, and the guarded Capitol ; 
 from the rampired Janiculum ; from the fortress, beyond 
 the Island bridge ; from the towered steeps of the Quiri- 
 nal, broke simultaneously the well known Roman war 
 note ! 
 
 Upsprang, along the turreted wall of the Janiculum, 
 with crested casques, and burnished brazen corslets, and 
 the tremendous javelins of the cohorts, a long line of Me- 
 tellus legionaries. 
 
 Upsprang on the heights of the Capitol, and on each 
 point of vantage, an answering band of warriors, full arm 
 ed. 
 
 And, last not least, as that warlike din smote the sky, 
 Cicero, on whom every eye was riveted of that vast con 
 course, flung back his toga, and stood forth conspicuous, 
 armed with a mighty breastplate, and girded with the 
 sword that won him, at an after day, among the mountains 
 of Cilicia, the high style of Imperator. 
 
 A mighty shout burst from the faithful ranks of the 
 ! 23* 
 
20 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 knights ; and, starting from their scabbards, five thousand 
 sword-blades flashed in a trusty ring around the savior of 
 his country. 
 
 " Catiline would have murdered Him !" shouted the 
 voice of Fulvius Flaccus " Catiline would have burned 
 your workshops ! Catiline would have made himself Dic 
 tator, King ! Vote, men of Rome, vote, friends of the peo 
 ple ! vote now, I say, for Catiline !" 
 
 Anticipated, frustrated, outwitted, the conspirators 
 glared on each other hopeless. 
 
 Against forces so combined, what chance of success ? 
 
 Still, although ruined in his hopes, Catiline bore up 
 bravely, and with an insolence of hardihood that in a good 
 cause had been heroism. 
 
 Affecting to laugh at the precautions, and sYieer at the 
 pusillanimous mind that had suggested them, he defied 
 proof, defied suspicion. 
 
 There was no overt act no proof! and Cicero, satisfied 
 with his triumph for alarmed beyond measure, and asto 
 nished, all ranks and classes vied with each other in voting 
 for Silanus and Mursena took no step to arrest or con 
 vict the ringleaders. 
 
 It was a moral, not a physical victory, at which he had 
 aimed so nobly. 
 
 And nobly had he won it. 
 
 The views of the conspiracy frustrated ; the hearts of its 
 leaders chilled and thunder-stricken ; the loyalty and vir 
 tue of all classes aroused ; the eyes of the Roman people 
 opened to knowledge of their friends ; two wise and noble 
 consuls chosen, by who were on the point of casting their 
 votes for a murderer and traitor; the city saved from con 
 flagration ; the commonwealth preserved, in all its majes 
 ty , these were the trophies of the Consular Comitia. 
 

 DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PERIL. 
 
 Things, bad begun, make strong themselves by ill. 
 
 MACBETH. 
 
 SIXTEEN days had elapsed, since the conspirators were 
 again frustrated at the Consular Comitia. 
 
 Yet not for that had the arch-traitor withdrawn his foot 
 one hair s breadth from his purpose, or paused one mo 
 ment in his career of crime and ruin. 
 
 There is, beyond doubt, a necessity not as the ancients 
 deemed, supernatural, and the work of fate, but a natural 
 moral necessity arising from the very quality of crime it 
 self, which spurs the criminal on to new guilt, fresh atro 
 city. 
 
 In the dark path of wickedness there is no halting place ; 
 the wretched climber must turn his face for ever upward, 
 for ever onward ; if he look backward his fall is inevitable, 
 his doom fixed. 
 
 So was it proved with Catiline. To gain impunity for 
 his first deed of cruelty and blood, another and another 
 were forced on him, until at last, harassed and maddened 
 by the consciousness of untold guilt, his frantic spirit could 
 find no respite, save in the fierce intoxication of excite 
 ment, the strange delight of new atrocity. 
 
 Add to this, that, knowing himself anticipated and dis 
 covered, he knew also that if spared for a time by his op 
 ponent, it was no lack of will, but lack of opportunity 
 alone to crush him, that held the hands of Cicero inactive. 
 
22 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 Thus, although for a time the energies of his weaker 
 comrades sank paralysed by the frustration of their schemes, 
 and by the certainty that they were noted and observed 
 even in their most secret hours, his stronger and more ve 
 hement spirit found only in the greater danger the greater 
 stimulus to action. 
 
 Sixteen days had elapsed, and gradually, #s the conspi 
 rators found that no steps were taken by the government 
 for their apprehension or punishment, they too waxed 
 bolder, and began to fancy, in their insolent presumption, 
 that the republic was too weak or too timid to enforce its 
 own laws upon undoubted traitors. 
 
 All the causes, moreover, which had urged them at first 
 to councils so desperate, existed undiminished, nay, exag 
 gerated by delay. 
 
 Their debts, their inability to raise those funds which 
 their boundless profusion rendered necessary, still mad 
 dened them ; and to these the consciousness of detected 
 guilt, and that " necessity which," in the words of their 
 chief, " makes even the timid brave," were superadded. 
 
 The people and the Senate, who had all, for a time, 
 been vehemently agitated by a thousand various emotions 
 of anger, fear, anxiety, revenge, forgetting, as all popular 
 bodies are wont to do, the past danger in the present se 
 curity, were beginning to doubt whether they had not 
 been alarmed at a shadow ; and were half inclined to ques 
 tion the existence of any conspiracy, save in the fears of 
 their Consul. 
 
 It was well for Rome at that hour, that there was still in 
 the commonwealth, a counterpoise to the Democratic Spi 
 rit ; which, vehement and energetical beyond all others in 
 sudden and great emergencies, is ever restless and impa 
 tient of protracted watchfulness and preparation, and lacks 
 that persistency and resolute endurance which seems pe 
 culiar to aristocratic constitutions. 
 
 And now especially were demonstrated these opposite 
 characteristics ; for while the lower orders, and the popu 
 lar portion of the Senate, who had been in the first instance 
 most strenuous in their alarm, and most urgent for strong 
 measures, were now hesitating, doubting, and almost com 
 passionating the culprits, who had fallen under such a load 
 of obloquy, the firmer and more moderate minds, were 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 23 
 
 guarding the safety of the commonwealth in secret, and 
 watching, through their unknown emissaries, every move 
 ment of the traitors. 
 
 It was about twelve o clock at night, on the eighth day 
 before the Ides, corresponding to our seventh of Novem 
 ber, when the Consul was seated alone in the small but 
 sumptuous library, which has been described above, med 
 itating with an anxious and care-worn expression, over 
 some papers which lay before him on the table. 
 
 No sound had been heard in the house for several hours ; 
 all its inhabitants except the Consul only, with the slave 
 who had charge of the outer door, and one faithful freed- 
 man, having long since retired to rest. 
 
 But from without, the wailing of the stormy night-wind 
 rose and fell in melancholy alternations of wild sobbing 
 sound, and breathless silence ; and the pattering of heavy 
 rain was distinctly audible on the flat roofs, and in the 
 flooded tank, or impluvium, which occupied the centre of 
 the hall. 
 
 It was in one of the lulls of the autumnal storm, that a 
 heavy knock was heard on the pannel of the exterior door, 
 reverberating in long echoes, through the silent vestibule, 
 and the vast colonnades of the Atrium and peristyle. 
 
 At that dead hour of night, such a summons would have 
 seemed strange in any season : it was now almost alarming. 
 
 Nor, though he was endowed pre-eminently with that 
 moral strength of mind which is the highest quality of 
 courage, and was by no means deficient in mere physical 
 bravery, did Cicero raise his head from the perusal of his 
 papers, and listen to that unwonted sound, without some 
 symptoms of anxiety and perturbation. 
 
 So thoroughly acquainted as he was, with the desperate 
 wickedness, the infernal energy, and absolute fearlessness 
 of Catiline, it could not but occur to him instantly, when 
 he heard that unusual summons, at a time when all the in 
 nocent world was buried in calm sleep, how easy and ob 
 vious a mode of liberation from all danger and restraint, his 
 murder would afford to men so daring and unscrupulous, 
 as those against whom he was playing, for no less a stake 
 than life or death. 
 
 There was, he well knew, but a single slave, and he old 
 and unarmed, in the vestibule, nor was the aged and effe- 
 
24 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 minate Greek freedman, one on whom reliance could be 
 placed in a deadly struggle. 
 
 All these things flashed suddenly upon the mind of Ci 
 cero, as the heavy knocking fell upon his ear, followed hy a 
 murmur of many voices, and the tread of many feet with 
 out. 
 
 He arose quietly from the bronze arm-chair, on which he 
 had been sitting, walked across the room, to a recess beside 
 the book-shelves, and reached down from a hook, on which 
 it hung, among a collection of armor and weapons, a stout, 
 straight, Roman broad-sword, with a highly adorned hilt 
 and scabbard. 
 
 Scarcely, however, had he taken the weapon in his hand, 
 before the door was thrown open, and his freedman ush 
 ered in three men, attired in the full costume of Roman 
 Senators. 
 
 " All hail, at this untimely hour, most noble Cicero," ex 
 claimed the first who entered. 
 
 " By all the Gods !" cried the second, " rejoiced I am, O 
 Consul, to see that you are on your guard ; for there is 
 need of watchfulness, in truth, for who love the republic." 
 
 " Which need it is, in short," added the third, " that has 
 brought us hither." 
 
 " Most welcome at all times," answered Cicero, laying 
 aside the broad-sword with a smile, " though of a truth, I 
 thought it might be less gracious visitors. Noble Marcel- 
 lus, have you good tidings of the commonwealth ] and you, 
 Metellus Scipio, and you Marcus Crassus ! Friends to the 
 state, I know you ; and would trust that no ill news hath 
 held you watchful." 
 
 " Be not too confident of that, my Consul," replied Sci 
 pio. " Peril there is, at hand to the commonwealth, in your 
 person." 
 
 " VVe have strange tidings here, confirming all that you 
 made known to the Senate, on the twelfth day before the 
 Calends, in letters left by an unknown man with Crassus 
 doorkeeper this evening," said Marcellus. " We were at 
 supper with him, when they came, and straightway deter 
 mined to accompany him hither." 
 
 "In my person !" exclaimed Cicero " Then is the pe 
 ril threatened from Lucius Sergius Catiline ! were it for my 
 self alone, this were a matter of small moment ; but, see- 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 25 
 
 ing that I hold alone the clues of this dark plot, it were dis 
 astrous to the state, should ought befall me, who have set 
 my life on this cast to save my country." 
 
 " Indeed disastrous !" exclaimed the wealthy Crassus ; 
 " for these most horrible and cursed traitors ate sworn, as 
 it would seem, to consume this most glorious city of the 
 earth, and all its stately wealth, with the sword and fire." 
 
 " To destroy all the noble houses," cried Scipio, " and 
 place the vile and loathsome rabble at the helm of state." 
 
 "All this, I well knew, of old," said Cicero calmly. 
 "But I "pray you, my friends, be seated; and let me see 
 these papers." 
 
 And taking the anonymous letters from the hands of 
 Crassus, he read them aloud, pausing from time to time, 
 to meditate on the intention of the writer. 
 
 "Marcus Licinius Crassus," thus ran the first, "is spoken 
 of by those, who love, not Rome, as their lover and trusty 
 comrade ! Doth Marcus Licinius Crassus deem that the 
 flames, which shall roar over universal Rome, will spare his 
 houses only ] Doth Marcus Crassus hope, that when the 
 fetters shall be stricken from the limbs of every slave in 
 Rome, his serfs alone will hold their necks beneath a vo 
 luntary yoke ] Doth he imagine that, when all the gold o* 
 the rich shall be distributed among the needy, his seven 
 thousand talents shall escape the red hands of Catiline and 
 his associates ? Be wise ! Take heed ! The noble, who 
 forsakes his order, earns scorn alone from his new partisans ! 
 When Cicero shall fall, all noble Romans shall perish la 
 mentably, with him when the great Capitol itself shall 
 melt in the conflagration, all private dwellings shall go 
 down in the common ruin. Take counsel of a friend, true, 
 though unknown and humble! Hold fast to the republic ! 
 rally the nobles and the rich, around the Consul ! Ere the 
 third day hence, he shall be triumphant, or be nothing ! 
 Fare thee well !" 
 
 " This is mysterious, dark, incomprehensible," said Ci 
 cero, as he finished reading it. " Had it been sent to me, I 
 should have read it s secret thus, as intended to awake sus 
 picion, in my mind, of a brave and noble Roman ! a true 
 friend of his country !" he added, taking the hand of Cras 
 sus in his own. " Yet, even so, it would have failed. For 
 as soon would I doubt the truth of heaven itself, as ques- 
 
26 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 tion the patriotic faith of the conqueror of Spartacus ! But 
 left at thy house, my Crassus, it seems almost senseless and 
 unmeaning. What have we more ? 
 
 " The snake is scotched, not slain ! The spark is con 
 cealed, not quenched ! The knife is sharp yet, though it 
 lie in the scabbard ! When was conspiracy beat down by 
 clemency, or treason conquered by timidity 1 Let those 
 who would survive the ides of November, keep their loins 
 girded, and their eyes wakeful. What I am, you may not 
 learn, but this much only I was a noble, before I was a 
 beggar! a Roman, before I was a traitor !" 
 
 "Ha!" continued the consul, examining the paper 
 closely, " This is somewhat more pregnant the Ides of 
 November ! the Ides is it sol They shall be met with 
 al ! It is a different hand-writing also ; and here is a third 
 Ha!" 
 
 " A third, plainer than the first," .said Metellus Scipio 
 " pray mark it." 
 
 " Three men have sworn who never swear in vain a 
 knight, a senator, and yet a senator again ! Two of the 
 three, Cornelii ! Their knives are keen, their hands sure, 
 their hearts resolute, against the new man from Arpinum ! 
 Let those who love Cicero, look to the seventh day, before 
 November s Ides." 
 
 " The seventh day ha 1 so soon ? Be it so," said the 
 undaunted magistrate. " I am prepared for any fortune." 
 
 " Consul," exclaimed the Freedman, again entering, "I 
 watched with Geta, in the vestibule, since these good fa 
 thers entered ; and now there have come two ladies clad 
 in the sacred garb of vestals. Two lictors wait on them. 
 They ask to speak with the consul." 
 
 " Admit them, madman !" exclaimed Cicero ; " admit 
 thetn with all honor. You have not surely kept them in 
 the vestibule ]" 
 
 " Not so, my Consul. They are seated on the ivory 
 chairs in the Tablinum." 
 
 " Pardon me, noble friends. I go to greet the holy vir 
 gins. This is a strange and most unusual honour. Lead 
 the way, man." 
 
 And with the words, he left the room in evident anxiety 
 and haste ; while his three visitors stood gazing each on 
 the other, in apprehension mingled with wonder. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND OATALINE. 27 
 
 In a few moments, howevei , he returned alone, very 
 pale, and wearing on his fine features a singular expression 
 of awe and dignified self-complacency, which seemed to 
 be almost at variance with each other. 
 
 " The Gods," he said, as he entered, in a deep and so 
 lemn tone, " the Gods themselves attest Rome s peril by 
 grand and awful portents. The College of the Vestals 
 sends tidings, that The State totters to its fall !" 
 
 " May the Great Gods avert !" cried his three auditors, 
 simultaneously, growing as pale as death, and faltering out 
 their words from ashy lips in weak or uncertain accents. 
 
 " It is so !" said Cicero; who, though a pure Deist, in 
 truth, and no believer in Rome s monstrous polytheism, 
 was not sufficiently emancipated from the superstition of 
 the age to dispute the truth of prodigies and portents. " It 
 is so. The priestess, who watched the sacred flame on the 
 eternal hearth, beheld it leap thrice upward in a clear spire 
 of vivid and unearthly light, and lick the vaulted roof-stones 
 thrice vanish into utter gloom ! Once, she believed the 
 fire extinct, and veiled her head in more than mortal ter 
 ror. But, after momentary gloom, it again revived, while 
 three strange sighs, mightier than any human voice, came 
 breathing from the inmost shrine, and waved the flame fit 
 fully to and fro, with a dread pallid lustre. The College 
 bids the Consul to watch for himself and the republic, these 
 three days, or ill shall come of it." 
 
 Even as he spoke, a bustle was again heard in the ves 
 tibule, as of a fresh arrival, and again the freedman enter 
 ed. 
 
 " My Consul, a veiled patrician woman craves to confer 
 with you, in private." 
 
 " Ha ! all Rome is afoot, methinks, to-night. Do you 
 know her, my Glaucias 1" 
 
 " I saw her once before, my Consul. On the night of 
 the fearful storm, when the falchion of flame shook over 
 Rome, and the Senate was convened suddenly." 
 
 " Ha ! She ! it is well it is very well ! we shall know 
 all anon." And his face lighted up joyously, as he spoke. 
 " Excuse me, Friends and Fathers. This is one privy to 
 the plot, with tidings of weight doubtless. Thanks for your 
 news, and good night ; for I must pray you leave me. 
 Your warning hath come in good season, and I will not be 
 24 
 
28 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 taken unaware. The Gods have Rome in their keeping, 
 and, to save her, they will not let me perish. Fare ye 
 well, nobles. I must be private with this woman." 
 
 After the ceremonial of the time, his visitors departed; 
 but as they passed through the atrium, they met the lady, 
 conducted by the old Greek freedman. 
 
 Little expecting to meet any one at that untimely hour, 
 she had allowed her veil to fall down upon her shoulders ; 
 and, although she made a movement. to recover it, as she 
 saw the Senators approaching her by the faint light of the 
 single lamp which burned before the household gods on 
 the small altar by the impluvium, Marcus Marcellus caught 
 a passing view of a pair of large languishing blue eyes, 
 and a face of rare beauty. 
 
 " By the great Gods !" he whispered in Crassus ear, 
 " that was the lovely Fulvia." 
 
 "Ha! Curius paramour!" replied the other. "Can 
 it be possible that the stern Consul amuses his light hours, 
 with such high-born harlotry 1" 
 
 " Not he ! not he !" said Scipio. " I doubt not Curius 
 is one of them ! He is needy, and bold, arid bloody." 
 
 " But such a braggart !" answered Marcellus. 
 
 " I have known braggarts fight," said Crassus. " There 
 was a fellow, who set v r ed in the fifth legion ; he fought be 
 fore the standard of the hastati ; and I deemed him a cow 
 ard ever, but in the last strife with Spartacus he slew six 
 men with his own hand. I saw it." 
 
 " I have heard of such things," said Scipio. " But it 
 grows late. Let us move homeward." And then he ad 
 ded, as he was leaving the Consul s door, " If he can trust 
 his household, Cicero should arm it. My life on it ! They 
 will attempt to murder him." 
 
 " He has giverkorders even now to arm his slaves," said 
 the Freedman, in reply ; " and so soon as they have got 
 their blades and bucklers, I go to invite hither the surest of 
 his clients." 
 
 " Thou shalt do well to do so But see thou do it si 
 lently." 
 
 And with the words, they hurried homeward through the 
 dark streets, leaving the wise and virtuous magistrate in 
 conference with his abandoned, yet trustworthy informant, 
 Fulvia. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 29 
 
 CHAPTE R IV. 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 
 He is about it. The doors arc open. 
 
 MACBETH. 
 
 THE morning had scarcely dawned, after that dismal 
 and tempestuous night, when three men were observed by 
 some of tfye earlier citizens, passing up the Sacred Way, 
 toward the Cerolian Place. 
 
 It was not so much that the earliness of the hour attrac 
 ted the notice of these spectators for the Jlomans were a 
 matutinal people, even in their moM effeminate and luxuri 
 ous ages, and the sun found few loiterers in their cham 
 bers, when he came forth from his oriental gates as that 
 the manner and expression of these men themselves were 
 singular, and such as might well excite suspicion. 
 
 They all walked abreast, two clad in the full garb of 
 Senators, and one in the distinctive dress of Roman knight 
 hood. No one had heard them^speak aloud, nor seen them 
 whisper, oe to the other. They moved straight onward, 
 steadily indeed and rather slowly, but with something of 
 consciousness in their manner, glancing furtively around 
 them from beneath their bent brows, and sometimes even 
 casting their eyes over their shoulders, as if to see whe 
 ther they were followed. 
 
 At about a hundred paces after these three, not however 
 accompanying them, or attached to their party, so far at 
 least as appearances are considered, two large-framed fel 
 lows, clothed in the dark gray frocks vorn by slaves and 
 gladiators, came strolling in the same direction. 
 
THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 These men had the auburn hair, blue eyes, and massive, 
 if not stolid cast of features peculiar to northern races, at 
 that time the conquered slaves, though destined soon to be 
 the victors, of Rome s gigantic power. 
 
 When the first three reached the corner of the next 
 block of buildings, to the corner of that magnificent street 
 called the Carinoe, they paused for a few moments; and, 
 after looking carefully about them, to mark whether they 
 were observed or riot, held a short whispered conversation, 
 which their stern faces, and impassioned gestures seemed 
 to denote momentous. 
 
 While they were thus engaged, the other two came saun 
 tering along, and passed them by, apparently unheeded, and 
 without speaking, or saluting them. 
 
 Those three men were the knight Caius Cornelius, a 
 friend and distant kinsman of Cethegus, who was the se- i 
 cond of the number, and Lucius Vargunteius, a Senator, 
 whose name has descended only to posterity, through the 
 black infamy of the deed, which he was even at that mo 
 ment meditating. 
 
 Spurred into action by the menaces and violence of Ca 
 tiline, who had now resolved to go forth and commence 
 open warfare from the entrenched camp- prepared in the 
 Appenines, by Caius Manlius, these men had volunteered, 
 o n the previous night, at a second meeting held in the house 
 of Laeca, to murder Cicero, with their own hands, during 
 his morning levee. 
 
 To this end, they had now come forth thus early, hoping 
 so to anticipate the visit of his numerous clients, and take 
 him at advantage, unprepared and defenceless. 
 
 Three stout men were they, as ever went forth armed 
 and determined for premeditated crime; stout in frame, 
 stout of heart, invulnerable by any physical apprehension, 
 unassailable by any touch of conscience, pitiless, fearless, 
 utterly depraved. 
 
 Yet there was something in their present enterprise, that 
 half daunted them. Something in the character of the 
 man, whom they were preparing to assassinate something 
 of undefined feeling, suggesting to them the certainty of 
 the whole world s reproach and scorn through everlasting 
 ages, however present success " might trammel up the con 
 sequence." 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 31 
 
 Though they would not have confessed it to tneir own 
 hearts, they were reluctant toward their task ; and this un 
 admitted reluctance it was, which led them to pause and 
 parley, under the show of arranging their schemes, which 
 had in truth been fully organized on the preceding night. 
 
 They w r ere too far committed, however, to recede ; and 
 it is probable that no one of them, although their hearts 
 were full almost to suffocation, as they neared the good Con 
 sul s door, had gone so far as to think of withdrawing his 
 hand from the deed of blood. 
 
 The outer door of the vestibule was open ; and but one 
 slave was stationed in the porch ; an old man quite unarmed, 
 not having so much even as a porters staff, who was sitting 
 on a stone bench, in the morning sunshine. 
 
 As the conspirators ascended the marble steps, which 
 t gave access to the vestibule, and entered the beautiful Tus 
 can colonnade, the two Germans, who had stopped and 
 looked back for a moment, seeing them pass in, set off as 
 hard as they could run, through an adjoining street toward 
 the house of Catiline, which was not very far distant. 
 
 It was not long ere they reached it, and entered with 
 out question or hindrance, as men familiar and permitted. 
 
 In a small room, adjoining the inner peristyle, the master 
 of the house was striding to and fro across the tesselated 
 floor, in a state of perturbation, extreme even for him ; 
 whose historian has described him with 4)loodless face, 
 and evil eyes, irregular and restless motions, and the im 
 press of frantic guilt, ever plain to be seen in his agitated 
 features. 
 
 Aurelia Orestilla sat near him, on a low cushioned stool, 
 with her superb Italian face livid and sicklied by unusual 
 dread. Her hands lay tightly clasped upon her knee her 
 lips were as white as ashes. Her large lustrous eyes, bur 
 ning and preternaturally distended, were fixed on the hag 
 gard face of her husband, and followed him, as he strode 
 up and down the room in impotent anxiety and expectation. 
 
 Yet she, privy as she was to all his blackest councils, the 
 instigator and re warder of his most hideous crime, know 
 ing the hell of impotent agony that was consuming his 
 heart, she dared not address him with any words of hope 
 or consolation. 
 
 At such a crisis all ordinary phrases of comfort or cheer- 
 24* 
 
32 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 
 
 ing love, seem but a mockery to the spirit, which can find 
 no rest, until the doubts that harass it are ended; and thia 
 she felt to be the case, and, had her own torturing expec 
 tation allowed her to frame any speech to soothe him, she 
 would not have ventured on its utterance, certain that it 
 would call forth a torrent of imprecation on her head, per 
 haps a burst of violence against her person. 
 
 The very affections of the wicked, are strangely mixed 
 at times, with more discordant elements ; and it would have 
 been a hard question to solve, whether that horrible pair 
 most loved or hated one another. 
 
 The woman s passions, strange to relate, had been kin 
 dled at times, by the very cruelty and fury, which at other 
 moments made her almost detest him. There was a spe 
 cies of sublimity in the very atrocity of Catiline s wicked 
 ness, whicli fascinated her morbid and polluted fancy ; and 
 she almost admired the ferocity which tortured her, and 
 from which, alone of mortal ills, she shrank appalled and 
 unresisting. 
 
 And Catiline loved her, as well as he could love anything, 
 loved her the more because she too, in some sort, had elicit 
 ed his admiration ; for she had crossed him many times, 
 and once braved him, and, alone of human beings, he had 
 not crushed her. 
 
 They were j^er to mated tigers, which even in their rap 
 tures of affection, rend with the fang, and clutch with the 
 unsheathed talon, until the blood arid anguish testify the 
 fury of their passion, than to beings of human mould and 
 nature. 
 
 Suddenly the traitor stopped short in his wild and agita 
 ted walk, and seemed to listen intently, although no sound 
 came to the ears of the woman, who was no less on the 
 alert than he, for any stir or rumor. 
 
 " It is" he said at length, clasping his hands above his 
 head " it is the step of Arminius, the trusty gladiator- 
 do you not hear it, Orestilla ?" 
 
 " No," she replied, shaking her head doubtfully. " There 
 is no sound at all. My ear is quicker of hearing, too, than 
 yours, Catiline, and if there were any step, I should be first 
 to mark it." 
 
 " Tush ! woman !" he made answer, glaring upon her 
 fiercely. " It is my hear 4 that hears it." 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 33 
 
 "You have a heart, then !" she replied bitterly, unable 
 .eu at that time to refain from taunting him. 
 
 " And a hand also, and a dagger ! and, by Hell and all 
 r .ts furies ! I know not why I do not flesh it in you. I will 
 one day." 
 
 " No, you will not," she answered very quietly. 
 
 " And wherefore not 1 I have done many a worse deed 
 in my day. The Gods would scarce punish me for that 
 slaughter ; and men might well call it justice. Wherefore 
 not, I say ] Do you think I so doat on your beauty, that I 
 cannot right gladly spare you 1" 
 
 " Because," answered the woman, meeting his fixed 
 glare, with a glance as meaning and as fiery, " because, 
 when I find that you meditate it, I will act quickest. I 
 know a drug or two, and an unguent of very sovereign vir 
 tue." 
 
 "Ha! ha!" The reckless profligate burst into a wild 
 ringing laugh of triumphant approbation. "Ha ! ha ! thou 
 migfctst have given me a better reason. Where else should 
 I find such a tigress 1 By all the Gods ! it is your clutch 
 and claws that I prize, more than your softest and most 
 rapturous caress ! But hist ! hist ! now do you not hear 
 that step V 
 
 X d I do," she replied, clasping her hands again, 
 which she had unclinched in her anger " and it is Armi- 
 nius step ! I was wrong to cross thee, Catiline ; and thou 
 so anxious ! we shall hear now we shall hear all." 
 
 Almost as she spoke, the German gladiator rushed into the 
 room, heated and panting from his swift race ; and, without 
 any sign of reverence or any salutation, exclaimed abruptly, 
 
 " Catiline, it is over, ere this time ! I saw them enter his 
 house !" 
 
 The woman uttered a low choking shriek, her face 
 flushed crimson, and then again turned paler than before, 
 and she fell back on her cushioned seat, swooning with joy 
 at the welcome tidings. 
 
 But Catiline flung both his arms abroad toward heaven, 
 and cried aloud " Ye Gods, for once I thank ye ! if there 
 be Gods indeed !" he added, with a sneer " thou sawest 
 them enter, ha] thou art not lying? By all the furies! 
 If you deceive me, I will take care that you see nothing 
 more in this world." 
 
34 
 
 " Catiline, these eyes saw them!" 
 
 " At length ! at length !" he exclaimed, his eye flashing, 
 and his whole countenance glowing with fiendish anima 
 tion, " and yet curses upon it ! that I could not slay him 
 that I should owe to any other hand my vengeance on 
 my victim. Thou hast done well ha! here is gold, Ar- 
 minius ! the last gold I own but what of that, to-morrow 
 to-morrow, I will have millions ! Away ! away ! bold 
 heart, arouse your friends and followers to arms, to arms, 
 cry havoc through the streets, and liberty and vengeance !" 
 
 While he was speaking yet, the door was again opened, 
 and Cethegus entered with the others, dull, gloomy, and 
 crest-fallen ; but Catiline was in a state of excitement so 
 tremendous, that he saw nothing but the men. 
 
 At one bound he reached Cethegus, and catching him by 
 both hands "How!" he exclaimed "How was it? 
 quick, tell me, quick ! Did he die hard? Did he die, con 
 scious, in despair, in anguish ? Tell me, tell me, you tor 
 tured him in the slaying tell me, he died a coward, howl 
 ing and cursing fate, and knowing that I, /slew him, and 
 
 speak Cethegus? speak, man! By the Gods ! you 
 
 are pale ! silent ! these are not faces fit for triumph ! 
 speak, man, I say, how died he ? show me his blood, Ce 
 thegus ! you have not wiped it from your dagger, give me 
 the blade, that I may kiss away the precious death-drops." 
 
 So rapidly and impetuously had he spoken, heaping que 
 ry on query, that Cethegus could not have answered, if he 
 would. But, to say the truth, he was in little haste to do 
 so. When Catiline ceased, however, which he did at 
 length, from actual want of breath to enquire farther, he 
 answered in a low smothered voice. 
 
 " He is not dead at all he refused" 
 
 "Not dead!" shrieked Catiline, for it was a shriek, 
 though articulate, and one so piercing that it roused Aure- 
 lia from her swoon of joy " Not dead ! Yon villain swore 
 that he saw you enter not dead !" he repeated, half in 
 credulously " By heaven and hell ! I believe you are 
 jesting with me ! Tell me that you have lied, and I I 
 I will worship you, Cethegus." 
 
 " His porter refused us entrance, and, as the door was 
 opened, we saw in the Atrium the slaves of his household, 
 and half a hundred of his clients, all armed from head to 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 35 
 
 foot, with casque and corslet, pilum, broad-sword, and 
 ouckler. And, to complete the tale, as we returned into 
 che street baffled and desperate, a window was thrown open 
 in the banquet-hall above, and we might see the Consul, 
 with Cato, and Marcellus, and Scipio, and a score of Con- 
 sulars beside, gazing upon us in all the triumph of securi 
 ty, in all the confidence of success. We are betrayed, that 
 is plain our plans are all known as soon as they are taken, 
 all frustrated ere acted! All is lost, Catiline, for what re 
 mains to do T 
 
 " To dare!" answered the villain, all undaunted even by 
 this reverse " and, if need be, to die but to despair, nev 
 er!" 
 
 " But who can be the traitor 1 where shall we look to 
 find him ]" 
 
 " Look there," exclaimed Catiline, pointing to the Ger 
 man gladiator, who stood all confounded and chap-fallen. 
 " Look there, and you shall see one ; and see him punished 
 too ! What ho! without there, ho! a dozen of you, if you 
 would shun the lash !" 
 
 And, at the summons, ten or twelve slaves and freed men 
 rushed into the room in trepidation, almost in terror, so 
 savage was the temper of the lord whom they served, and 
 so merciless his wrath, at the most trivial fault or error. 
 
 " Drag that brute, hence !" he said, waving his hand to 
 ward the unhappy gladiator, " put out his eyes, fetter him 
 foot and hand, and cast him to the congers in the fish 
 pond." 
 
 Without a moment s pause or hesitation, they cast them 
 selves upon their miserable comrade ; and, though he strug 
 gled furiously, and struck down two or three of the fore 
 most, and shouted himself hoarse, in fruitless efforts to ex 
 plain, he was secured, and bound and gagged, within a 
 shorter time than is required to describe it. 
 
 This Hone, one of the freedmen looked toward his 
 dreaded master, and asked, with pale lips, and a faltering 
 voice, 
 
 " Alive, Catiline]" 
 
 " Alive and hark you, Sirrah, fasten his head above the 
 water, that he die not too speedily. Thosa biggest con 
 gers will lug him manfully, Cethegus ; we will go see the 
 
86 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 sport, anon. It will serve to amuse us, after this disap 
 pointment. There ! away with him, begone !" 
 
 The miserable creature struggled desperately in his 
 bonds, but in vain ; and strove so terribly to speak, in de 
 spite his gag, that his face turned almost black, from the 
 blood which rushed to every pore; but no sound could he 
 utter, as he was dragged away, save a deep-mouthed groan, 
 which was drowned by the laughter of the remorseless 
 wretches, who gazed on his anguish with fiendish merri 
 ment ; among which, hideous to relate, the thrilling sounds 
 of Aurelia s silvery and contagious mirth were distinctly 
 audible. 
 
 " He will take care to see more truly in Hades !" said 
 Catiline, with his sardonic smile, as he was dragged out of 
 the room, by his appalled and trembling fellows. " But 
 now to business. Tell me, did you display any weapon 1 
 or do aught, that can be proved, to show your intent on the 
 Consul r 
 
 " Nothing, my Catiline," replied Cethegus, firmly. 
 
 "Nothing, indeed, Cethegus 1 By all our hopes! de 
 ceive me not !" 
 
 " By your head ! nothing, Catiline." 
 
 " Then I care nothing for the failure !" answered the 
 other. " Keep good hearts, and wear smiling faces ! I 
 will kill him myself to-morrow, if, like the Scorpion, I must 
 die in the deed." 
 
 " Try it not, Catiline. You will but fail and" 
 
 " Fail ! who ever knew me fail, in vengeance V J 
 
 " No one !" said Orestilla " and no one can hinder you 
 of it. No! not the Gods!" 
 
 " There are no Gods!" exclaimed the Traitor, "and if 
 there be, it were all one I defy them!" 
 
 " Cicero says there is ONE, they tell me," said Cethegus, 
 half mocking, half in earnest " and he is very wise." 
 
 " Very !" replied the other, with his accustomed sneer 
 " Therefore that ONE may save him if he can !" 
 
 " The thing is settled," cried Aurelia Orestilla, " I told 
 him yesterday he ought to do it, himself I should not be 
 content, unless Catiline s hand dealt him the death blow, 
 Catiline s eye gloated upon him in the death-struggle, Cati 
 line s tongue jeered him in the death-pang !" 
 
 " You love him dearly, Orestilla," said Cethegus. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 37 
 
 " And dearly he has earned it," she replied. 
 
 " By Venus ! I would give half my hooes, to see him 
 kiss you." 
 
 "And I, if my lips had the hydra s venom. But come," 
 she added, with a wreathed smile and a beaming eye, 
 " Let us go see the fishes eat yon varlet ; else shall we be 
 $00 late for the sport." 
 
 " Rare sport !" said Cethegus, " I have not seen a man 
 eaten, by a tiger even, these six months past ; and by a fish, - 
 I think, never !" 
 
 " The fish do it better," replied Catiline " Better, and 
 cleaner they leave the prettiest skeleton you can imagine 
 they are longer about it, you will say True ; but I do 
 not grudge the time." 
 
 " No ! no ! the longer, the merrier !" said Aurelia, 
 laughing melodiously " The last fellow 1 saw given to 
 the tigers, had his head crushed like a nut-shell, by a single 
 blow. He had not time to shriek even once. There was 
 no fun in that, you know." 
 
 " None indeed," said Cethegus " but I warrant you this 
 German will howl gloriously, when the fish are at him." 
 
 " Yes ! yes !" exclaimed the lovely woman, clapping her 
 hands joyously. " We must have the gag removed, to give 
 free vent-to his music. Come, come, I am dying to see 
 him." 
 
 " Some one must die, since Cicero did not." 
 
 " Happy fellow this, if he only knew it, to give his 
 friends so much pleasure !" 
 
 " One of them such a fair lady too !" 
 
 " Will there be more pleasure, think you, in seeing the 
 congers eat the gladiator, or in eating the congers after 
 ward r 
 
 " Oh ! no comparison ! one can eat fat congers always." 
 
 " We have the advantage of them truly, for they cannot 
 always eat fat gladiators." 
 
 And they walked away with as much glee and expecta 
 tion, to the scene of agony and fiendish torture, vitiated by 
 the frightful exhibitions of the circus and the arena, as men 
 in modern days would feel, in going to enjoy the fictitious 
 sorrows of some grand tragedian. 
 
 Can it be that the contemplation of human wo, in some 
 form or ether, is in all ages grateful to poor conupt human 
 ity 1 
 
38 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ORATION. 
 
 Quousque tandem abutere 
 
 CICERO. 
 
 THE Senate was assembled in the great temple on the 
 Palatine, built on the spot where Jupiter, thence hailed as 
 Stator, had stayed the tide of flight, and sent the rallied 
 Romans back to a glorious triumph. 
 
 A cohort was stationed on the brow of the hill, its spear 
 heads glancing in the early sunshine. 
 
 The Roman knights, wearing their swords openly, and 
 clad in their girded tunics only, mustered around the steps 
 which led to the colonnade and doors of the temple, a vo 
 luntary guard to the good consul. 
 
 A mighty concourse had flowed together from all quar 
 ters of the city, and stood in dense masses in all the neigh 
 boring streets, and in the area of the temple, in hushed 
 and anxious expectation. 
 
 The tribunes of the people, awed for once by the immi 
 nence of the peril, forgot to be factious. 
 
 Within the mighty building, there was dead silence 
 silence more eloquent than words. 
 
 For, to the wonder of all men, undismayed by detection, 
 unrebuke i by the horror and hate which frowned on him 
 from every brow, Catiline had assumed his place on the 
 benches of his order. 
 
 Not one, even of his most intimate associates, had dared 
 to salute him ; not one, even of the conspirators, had dared 
 to recognize the manifest traitor. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 89 
 
 * As he assumed his place, the senators next to him 
 arisen and withdrawn from the infamous vicinity, some of 
 them even shaking their gowns, as if to dissipate the conta 
 mination of his contact. 
 
 Alone he sat, therefore, with a wide vacant space around 
 him alone, in that crowded house alone, yet proud, un- 
 rebuked, undaunted. 
 
 The eyes of every man in the vast assembly were riveted 
 in fear, or hatred, or astonishment, on the set features and 
 sullen scowling brow, of the arch conspirator. 
 
 Thus sat they, thus they gazed for ten minutes space, 
 and so deep was the all-absorbing interest, that none ob 
 served the Consul, who had arisen to his feet before the 
 curule chair, until the great volume of his clear sonorous 
 voice rolled over them, like the burst of sudden thunder 
 amid the hush of nature which precedes it. 
 
 It was to no set form of words, to no premeditated 
 speech, that he gave utterance ; nor did he in the usual 
 form address the Conscript Fathers. 
 
 With his form drawn to its fullest height, his arm out 
 stretched as if it was about to launch the thunderbolt, he 
 hurled his impassioned indignation against the fearless cul 
 prit. 
 
 " Until how long, O Catiline, wilt thou abuse our pa 
 tience ? Until how long, too, will thy frantic fury baffle 
 us 1 Unto what extremity will thy unbridled insolence 
 display itself? Do the nocturnal guards upon the Pala 
 tine nothing dismay you, nothing the watches through the 
 city, nothing the terrors of the people, nothing the con 
 course hitherward of all good citizens, nothing this most 
 secure place for the senate s convocation, nothing the eyes 
 and faces of all these 1" And at the words, he waved both 
 arms slowly around, pointing the features and expression 
 of every senator, filled with awe and aversion. 
 
 " Dost thou not feel that all thy plots are manifest 1 Not 
 see that thy conspiracy was grasped irresistibly, so soon as 
 it was known thoroughly to all these ] Which of us dost 
 thou imagine ignorant of what thou didst, where thou wert, 
 whom thou didst convoke, what resolution thou didst take 
 last night, and the night yet preceding ? Oh ! ye changed 
 Times Oh, ye degenerate customs! The Senate com 
 prehends these things, the Consul s^s i/iem ! Yet tbui 
 25 
 
40 THE ROMAN TRAITOR J OR, THE 
 
 man lives ! Lives, did I say 1 Yea, indeed, comes into 
 the Senate, bears a part in the public councils, marks out 
 with his eyes and selects every one of us for slaughter. 
 But we, strenuous brave men, imagine that we do our duty 
 to the state, so long as we escape the frenzy, the daggers 
 of that villain. Long since it had been right, Catiline, that 
 thou shouldst have been led to death by the Consul s man 
 date Long since should that doom have been turned up 
 on thyself, which thou hast been so long devising for all of 
 us here present. Do I err, saying this 1 or did that most 
 illustrious man, Publius Scipio, pontifex maximus, when 
 in no magisterial office, take off Tiberius Gracchus, for 
 merely disturbing the established order of the state 1 Arid 
 shall we, Consuls, endure Catiline aiming to devastate the 
 world with massacre and conflagration 1 For I omit to 
 state, as too ancient precedents, how Caius Servilius Ahala 
 slew with his own hand Spurius Melius, when plotting ie 
 volution ! There was, there was, of old, that energy of 
 virtue in this commonwealth, that brave men hedged the 
 traitorous citizen about with heavier penalties than thp 
 most deadly foe ! We hold a powerful and weighty dp 
 cree of the Senate against thee, O Catiline. Neither the 
 counsel nor the sanction of this order have been wanting 
 to the republic. We, we, I say it openly, we Consuls are 
 wanting in our duty. 
 
 " The Senate decreed once, that Lucius Opimius, then 
 Consul, should see THAT THE REPUBLIC TOOK NO HARM ; 
 not one night intervened. Caius Gracchus was slain on 
 mere suspicions of sedition, the son of a most n<>ble father, 
 most noble grandfather, most noble ancestry. Marcus Ful- 
 vius, a consular, was slain with both his children. By a 
 like decree of the Senate, the charge of the republic was 
 committed to Caius Marius and Lucius Valerius, the Con 
 suls did the republic s vengeance delay the death of Lu 
 cius Saterninus, a tribune of the people, of Caius Servili 
 us, a praetor, even a single day ] And yet, we Consuls, 
 suffer the edge of this authority to be blunted, until the 
 -wentieth day. For we have such a decree of the Senate, 
 hut hidden in the scroll which contains it, as a sword uii- 
 drawn 171 its scabbard. By which decree it were right, O 
 Catiline, that thou eliouldst have been slaughtered on thu 
 instant. Thou livest ; and livest not to lay aside, but tr> 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 41 
 
 confirm and strengthen thine audacity. I desire, O Con 
 script fathers, to be merciful ; I desire, too, in such jeopar 
 dy of the republic, not to seem culpably neglectful. Yet I 
 condemn myself of inability, of utter weakness. There 
 is a camp in Italy ! hostile to the republic, in the denies 
 that open on Etruria! Daily the numbers of the foe are 
 increasing ! And yet the general of that camp, the lead 
 er of that foe, we see within the walls, aye, even in the 
 Senate, day by day, plotting some intestine blow against 
 the state. Were I to order thee to be arrested, to be slain 
 now, O Catiline, I should have cause, I think, to dread the 
 reproaches of all good citizens, for having stricken thee too 
 late, rather than that of one, for having stricken thee too se 
 verely. And yet, that which should have been done long 
 ago, I am not yet for a certain reason persuaded to do now. 
 Then then at length will I slay thee, when there is not 
 a man so base, so desperately wicked, so like to thee in char 
 acter, but he shall own thy slaying just. So long as there 
 shall be one man, who dares to defend thee, thou shalt 
 live. And thou shalt live, as now thou livest, beset on eve 
 ry side by numerous, and steady guards, so that thou canst 
 not even stir against the commonwealth. The eyes more 
 over, and the ears of many, even as heretofore, shall spy 
 thee out at unawares, and mount guard on thee in private. 
 " For what is there, Catiline, which thou now canst expect 
 more, if neither night with all its darkness, could con 
 ceal thy unholy meetings, nor even the most private house 
 contain within its walls the voice of thy conspiracy ? If 
 all thy deeds shine forth, burst into public view ] Change 
 now that hideous purpose, take me along as thy adviser, 
 forget thy schemes of massacre, of conflagration. Thou 
 art hemmed in on every side. Thy every council is more 
 clear to ire than day ; and these thou canst now review 
 with rne. Dost thou remember, how I stated in the Sen- 
 ace, on the twelfth day before the Calends of November, (1) 
 that Caius Manlius, the satellite and co-minister of thy 
 audacity, would be in arms on a given day, which day 
 would be the sixth (2) before the Calends of Novem 
 ber . Did I err, Catiline, not in the fact, so great as it 
 was, so ac^ )ci/> is, so incredible, but, what is much more 
 
 (1) lab <^6t of October. (2) The 27th of October. 
 
42 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 wondrous, in the very day 1 Again I told thee in the 
 Senate, that thou hadst conspired to slay the first men of 
 the state, on the fifth ( 1) day before the Calends of Novem 
 ber, when many leading men of Rome quitted the city, 
 not so much to preserve their lives, as to mar thy councils. 
 Canst thou deny that thou wert hemmed in on that day by 
 my guards, and hindered by my vigilance from stirring thy 
 hand against the state, when, frustrate by the departure of 
 the rest, thou saidst that our blood, ours who had remained 
 behind, wou d satisfy thee] What] When thor "vert so 
 confident of seizing Praeneste, by nocturnal escalade, 
 upon the very (2) Calends of November, didst thou not 
 feel that it was by my order that colony was garrisoned, 
 guarded, watched, impregnable ? Thou doest nothing, 
 plottest nothing, thirikest nothing which I shall not I say 
 not hear but shall not see, shall not conspicuously com 
 prehend. 
 
 " Review with me now, the transactions of the night be 
 fore the last, so shalt thou understand that I watch far more 
 vigilantly for the safety, than thou for the destruction of 
 the state. I say that on that former night, (3) thou didst 
 go to the street of the Scythemakers, I will speak plainly, 
 to the house of Marcus Laeca ; that thou didst meet there 
 many of thy associates in crime and madness. Wilt thou 
 dare to deny it ] Why so silent ] If thou deniest, I will 
 prove it. For I see some of those here, here in the Sen 
 ate, who were with thee. Oh ! ye immortal Gods ! in what 
 region of the earth do we dwell ] in what city do we live ? 
 of what republic are we citizens ] Here ! they are here, 
 in the midst of us, Conscript Fathers, here in this council, 
 the most sacred, the most solemn of the universal world, 
 who are planning the slaughter of myself, the slaughter of 
 you all, planning the ruin of this city, and therein the ruin 
 of the world. T , I the consul, see these men, and ask their 
 opinions on state matters. Nay, those Avhom it were but 
 iustice to slaughter with the sword, I refrain as yet from 
 wounding with a word. Thou wert therefore in the house 
 of Laeca, on that night, O Catiline. Thou didst allot the> 
 districts of Italy ; thou didst determine whither each one 
 of thy followers should set forth ; thou didst .choose whom 
 
 (1) The 28th of October. (2) The first of November. 
 
 (3) The 6th of November. This oration wae delivered on the 8th, 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 43 
 
 nou wouidst lead along with thee, whom leave behind ; 
 Uhou didst assign the wards of the city for conflagration ; 
 thou didst assert that ere long thou wouidst go forth in uer- 
 son ; thou saidst there was but one cause why thou shouldst 
 yet delay a little, namely, that I was alive. Two Roman 
 knights were found, who offered themselves to liberate thee 
 from that care, and promised that they would butcher me, 
 that very night, a little before daylight, in my own bed. Of 
 all these things I was aware, when your assembly was 
 scarce yet broken up. I strengthened my house, and guar 
 ded it with an unwonted garrison. 1 refused admittance 
 to those whom thou hadst sent to salute me, when they 
 arrived ; even as I had predicted to many eminent men 
 that they would arrive, and at that very time. 
 
 " Since then these things stand thus, O Catiline, proceed 
 as thou hast begun; depart when thou wilt from the city ; 
 the gates are open ; begone ; too long already have those 
 camps of Manlius lacked their general. Lead forth, with 
 the morrow, all thy men if not all, as many at least as 
 thou art able; purify the city of thy presence. Thou wilt 
 discharge me from great terror, so soon as a wall shall be in 
 terposed between thee and me. Dwell among us thou 
 canst, now no longer. I will not endure, I willrv t suffer, 
 I will not permit it ! Great thanks must be rendered to the 
 immortal Gods, and to this Stator Jove, especially, the an 
 cient guardian of this city, that we have escaped so many 
 times already this plague, so foul, so horrible, so fraught 
 with ruin to the republic. Not often is the highest weal 
 of a state jeoparded in the person of a single individual. 
 So long as you plotted against me, merely as Consul elect, 
 
 Catiline, I protected myself, not by public guards, but 
 by private diligence. When at the late Comitia, thou 
 wouidst have murdered me, presiding as Consul in the Field 
 of Mars, with thy competitors, I checked thy nefarious 
 plans, by the protection and force of my friends, without 
 exciting any public tumult. In a word, as often as thou 
 hast thrust at me, myeelf have I parried the blow, although 
 
 1 perceived clearly, that my fall was conjoined with dread 
 calamity to the republic. Now, now, thou dost strike 
 openly at the whole commonwealth, the dwellings of the 
 city; dost summon the temples of the Imirortal Gods, 
 the lives of all citizens, in a word, Italy herseif, to havoc 
 
 25* 
 
44 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 and perdition. Wherefore seeing that as yet, I dare not 
 do what should be my first duty, what is the ancient and 
 peculiar usage of this state, and in accordance with the 
 discipline of our fathers I will, at least, do that which in 
 respect to security is more lenient, in respect to the com 
 mon good, more useful. For should I command thee to 
 be slain, the surviving band of thy conspirators would set 
 tle down in the republic ; but if as I have been long ex 
 horting thee, thou wilt go forth, the vast and pestilent con 
 tamination of thy comrades will be drained out of the city. 
 What is this, Catiline ] Dost hesitate to do that, for my 
 bidding, which of thine own accord thou wert about do 
 ing ? The Consul commands the enemy to go forth from 
 the state. Dost thou enquire of me, whether into exile ] 
 I do not order, but, if thou wilt have my counsel, I advise 
 it. 
 
 " For what is there, O Catiline, that can delight thee any 
 longer in this city, in which there is not one man, without 
 thy band of desperadoes, who does not fear, not one who 
 does not hate thee 1 What brand of domestic turpitude 
 is not burnt in upon thy life 1 What shame of private 
 bearing clings not to thee, for endless infamy ? What 
 scenes of impure lust, what deeds of daring crime, what 
 horrible pollution attaches not to thy whole career 1 To 
 what young man, once entangled in the meshes of thy cor 
 ruption, hast thou not tendered the torch of licentiousness, 
 or the steel of murder ] Must I say more 1 Even of late, 
 when thou hadst rendered thy house vacant for new nup 
 tials, by the death of thy late wife^ didst thou not overtop 
 that hideous crime, by a crime more incredible 1 which I 
 pass over, and permit willingly to rest in silence, lest it be 
 known, that in this state, guilt so enormous has existed, 
 and has not been punished. I pass over the ruin of thy 
 fortunes, which all men know to be impending on the 
 next (1) Ides, I proceed to those things which pertain not 
 to the private infamy of thy career, not to thy domestic 
 difficulties and baseness, but to the supreme safety of the 
 state, and to the life and welfare of us all. Can the light 
 of this life, the breath of this heaven, be grateful to thee, 
 Catiline, when thou art conscious that not one of these but 
 
 (1) The 13th of November. (2) The 3 1st of December. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 45 
 
 knows how thou didst stand armed in the comitium, on the 
 day previous (2) to the calends of January, when Lepidus 
 and Tullus were the Consuls ] That thou hadst mustered 
 a band of assassins to slay the Consuls, and the noblest of 
 the citizens ] That no relenting of thy heart, no faltering 
 from fear, opposed thy guilt and frenzy, but the wonted 
 good fortune of the commonwealth ] And now I pass 
 from these things, for neither are these crimes not known 
 to all, nor have there not been many more recently com 
 mitted. How many times hast not thou thrust at me while 
 elect, how many times when Consul ? How many thrusts 
 of thine so nearly aimed, that they appeared inevitable ; 
 have I ..not shunned by a slight diversion, and, as they say of 
 gladiators, by the movements of my body 1 Thou doest 
 nothing, attemptest nothing, plannest nothing, which can 
 escape my knowledge, at the moment, when 1 would know 
 it. Yet thou wilt neither cease from endeavoring nor 
 from plotting. How many times already hath that dagger 
 been wrested from thy hand ] how many times hath it fal 
 len by chance, and escaped thy grasp 1 Slill thou canst 
 not be deprived of it, more than an instant s space ! And 
 yet, I know not with what unhallowed rites it has been 
 consecrated and devoted by thee, that thou shouldst deem 
 it necessary to flesh it in the body of a Consul. 
 
 " Now then, what life is this of thine 1 For I will now 
 address thee, not so that I may seem moved by that detes 
 tation which I feel toward thee, but by compassion, no por 
 tion of which is thy due. But a moment since, thou didst 
 come into the Senate, and which one man, from so vast a 
 concourse, from thine own chosen and familiar friends, sa 
 luted thee 1 If this has befallen no one. within the mem 
 ory of man, wilt thou await loud contumely, condemned 
 already by the most severe sentence of this silence ] What 
 wouldst thou have, when all those seats around thee were 
 left vacant on thy coming] When all those Consulars, 
 whom thou so frequently hadst designated unto slaughter, 
 as soon as thou didst take thy seat, left all that portion of 
 the benches bare and vacant 1 With what spirit, in one 
 word, can thou deem this endurable 1 By Hercules ! did 
 my slaves so dread me, as all thy fellow citizens dread thee, 
 I should conceive it time for leaving my own house dost 
 thou not hold it time to leave this city 1 And if I felt 
 
46 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 self without just cause suspected, and odious to my coun 
 trymen,! should choose rather to be beyond the reach of their 
 vision, than to be gazed upon by hostile eyes of all men 
 Dost thou hesitate, when conscious of thine own crimes 
 thou must acknowledge that the hate of all is just, and 
 due long ago dost thou, I say, hesitate to avoid the pres 
 ence and the sight of those whose eyes and senses thine 
 aspect every day is wounding ] If thine own parents 
 feared and hated thee, and could by no means be recon 
 ciled, thou wouldst, I presume, withdraw thyself some 
 whither beyond the reach of their eyes now thy country, 
 which is the common parent of us all, dreads and detests 
 thee, and has passed judgment on thee long ago, as medita- 
 ing nothingbut her parricide. Wilt thou now neither revere 
 her authority, nor obey her judgment, nor yet dread her 
 violence 1 Since thus she now deals with thee, Catiline, 
 thus speaks to thee in silence. 
 
 "No deed of infamy hath been done in these many 
 years, unless through thee no deed of atrocity without 
 thee to thee alone, the murder of many citizens, to 
 thee alone the spoliation and oppression of our allies, 
 hath been free and urrpunished. Thou hast been pow 
 erful not only to escape laws and prosecutions, but open 
 ly to break through and overturn them. To these things, 
 though indeed intolerable, I have submitted as best I 
 might but it can now no longer be endured that I should 
 be in one eternal dread of thee only that Catiline, on what 
 alarm soever, alone should be the srfurce of terror that 
 no treason against me can be imagined, such as should be 
 revolting to thy desperate criminality. Wherefore begone, 
 and liberate me from this terror, so that, if true, I may not 
 be ruined j if false I may at least shake with fear no lon 
 ger. 
 
 " If thy country should thus, as I have said, parley with 
 thee, should she not obtain what she demands, even if she 
 lack force to compel it 1 What more shall I say, when 
 thou didst offer thyself to go into some private custody ] 
 What, when to shun suspicion, thou didst profess thy wil 
 lingness to take up thy residence under the roof of Man- 
 ius Lepidus ] Refused by whom, thou hadst audacity to 
 come to me, and request that I would admit thee to my 
 house. And when thou didst receive from me this answer, 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 47 
 
 that I could not exist within the -same house with that man, 
 whose presence even inside the same city walls, I esteemed 
 vast peril to my life, thou didst then go to the praetor Quin- 
 tus Metellus ; and, then, repulsed by him, to Marcus Mar- 
 cellus, thine own comrade, a virtuous man truly, one whom 
 past doubt thou didst deem likely to be most vigilant in 
 guarding, most crafty in suspecting, most strenuous in 
 bringing thee to justice. And how far shall that man be 
 believed distant from deserving chains and a dungeon, who 
 judges himself to be worthy of safekeeping! Since, then, 
 these things are so, dost hesitate, O Catiline, since here 
 thou canst not tarry with an equal mind, to depart for 
 some other land, and give that life, rescued from many just 
 and deserved penalties, to solitude and exile] Lay the 
 matter, thou sayest, before the Senate, for that it is which 
 thou requirest, and if this order shall command thee into 
 banishment, thou wilt obey their bidding. I will not lay it 
 before them for to do so is repugnant to my character, 
 yet I will so act, that thou shalt clearly see what these think 
 of thee. Depart from the city, Catiline ! Deliver the 
 state from terror! begone into banishment, if that be the 
 word for which thou tarriest !" 
 
 Then the great Orator paused once again, not to breathe, 
 though the vehement and uninterrupted torrent of his elo 
 quence, might well have required an interval- of rest, but 
 to give the confounded listener occasion to note the feel 
 ings of the assembled Senate, perfectly in accordance with 
 his words. 
 
 It was but a moment, however, that he paused, and, that 
 ended, again burst out the thunderous weight of his mag 
 nificent invective. 
 
 " What means this, Catiline ? Dost thou note these, dost 
 thou observe their silence] They permit my words, they 
 are mute. Why dost thou wait that confirmation of their 
 words, which thou seest given already by their silence 1 
 But had I spoken these same words to that admirable youth 
 Publius Sextius, or to that very valiant man, Marcus Mar- 
 cellus, I tell thee that this very Senate would have, already, 
 In this .very temple, laid violent hands on me, the Consul, 
 and tnat too most justly ! But with regard to thee. when 
 quiescent they approve, when passive they decree, when 
 mute they cry aloud ! Nor these alone, whose auti* .rity 
 
48 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 it seems is very dear, whose life most cheap, in your eyes, 
 but all those Roman knights do likewise, most honorable 
 and most worthy men, and all those other valiant citizens, 
 who stand about the Senate house, whose dense ranks 
 thou couldst see, whose zeal thou couldst discover, whose 
 patriotic cries thou couldst hear, but a little while ago; 
 whose hands and weapons I have scarcely, for a longtime, 
 restrained from thee, whom I will yet induce to escort thee 
 to the gates of Rome, if thou wilt leave this city, which 
 thou hast sought so long to devastate and ruin. 
 
 " And yet what say I 1 Can it be hoped that anything 
 should ever bend thee ? that thou shouldst ever be reform 
 ed ! that thou shouldst dream of any flight 1 that thou 
 shouldst contemplate any exile] Would, would indeed 
 that the immortal Gods might give thee such a purpose ! 
 And yet I perceive, if astounded by my voice thou shouldst 
 bend thy spirit to go. into voluntary exile, how vast a storm 
 of odium would hang over me, if not at this present time, 
 when the memory of thy villanies is recent, at least from 
 the passions of posterity. But to me it is worth this sacri 
 fice, so that the storm burst on my individual head, arid be 
 connected with no perils to the state. But that thou 
 shouldst be moved by thine own vices, that thou shouldst 
 dread the penalties of the law, that thou shouldst yield to 
 the exigences of the republic, this indeed is not to be ex 
 pected ; for thou art not such an one, O Catiline, that any 
 sense of shame should ever recall thee from infamy, any 
 sense of fear from peril, any glimmering of reason from in 
 sanity. Wherefore, as 1 have said many times already, 
 go forth from among us ; and if thou wouldst stir up a- 
 gainst me, as constantly thou sayest, against me thine ene 
 my a storm of enmity and odium, then begone straightway 
 into exile. Scarcely shall I have power to endure the 
 Humors of the world, scarcely shall I have power to sus- 
 lani the burthen of that odium, if thou wilt but go into vo 
 luntary banishment, now, at the consul s bidding. Jf, on 
 the contrary, thou wouldst advance my glory and my re 
 putation, then go forth with thy lawless band of ruffians ! 
 Betake thyself to Manlius ! stir up the desperate citizens 
 to arms ! withdraw thyself from all good men ! levy war 
 on thy country ! exult in unhallowed schemes of robbery 
 and murder, so that thou shalt not pass for one driven forth 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 49 
 
 by my tyranny into the arms of strangers, but for one join 
 ing by invitation his own friends and comrades. Yet why 
 should I invite thee, when I well know that thy coLlede- 
 rates are sent forth already, who nigh Forum Aurelium 
 shall wait in arms for your arrival ] When I well know 
 that thou hast already a day promised and appointed 
 whereon to join the camp of Manlius ] When I well know 
 that the silver eagle hath been prepared already the sil 
 ver eagle which will, I trust, prove ruinous and fatal to 
 thee and all thine host, to which a shrine has been esta 
 blished in thine own house, thy villanies its fitting incense I 
 For how shalt thou endure its absence any longer, thou 
 who wert wont to adore it, setting forth to sacrilege and 
 slaughter, thou who so often hast upraised that impious 
 right hand of thine from its accursed altars to murder citi 
 zens of Rome ] 
 
 " At length, then, at length, thou must go forth, whither 
 long since thy frantic and unbridled passions have impel 
 led thee. Nor shall this war against thy country vex or 
 afflict thee. Nay, rather shall it bring to thee a strange 
 and unimaginable pleasure, for to this frantic career did 
 nature give thee birth, to this hath thine own inclination 
 trained, to this, fortune preserved thee for never hast thou 
 wished I say not peaceful leisure but war itself, unless 
 that war were sacrilegious. Thou hast drawn together 
 from the most infamous of wretches, wretches abandoned 
 not only by all fortune, but all hope, a bodyguard of des 
 peradoes ! Among these what pleasure wilt thou not ex 
 perience, in what bliss not exult, in what raptures not 
 madly revel, when thou shalt neither see nor hear one vir 
 tuous man in such a concourse of thy comrades ] To this, 
 this mode of life tended all those strenuous toils of thine, 
 which are so widely talked of to lie on the bare ground, 
 not lying in wait merely for some occasion of adultery, 
 but for some opportunity of daring crime ! To watch 
 through the night, not plotting merely against the sleep of 
 betrayed husbands, but against the property of murdered 
 victims ! Now, then, thou hast a notable occasion for dis 
 playing those illustrious qualities of thine, that wonderful 
 endurance of hunger, of cold, of destitution, by which ere 
 long thou shalt feel thyself undone, and ruined. This 
 much, however, I did accomplish, when I defeated thee . : a 
 
50 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 the cornitia, that thou shouldst strike at the republic as an 
 exile, rather than ravage it as a consul ; and that the war 
 fare, so villanously evoked by thee, should be called rather 
 the struggle of a base banditti, than the fair strife of war 
 riors. 
 
 " Now, Conscript Fathers, that I may solemnly abjure 
 and deprecate the just reproaches of my country, listen, I 
 pray you, earnestly to what I say, and commit it deeply to 
 your memories and minds. For if my country, who is 
 much dearer to me than my life, if all Italy, if the whole 
 commonwealth should thus expostulate with me, What 
 dost thou, Marcus Tullius ] Him, whom thou hast proved 
 to be my enemy, whom thou seest the future leader in the 
 war against me, whom thou knowest even now the expect 
 ed general in the camp of my foes him, the author of 
 every crime, the head of this conspiracy, the summoner of 
 insurgent slaves, and ruined citizens him wilt thou suffer 
 to go forth, and in such guise, that he shall not be as one 
 banished from the walls, but rather as one let loose to war 
 against the city 1 Wilt thou not, then, command that he 
 shall be led away to prison, that he shall be hurried off to 
 death, that he shall be visited with the last torments of the 
 law 1 What is it, that dissuades thee ? Is it the custom 
 of thine ancestors 1 Not so for many times in this re 
 public have men, even in private stations, inflicted death 
 on traitors ! Is it the laws, enacted, concerning the pun 
 ishment of Roman citizens 1 Not so for never, in this 
 city, have rebels against the commonwealth been suffered 
 to retain the rights of Citizens or Romans ! Dost thou 
 shrink from the odium of posterity 1 If it be so, in truth, 
 thou dost repay great gratitude unto the Roman people, 
 who hath elevated thee, a man known by thine own. ac 
 tions only, commended by no ancestral glory, so rapidly, 
 through all the grades of honor, to this most high authority 
 of consul ; if in the fear of any future odium, if in the 
 dread of any present peril, thou dost neglect the safety of 
 the citizens ! Again, if thou dost shrink from enmity, 
 whether dost deem most terrible, that, purchased by a se 
 vere and brave discharge of duty, or that, by inability and 
 shameful weakness ] Or, once more, when all Italy shall 
 be waste with civil war, when her towns shall be demo 
 lished, her houses blazing to the sky, dost fancy that thy 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 51 
 
 good report shall not be then consumed in the fierce glare 
 of enmity and odium V 
 
 " To these most solemn appeals of my country, ana to 
 the minds of those men who think in likewise, I will now 
 make brief answer. Could I have judged it for the best, 
 O Conscript Fathers, that Catiline should have been done 
 to death, then would I not have granted one hour s tenure 
 of existence to that gladiator. For if the first of men, no 
 blest of citizens, were graced, not polluted, by the blood of 
 Saturninus, and the Gracchi, and Flaccus, and many more 
 in olden time, there surely is no cause why I should appre 
 hend a burst of future odium for taking off this parricide of 
 the republic. Yet if such odium did inevitably impend 
 above me, I have ever been of this mind, that I regard that 
 hatred which is earned by honorable duty not as reproach, 
 but glory ! Yet there are some in this assembly, who 
 either do not see the perils which are imminent above us, 
 or seeing deny their eyesight. Some who have nursed the 
 hopes of Catiline by moderate decrees ; and strengthen 
 ed this conspiracy from its birth until now, by disbeliev 
 ing its existence and many more there are, not of the 
 wicked only, but of the inexperienced, who, if I should do 
 justice upon this man, would raise a cry that I had dealt 
 with him cruelly, and as a regal tyrant. 
 
 " Now I am well assured that, if he once arrive, whither 
 he means to go, at the camp of Manlius, there will be none 
 so blind as not to see the* reality of this conspiracy, none 
 so wicked as to deny it. But on the other hand, were this 
 man slain, alone, I perceive that this ruin of the state might 
 indeed be repressed for a season, but could not be sup 
 pressed for ever while, if he cast himself forth, and lead 
 his comrades with him, and gather to his host all his dis 
 banded desperate outlaws, not only will this full grown 
 pestilence of Rome be utterly extinguished and abolished, 
 but the very seed and germ of all evil will be extirpated 
 for ever. 
 
 " For it is a long time, O Conscript Fathers, that we 
 have been dwelling amid the perils and stratagems of this 
 conspiracy. And I know not how it is that the ripeness of 
 all crime, the maturity of ancient guilt and frenzy, hath 
 burst to light at once during my consulship. But, this I 
 know, that if from so vast a horde of assassins and banditti 
 26 
 
52 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 this man alone be taken off, we may perchance be relieved 
 for some brief space, from apprehension and dismay, but 
 the peril itself will strike inward, and settle down into the 
 veins and vitals of the commonwealth. As oftentimes, 
 men laboring under some dread disease, if, while tossing in 
 feverish heat, they drink cold water, will seem indeed to be 
 relieved for some brief space, but are thereafter much more 
 seriously and perilously afflicted, so will this ulcer, which 
 exists in the republic, if relieved by the cutting off this man, 
 grow but the more inveterate, the others left alive. Where 
 fore, O Conscript Fathers, let the wicked withdraw them 
 selves, let them retire from among the good, let them herd 
 together in one place, let them, in one word, as often I have 
 said before, be divided from us by the city wail. Let them 
 cease to plot against the consul in his own house, to stand 
 about the tribunal of the city praetor deterring him from 
 justice, to beset even the senate house with swords, to pre 
 pare blazing brands and fiery arrows for the conflagration 
 of the city. Let it, in one word, be borne TIS an inscription 
 upon the brow of every citizen, what are his sentiments 
 toward the republic. This 1 can promise you, O Conscript 
 Fathers, that there shall be such diligence in us consuls, 
 such valor in the Roman knights, such unanimity in all 
 good citizens, that you shall see, Catiline once departed, 
 all that is secret exposed, all that is dark brought to light, 
 all that is dangerous put down, all that is guilty punished. 
 Under these omens, Catiline, to rtie eternal welfare of the 
 state, to thine own ruin and destruction, to the perdition 
 of all those who have linked themselves with thee in this 
 league of infamy and parricide, go forth to thine atrocious 
 and sacrilegious warfare ! And do thou Jove, who wert 
 consecrated by Romulus under the same auspices with 
 this city, whom we truly hail as the STATOR, and supporter 
 of this city, of this empire, chase forth this man, and this 
 man s associates, from thine own altars, and from the 
 shrines of other Gods, from tlie roofs and hearths of the 
 city, from the lives and fortunes of the citizens, and con 
 summate the solemn ruin of all enemies of the good, all 
 foes of their country, all assassins of Italy, linked in one 
 league of guilt and bond of infamy, living or dead, by thine 
 eternal torments." 
 
 The dread voice ceased the terrible oration ended. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 53 
 
 And instantly with flushed cheek, and glaring eye, and the 
 foam on his gnashed teeth, fierce, energetica-, undaunted, 
 Catiline sprang to his feet to reply. 
 
 But a deep solemn murmur rose on all sides, deepen 
 ing, swelling into a vast overwhelming conclamation 
 " Down with the Traitor away witli the Parricide !" 
 
 But unchecked by this awful, demonstration of the po 
 pular mind, he still raised his voice to its highest pitch, 
 defying all, both gods and men, till again it was drowned 
 by that appalling torrent of scorn and imprecation. 
 
 Then, with a furious gesture, and a yelling voice that 
 rose clear above all the din and clamor, 
 
 " Since," he exclaimed, " my enemies will drive me 
 headlong to destruction I will extinguish the conflagration 
 which consumes me in their universal ruin !" 
 
 And pursued by the yells, and groans, and curses of 
 that great concourse, and hunte^ by wilder furies within 
 his own dark soul, the baffled Traitor rushed precipitately 
 homeward. 
 
54 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FLIGHT. 
 
 Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit. 
 
 CICERO. 
 
 His heart was a living hell, as he rushed homeward. 
 Cut off on every side, detected, contemned, hated, what 
 was left to the Traitor ] 
 
 To retrace his steps was impossible, nor, if possible, 
 would his indomitable pride have consented to surrender 
 his ambitious schemes, his hopes of vengeance. 
 
 He rushed homeward ; struck down a slave, who asked 
 him some officious question ; spurned Orestilla out of his 
 way with a bitter earnest curse ; barred himself up in his 
 inmost chamber, and remained there alone one hour. 
 
 One hour ; but in that hour what years, what ages of 
 time, what an eternity of agony, was concentrated ! 
 
 For once in many years he sat still, motionless, silent, 
 while thought succeeded thought, and passion passion, 
 with indescribable rapidity and vividness. 
 
 In that one hour all the deeds of his life passed before 
 him, from his wild and reckless boyhood to his atrocious 
 and dishonored manhood. 
 
 The victims of his fiendish passions seemed to fleet, one 
 by one, before his eyes, with deathlike visages and ghastly 
 menace. 
 
 The noble virgin, whom he had first dishonored, scarcely 
 as yet a boy, pointed with bloody fingers to the deep self- 
 inflicted wound, which yawned in her snowy bosom. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 55 
 
 The vestal, who had broken through all bounds of vir 
 tue, piety, and honor, sacrificed soul and body to his un- 
 pitying lust, gazed at him with that unearthly terror in her 
 eyes, which glared from them as they looked their last at 
 earth and heaven, when she descended, young and lovely, 
 into a living grave. 
 
 The son, whom he had poisoned, to render his house va 
 cant for unhallowed nuptials, with his whole frame con 
 vulsed in agony, and the sardonic grin of death on his wri 
 thing lips, frowned on him. 
 
 His brother, who had drawn life from the same soft bo 
 som, but whose kindred blood had pleaded vainly against 
 the fratricidal dagger, frowned on him. 
 
 His sister s husband, that mild and blameless knight, 
 whose last breath was spent in words of peace and pardon 
 to his slayer, now frowned on him. 
 
 The stern impassive face of Marius Gratidianus, un 
 moved alike by agony or insult, frowned on him, in, the se 
 rene dignity of sustaining virtue. 
 
 Men of all ranks and ages, done to death by his hand or 
 his head, by poison, by the knife, by drowning, by starva 
 tion women deceived or violated, and then murdered, 
 while their kisses were yet warm on his lips infants tor 
 tured to death in the very wantonness of cruelty, and crime 
 that must have been nigh akin to madness, gibbered, and 
 glared upon him. 
 
 These things would seem impossible, they are in truth 
 incredible, but they are true beyond the possibility of cavil. 
 
 He was indeed one of those unaccountable and extraor 
 dinary monsters, who, thanks to nature ! appear but once 
 in many ages, to whom sin is dear for its own naked self, 
 to whom butchery* is a pastime, and blood and agonies and 
 tears a pleasurable excitement to their mad morbid appe 
 tites. 
 
 And in this hour of downfall, one by one, did his fancy 
 conjure up before him the victims of his merciless love, 
 his merciless hatred both alike, sure and deadly. 
 
 It was a strange combination of mind, for there must 
 have been in the spirit that evoked these phantoms of the 
 
 * Let those who doubt this, think of Couthon and Carrier. Fouchd 
 and Marat, and Barere I 
 
 26* 
 
66 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 conscience, something of remorse, if not of repentance. 
 Pale, ghastly, grim, reproachful, they all seemed to him to 
 be appealing to the just heavens for justice and revenge. 
 Yet there was even more of triumph and proud self-gr- 
 tulation in his mood, than of remorse for the past, or oi 
 apprehension for the future. 
 
 As he thought of each, as he thought of all, he in some 
 sort gloated over the memory of his success, in some sort 
 derived confidence from the very number of his unpunished 
 crimes. 
 
 " They crossed me/ he muttered to himself, " and where 
 are they ? -My fate cried out for their lives, and their lives 
 were forfeit. Who ever stood in my path, that has riot pe 
 rished from before my face ] Not one ! Who ever strove 
 with me, that has not fallen ] who ever frowned upon me, 
 that has not expiated the bended brow by the death-grin ? 
 Not one i not one ! Scores, hundreds, have died for 
 thwarting me ! but who of men has lived to boast of it ! 
 Not one !" 
 
 He rose from his seat, stalked slowly across the room, 
 drew his hand across his brow twice, with a thoughtful ges 
 ture, and then said, 
 
 "Cicero ! Cicero ! Better thou never hadst been born ! 
 
 Better but it must be my Fate, my fate demands it, 
 
 and neither eloquence nor wisdom, virtue nor valor, shall 
 avail to save thee. These were brave, beautiful, wise, pi 
 ous, eloquent ; and what availed it to them "? My Fate, my 
 fate shall prevail ! To recede is to perish, is to be scorned 
 to advance is to win to win universal empire," and 
 he stretched out his hand, as if he clutched ar> imaginary 
 globe " to win fame, honor, the applause of ages for with 
 the people the dear people failure alone and poverty are 
 guilt success, by craft or crime, success is piety and vir 
 tue ! On ! Catiline ! thy path is onward still, upward, and 
 onward ! But not here !" 
 
 Then he unbarred the door, " What ho, Chaerea!" and 
 prompt, at the word, the freedman entered. " Send out 
 my trustiest slaves, summon me hither instantly Lentulus 
 and the rest of those, who supped "here on the Calends, 
 Ha ! the Calends." He repeated the word, as if some 
 new idea had struck him, on the mention of that day, and 
 he paused thoughtfully. "Aye! Pauilus /\~vina! 1 buu 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 57 
 
 well nigh forgotten I have it; Aulus is the man ; he hath 
 some private grudge at him ! and beside those," he added, 
 again addressing the freedman, "go thyself and bring Au 
 his Fulvius hither, the son of the Senator him thou wilt 
 find with Cethegus, the others at the house of Decius Bru 
 tus, near the forum. They dine with Sempronia. Get 
 thee gone, and beshrew thy life ! tarry not, or thou diest !" 
 
 The man quitted the room in haste ; and Catiline con 
 tinued muttering to himself "Aye ! but for that cursed 
 boy, we should have had Pneneste on the Calends ! He 
 shall repent it, ere he die, and he shall die too ; but not yet 
 not till he is aweary of his very life, and then, by tortures 
 that shall make the most weary life a boon. I have it all. 
 the method, and the men ! Weak fool, thou better hadst 
 been mine." 
 
 Then turning to the table he sat down, and wrote many 
 letters, addressed to men of Consular dignity, persons of 
 worth and honor, declaring that, borne down on all sides 
 by false accusations, and helpless to oppose the faction of 
 his enemies, he yielded to the spite of fortune, and was 
 departing for Marseilles a voluntary exile, not conscious of 
 any crime, but careful of the tranquillity of the republic, 
 and anxious that no strife should arise from his private griefs. 
 
 To one, who afterward, almost deceived by his profound 
 and wonderful dissimulation, read it aloud in the Senate, in 
 proof that no civil war was impending, he wrote : 
 
 " Lucius Catiline to Quintus Catulus, sends health. 
 Your most distinguished faith, known by experience, gives 
 me in mighty perils a grateful confidence, thus to address 
 you. Since I have resolved to prepare no defence in the 
 new steps which I have taken, I am resolved to set forth 
 my apology, conscious to myself of no crime, which So 
 may the God of Honor guard me ! you may rely upon 
 as true. Goaded by injury and insult, robbed of the guer 
 don of my toils and industry, that state of dignity at which 
 I aimed, I pubicly have undertaken, according to my wont, 
 the cause of the unhappy and oppressed ; not because I 
 am unable to pay all debts contracted on my own account, 
 from my own property from those incurred in behalf of 
 others, the generosity of Orestilla and her daughter, by 
 their treasures, would have released me but because I 
 saw men honored who deserve no honor, and felt myself 
 
58 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 disgraced, on false suspicion. On this plea, I now take 
 measures, honorable in my circumstances, for preserving 
 that dignity which yet remains to me. I would have writ 
 ten more, but I learn that violence is about to be offered 
 me. Now I commend to you Orestilla, and trust her to 
 your faith. As you love your own children, shield her 
 from injury. Farewell." 
 
 This strange letter, intended, as after events evidently 
 proved, to bear a double sense, he had scarce sealed, when 
 Aulus Fulvius was announced. 
 
 For a few moments after he entered, Catiline continued 
 writing ; then handing Chaerea, who at a sign had remained 
 in waiting, a list of many names, " Let them," he said, 
 "be here, prepared for a journey, and in arms at the fifth 
 hour. Prepare a banquet of the richest, ample for all 
 these, in the Atrium ; in the garden Triclinium, a feast for 
 ten the rarest meats, the choicest wines, the delicatest 
 perfumes, the fairest slave-girls in most voluptuous attire. 
 At the third hour! See to it ! Get thee hence !" 
 
 The freedman bowed low, and departed on his mission ; 
 then turning to the young patrician, 
 
 f " I have sent for you," he said, " the first, noble Aulus, 
 because I hold you the first in honor, bravery, and action ; 
 because I believe that you will serve me truly, and to the 
 utmost. Am I deceived ]" 
 
 " Catiline, you have judged aright." 
 
 " And that you cannot serve me, more gratefully to your 
 self, than in avenging me on that young pedant, Paullus 
 Arvina." 
 
 The eyes of the youthful profligate flashed dark fire, and 
 his whole face beamed with intense satisfaction. 
 
 " By all the Powers of Tartarus !" he cried, " Show me 
 but how, and I will hunt him to the gates of Hades !" 
 
 Catiline nodded to him, with an approving smile, and after 
 looking around him warily for a minute, as if fearful even 
 of the walls overhearing him, he stepped close up to him, 
 and whispered in his ear, for several moments. 
 
 "Do you conceive me, ha 1 ?" he said aloud, when he 
 had ended. 
 
 " Excellent well !" cried the other in rapturous triumph, 
 " but huw gain an opportunity V 
 
 " Look you, here is his signature, some trivial note or 
 
DAYS Or CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 59 
 
 other, I kept it, judging that one day it might serve a 
 pose. You can write, I know, very cleverly I have not 
 forgotten Old Alimentus will write to her in his name, 
 requesting her to visit him, with Hortensia, otherwise she 
 will doubf the letter. Then you can meet her, and do as I 
 have told you. Will not that pass, my Fulvius V 
 
 " It shall pass," answered the young man confidently. 
 " My life on it ! Rely on me !" 
 
 " I hold it done already," returned Catiline. "But you 
 comprehend all unstained, in all honor, until she reach 
 me ; else were the vengeance incomplete." 
 
 " it shall be so. But when ?" 
 
 "When best you can accomplish it. This night, I leave 
 the city." 
 
 " You leave the city !" 
 
 " This night ! at the sixth hour !" 
 
 " But to return, Catiline V 1 
 
 " To return with a victorious, an avenging army ! To 
 return as destroyer ! with a sword sharper than that of 
 mighty Sylla, a torch hotter than that of the mad Ephesian ! 
 To return, Aulus, in such guise, that ashes and blood only 
 show where Rome was /" 
 
 " But, ere that, I must join you 1" 
 
 " Aye ! In the Appenines, at the camp of Caius Man- 
 lius." 
 
 " Fear me not. The deed is accomplished hatred and 
 vengeance, joined to resolve, never fail." 
 
 " Never ! but lo, here come the rest. Not a word to one 
 of these. The burly sword-smith is your man, and his 
 fellows ! Strike suddenly, and soon ; and, till you strike, 
 be silent. Ha ! Lentulus, Cethegus, good friends all wel 
 come, welcome !" he cried, as they entered, eight in num 
 ber, the ringleaders of the atrocious plot, grasping each by 
 the hand. " I have called you to a council, a banquet, and, 
 thence to action !" 
 
 " Good things all," answered Lentulus, " so that the first 
 be bnef and bold, the second long and loud, the last dar 
 ing and decisive!" 
 
 * They shall be so, all three ! Listen. This very night, 
 I set forth to join Caius Manlius in his camp. Things 
 work not here as 1 would have them ; my presence keeps 
 alive suspicion, terror, watchfulness. I absent, security 
 
60 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 \\ill grow apace, and from that boldness, and from bold 
 ness, rashness ! So will you find that opportunity, which 
 dread of me, while present, delays fatally. Watch your 
 time * choose your men ; augment, by any means, the 
 powers of our faction ; gain over friends; get fid of ene 
 mies, secretly if you can ; if not, audaciously. Destroy 
 the Consul you will soon find occasion, or, if not find, 
 make it. Be ready with the blade and brand, to burn and 
 to slaughter, so soon as my trumpets shall sound havoc 
 from the hills of Fiesole. Metellus and his men, will be 
 sent after me with speed ; Marcius Rex will be ordered 
 from the city, with his cohorts, to Capua, or Apulia, or the 
 Picene district ; for in all these, the slaves will rise, so 
 soon as my Eagle soars above the Appenine. The heart 
 of the city will then lie open to your daggers." 
 
 " And they shall pierce it to the core," cried Cethegus. 
 
 " Wisely you have resolved, my Catiline, as ever," said 
 Longinus Cassius. " Go, and success sit upon your ban 
 ners!" 
 
 " Be not thou over slow, my Cassius, nor thou, Cethegus, 
 over daring. Temper each one, the metal of the other. 
 Let your counsels be, as the gathering of the storm-clouds, 
 certain and slow ; your deeds, as the thunderbolt, rash, 
 rapid, irresistible !" 
 
 "How will you go forth, Catiline? Alone? in secret?" 
 asked Autronius. 
 
 " No ! by the Father of Quirinus ! with my casque on 
 my head, and my broad-sword on my thigh, and with three 
 hundred of my clients at my back ! They sup in my Atri 
 um, at the fifth hour of the night, and at the sixth, we 
 mount our horses. I think Cicero will not bar our passage." 
 
 " By Mars ! he would beat the gates down rather, to let 
 you forth the more easily." 
 
 " If he be wise he would." 
 
 " He is wise," said Catiline. " Would God that he were 
 less so." 
 
 " To be overwise, is worse, sometimes, than to be fool 
 ish," answered Cethegus. 
 
 " And to be over bold, worse than to-be a coward !" said 
 Catiline. " Therefore, Cethegus, be thou neither. Now, 
 my friends, I do not say leave me, but excuse me, until the 
 third hour, when we will banquet. Nay ! go not fonh 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 61 
 
 from the house, I pray you ; it may arouse suspicion, which 
 I would hav.e you shun. There are books in the library, for 
 who would read; foils in the garden, balls in the fi/es- 
 court, for who would breathe themselves before supper; and 
 lastly, there are some fair slaves in the women s chamber, 
 for who would listen to the lute, or kiss soft lips, and not 
 unwilling. I have still many things to do, ere I depart." 
 
 " And those done, a farewell caress to Orestilla," said 
 Cethegus, laughing. 
 
 " Aye ! would I could take her with me." 
 
 " Do you doubt her, then, that you fear to leave her]" 
 
 " If I doubted, I would not leave her or I would leave 
 her so, as not to doubt her. Alexion himself, cannot in 
 general cure the people, whom I doubt." 
 
 " I hope you never will doubt me," said Curius, who 
 was present, the Judas of the faction, endeavoring to jest ; 
 yet more than half feeling what he said. 
 
 " I hope not" replied Catiline, with a strange fixed 
 glance, and a singular smile; for he did in truth, at that 
 very moment, half doubt the speaker. " If I do, Curius, 
 it will not be for long ! But 1 must go," he added, " and 
 make ready. Amuse yourselves as best you can, till I re 
 turn to you. Come, Aulus Fulvius, I must speak with you 
 farther." 
 
 And, with the words, he left them, not indeed to apply 
 themselves to any sport or pleasure, but to converse anx 
 iously, eagerly, almost fearfully, on the events which were 
 passing in succession, so rapid, and so unforeseen. Their 
 souls were too much absorbed by one dominant idea, one 
 devouring passion, to find any interest in any small or ca 
 sual excitement. 
 
 To spirits so absorbed, hours fly like minutes, and none 
 of those guilty men were aware of the lapse of time, un 
 til Catiline returned, dressed in a suit of splendid armor, 
 of blue Iberian steel, embossed with studs and chasings of 
 pure silver, with a rich scarlet sagum over it, fringed with 
 deep lace. His knees were bare, but his legs were de 
 fended by greaves of the same fabric and material with his 
 corslet ; and a slave bore behind him his bright helmet, 
 triply crested with crimson horsehair, his oblong shield 
 charged with a silver thunderbolt, and his short broad-sword 
 
62 THE ROMAN TRAITOR J OR, THE 
 
 of Bilboa steel, which was already in those days, as famous 
 as in the middle ages. He looked, indeed, every inch a 
 captain ; and if undaunted valor, unbounded energy, com 
 manding intellect, an eye of lightning, unequalled self- 
 possession, endless resource, incomparable endurance of 
 cold, heat, hunger, toil, watchfulness, and extremity of pain, 
 be qualities which constitute one, then was he a great 
 Captain. 
 
 A captain well formed to lead a host of demons. 
 
 The banquet followed, with all that could gratify the 
 eye, the ear, the nostril, or the palate. The board blazed 
 with lights, redoubled by the glare of gold and crystal. 
 Flowers, perfumes, incense, streamed over all, till the 
 whole atmosphere was charged with voluptuous sweetness. 
 The softest music breathed from the instruments of con 
 cealed performers. The rarest wines flowed like water. 
 And flashing eyes, and wreathed smiles, and bare arms, 
 and bare bosoms, and most voluptuous forms, decked to 
 inflame the senses of the coldest, were prodigal of charms 
 and soft abandonment. 
 
 No modest pen may describe the orgies that ensued, 
 the drunkenness, the lust, the frantic mirth, the unnatural 
 mad revelry. There was but one at that banquet, who, 
 although he drank more deeply, rioted more sensually, 
 laughed more loudly, sang more wildly, than any of tho 
 guests, was yet as cool amid that terrible scene of excite 
 ment, as in the council chamber, as on the battle field. 
 
 His sallow face flushed not ; his hard clear eye swam 
 not languidly, nor danced with intoxication ; his voice qui 
 vered not ; his pulse was as slow, as even as its wont. 
 That man s frame, like his soul, was of trebly tempered 
 steel. 
 
 Had Catiline not been the worst, he had been the great 
 est of Romans. 
 
 But his race in Rome was now nearly ended. The wa 
 ter-clocks announced the fifth hour ; and leaving the more 
 private triclinium, in which the ringleaders alone had 
 feasted, followed by his guests, who were flushed, reel 
 ing, and half frenzied, with a steady step, a cold eye, and 
 a presence like that of Mars himself, the Arch Traitor en 
 tered the great open hall, wherein three hundred of his 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 63 
 
 clients, armed sumptuously in the style of legionary horse 
 men, had banqueted magnificently, though they had stop 
 ped short of the verge of excess. 
 
 All rose to their feet, as Catiline entered, hushed in 
 dread expectation. 
 
 He stood for one moment, gazing on his adherents, tried 
 veterans every man of them, case-hardened in the furnace 
 of Sylla s fiery discipline, with proud confidence and tri 
 umph in his eye; and then addressed them in clear high 
 tones, piercing as those of an adamantine trumpet. 
 
 " Since," he said, " it is permitted to us neither to live 
 in Rome securely, nor to die in Rome honorably, I go 
 forth will you follow me V 
 
 And, with an unanimous cry, as it had been the voice of 
 one man, they answered, 
 
 " To the death, Catiline !" 
 
 " I go forth, harming no one, hating no one, fearing no 
 one ! G-uiltless of all, but of loving the people ! Goaded 
 to ruin by the proud patricians, injured, insulted, well nigh 
 maddened, I go forth to seek, not power nor revenge, but 
 innocence and safety. If they will leave me peace, the 
 lamb shall be less gentle ; if they will drive me into war, 
 the famished lion shall be tamer. Soldiers of Sylla, will 
 you have Sylla s friend in peace for your guardian, in war 
 for your captain ]" 
 
 And again, in one tumultuous shout, they replied, " In 
 peace, or in war, through life, and unto death, Catiline !" 
 
 " Behold, then, your Eagle !" and, with the word, he 
 snatched from a marble slab on which it lay, covered by ta 
 pestry, the silver bird of Mars, hovering with expanded 
 wings over a bannered staff, and brandished it on high, in 
 triumph. " Behold your standard, your omen, and your 
 God ! Swear, that it shall shine yet again above Rome s 
 Capitol !" 
 
 Every sword flashed from its scabbard, every knee was 
 bent ; and kneeling, with the bright blades all pointed like 
 concentric sunbeams toward that bloody idol, in deep emo 
 tion, and deep awe, they swore to be true to the Eagle, 
 traitors to Rome, parricides to their country. 
 
 " One cup of wine, and then to horse, and to glory !" 
 
 The goblets were brimmed with the liquid madness : 
 27 
 
64 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 tney were quaffed to the very dregs ; they clanged empty 
 upon the marble floor. 
 
 Ten minutes more, and the hall was deserted ; and 
 mounted on proud horses, brought suddenly together, by 
 a perfect combination of time anc 1 place, with the broad 
 steel heads of their javelins sparkling in the moonbeams, 
 and the renowned eagle poised with bright wings above 
 them, the escort of the Roman Traitor rode through the 
 city streets, at midnight, audacious, in full military pomp, 
 in ordered files, with a cavalry clarion timing their steady 
 march rode unresisted through the city gates, under the 
 eyes of a Roman cohort, to try the fortunes of civil war in 
 the provinces, frustrate of massacre and conflagration in 
 the capitol. 
 
 Cicero knew it, and rejoiced j and when he cried aloud 
 on the following day, " ABUT, EXCESSIT, EVASIT, ERUIMT 
 He hath departed, he hath stolen out, he hath gone from 
 among us, he hath burst forth into war" his great heart 
 thrilled, and his voice quivered, with prophetic joy and 
 conscious triumph. He felt even then that he had " SAVED 
 ins COUNTRY." 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 65 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE AMBASSADORS. 
 
 Give first admittance to th ambassadors. 
 
 HAMLET, 
 
 IT wanted a short time of noon, on a fine bracing day 
 in the latter end of November. 
 
 Something more than a fortnight had elapsed since the 
 flight of Catiline ; and, as no further discoveries had been 
 made, nor any tumults or disturbances arisen in the city, 
 men had returned to their former avocations, and had for 
 the most part forgotten already the circumstances, which 
 had a little while before convulsed the public mind with 
 fear or favor. 
 
 No certain tidings had been received, or, if received, di 
 vulged to the people, of Catiline s proceedings ; it being 
 only known that he had tarried for a few days at the coun 
 try-house of Caius Flaminius Flamma, near to Arretium, 
 where he was believed to be amusing himself with boar- 
 hunting. 
 
 On the other hand, the letters of justification, and com 
 plaint against Cicero, had been shewn to their friends by 
 all those who had received them, all men of character and 
 weight ; and their contents had thus gained great publicity. 
 
 The ..consequence of this was, naturally enough, that the 
 friends and favorers of the conspiracy, acting with singu 
 lar wisdom and foresight, studiously affected the utmost 
 moderation and humility of bearing, while complaining 
 every where of the injustice done to Catiline, and of the 
 false suspicions maliciously cast on many estimable indi- 
 
THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 viduals, by the low-born and ambitious person who was 
 temporarily at the head of the state. 
 
 The friends of Cicero an<5 the republic, on the contrary, 
 lay on their oars, in breathless expectation of some new 
 occurrence, which should confirm the public mind, and 
 approve their own conduct; well aware that much time 
 could not elapse before Catiline would be heard of at the 
 head of an army. 
 
 In the meantime, the city wore its wonted aspect ; men 
 bought and sold, and toiled or sported ; and women smiled 
 and sighed, flaunted and wantoned in the streets, as if, a 
 few short days before, they had not been wringing their 
 hands in terror, dissolved in tears, and -speechless from dis 
 may. 
 
 It was a market day, and the forum was crowded almost 
 to overflowing. The country people had flocked in, as 
 usual, to sell the produce of their farms ; and their wagons 
 stood here and there laden with seasonable fruits, cheeses, 
 and jars of wine, pigeons in wicker cages, fresh herbs, and 
 such like articles of traffic. Many had brought their wives, 
 sun-burned, black-haired and black-eyed, from their villas 
 in the Latin or Sabine country, to purchase city luxuries. 
 Many had come to have their lawsuits decided ; many to 
 crave justice against their superiors from the Tribunes of 
 the people ; many to get their wills registered, to pay or 
 borrow money, and to transact that sort of business, for 
 which the day was set aside. 
 
 Nor were the townsmen absent from the gay scene ; for 
 to them the nundincp, or market days, were holydays, in 
 which the courts of law were shut, and the offices closed 
 to them, at least, although open to the rural citizens, for 
 the despatch of business. 
 
 The members of the city tribes crowded therefore to the 
 forum many of these too accompanied by their women, to 
 buy provisions, to ask for news from the country, and to 
 stare at the uncouth and sturdy forms of the farmers, or 
 admire the black eyes and merry faces of the country 
 lasses. 
 
 It was a lively and gay scene ; the bankers shops, dis 
 tinguished by the goldeu shields of the Samnites, suspend 
 ed from the lintels of their doors, were thronged with mo 
 ney-changers, and alive with the hum of traffic. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 67 
 
 Jftver and anon some curule magistrate, in his fringed 
 toga, with his lictors, in number proportioned to his rank, 
 would come sweeping through the dense crowd ; or some 
 plebeian officer, with his ushers and beadles ; or, before 
 whom the ranks of the multitude would open of their own 
 accord and bow reverentially, some white-stoled vestal vir 
 gin, with her fair features closely veiled from profane eyes, 
 the sacred fillets on her head, and her lictor following her 
 dainty step with his shouldered fasces. Street musicians 
 there were also, and shows of various kinds, about which 
 the lower orders of the people collected eagerly ; and, here 
 and there, among the white stoles and gayly colored shawls 
 of the matrons and maidens, might be seen the flowered 
 togas and showy head-dresses of those unfortunate girls, 
 many of them rare specimens of female beauty, whose 
 character precluded them from wearing the attire of their 
 own sex. * 
 
 " Ha ! Fabiiis Sanga, whither thou in such haste through 
 the crowd ?" cried a fine manly voice, to a patrician of 
 middle age wbcftwas forcing his way hurriedly among the 
 jostling mob, near to the steps of the Comitium, or build 
 ing appropriated to the reception of ambassadors. 
 
 The person thus addressed turned his head quickly, 
 though without slackening his speed. 
 
 " Ah ! is it thou, Arvina 1 Come with me, thou art 
 young and strong; give me thy arm, and help me through 
 this concourse." 
 
 " Willingly," replied the young man. " But why are 
 you in such haste ]" he continued, as he joined him $ " you 
 can have no business here to-day." 
 
 " Aye ! but I have, my Paullus. I am the patron to 
 these Gallic ambassadors, who have come hither to crave 
 relief from the Senate for their people. They must re 
 ceive their answer in the Comitium to-day ; and I fear me 
 much, I am late." 
 
 " Ah ! by the Gods ! I saw them on that day they enter 
 ed the city. Right stout and martial barbarians ! What 
 is their pleal will they succeed]" 
 
 " I fear not," answered Sanga. " They are too poor. 
 
 Senatorial relief must be bought nowadays. The longest 
 
 purse is the most righteous cause ! Their case is a hard 
 
 one, too. Their nation is oppressed with debt, both pii- 
 
 27* 
 
68 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 vate and public ; they have been faithful allies to the state, 
 and served it well in war, and now seek remission of some 
 grievous tributes. But what shall we say 1 Tney are 
 poor barbarians their aid not needed now by the re 
 public and, as you know, my Paullus, justice is sol " now 
 *n Rome, like silk, for its weight in gold !" 
 
 "The more shame!" answered Paullus. "It was no 
 i>y such practices, that our fathers built up this grand e d? 
 fice of the republic." 
 
 Riches have done it, Paullus ! Riches and Commerce ! 
 While we had many tillers of the ground, and few mer 
 chants, we were brave in the field, and just at home !" 
 
 " Think you, then, that the spirit of commerce is averse 
 to justice, and bravery, and freedom 1" 
 
 " No, I do not think it, Arvina, I know it !" answered 
 Fabius Sanga, who, with the truth and candor of a patri 
 cian of Rome s olden school, possessed, and that justly, 
 much repute for wisdom and foresight. " All mercantile 
 communities are base communities. Look- at Tyre, in old 
 times ! Look at Carthage, in our grandfathers days ! at 
 Corinth in our own ! Merchants are never patriots ! and 
 rich men seldom ; unless they be landholders ! But see, 
 see, there are my clients, descending the steps of the Co- 
 mitiuni ! By all the Gods! I am too late ! their audience 
 is ended ! Now, by Themis, the goddess of justice ! will 
 they deem me also venal !" 
 
 As he spoke, they had come to the foot of the grand 
 flight of marble steps, leading up to the doors of the Gree- 
 costasis, or comitium ; or rather had come as near to the 
 loot, as the immense concourse, which had gathered about 
 that spot to stare at the wild figures and foreign gait of the 
 ambassadors, would allow them to approach. 
 
 " It is in vain to press forward yet, my Sanga. A mo 
 ment or two, and these clowns will be satisfied with ga 
 zing ; yet, by Hercules ! I cannot blame them. For these 
 Highlanders are wondrous muscular and stout warriors to 
 look upon, and their garb, although somewhat savage, is 
 very martial and striking." 
 
 And, in truth, their Celtic bonnets, with their long single 
 eagle feathers, set somewhat obliquely on their abundant 
 auburn hair ; their saffron-colored shirts, tight-fitting trews 
 of tartan plaid, and variegated mantles floating over their 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 69 
 
 prawny shoulders, their chains and bracelets of gold and 
 silver, their long daggers in their girdles, and their tre 
 mendous broad-swords swinging at their thighs, did pre 
 sent a strange contrast to the simple tunics of white wool 
 len, and plain togas of the same material, which constitu 
 ted the attire of nine-tenths of the spectators. 
 
 "I must must ^et nearer!" replied Sanga, anxious 
 ly; "I must speak with them ! I can see by the moody 
 brows, and sullen looks of the elder nobles, and by the 
 compressed lips and fiery glances of the young warriors, 
 that matters have gone amiss with them. 1 shall be blamed, 
 I know, for it but I have failed in my duty as their pa 
 tron, and must bear it. There will be mischief; 1 pray 
 you let us pass, my friends," he continued, addressing the 
 people, " I am the patron of their nation ; let us pass." 
 
 But it was in vain that they besought and strove ; the 
 pressure of the mob was, if anything, augmented ; and 
 Paullus was compelled to remain motionless with his com 
 panion, hoping that the Allobroges would move in their 
 direction. 
 
 But, while they were thus waiting, a thin keen-looking 
 man pressed up to the ambassadors, from the farther side, 
 while they were yet upon the steps, and saluting them cor 
 dially, pressed their hands, as if he were an old and fami 
 liar friend. 
 
 Nor did the Highlanders appear less glad to see him, 
 for they shook his hand warmly, and spoke to him with ve 
 hement words, and sparkling eyes. 
 
 " Who is that man, who greets our Allobroges so warm 
 ly ]" asked Arvina of his companion. " Know you the 
 man 1" 
 
 " I know him !" answered Sanga, watching the gestures 
 v/hich accompanied their conversation with an eager eye, 
 although too far off to hear anything that was passing. " It 
 is one of these traders, of whom we spoke but now ; and 
 as pestilent a knave and rogue as ever sold goods by short 
 measure, and paid his purchases in light coin ! Publius 
 Umbrenus is the man. A Gallic trader. He hath become 
 rich by the business he hath carried on with this same tribe, 
 bartering Roman wares, goldsmith s work, trinkets, cutle 
 ry, wines, and the like, -against their furs and hides, and 
 above all against their amber. He gains three hundred 
 
70 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 fold by every barter, and yet, by the God of Faith ! he 
 brings them in his debt after all ; and yet the simple-mind 
 ed, credulous Barbarians, believe him their best friend. I 
 would buy it at no small price, to know what he saith to 
 iijeiu. See! he points to the Comitium. By your b^ad, 
 Paullus ! he is poisoning their minds against the Senate !" 
 
 " See !" said Arvina. " They descend the steps in the 
 other direction. He is leading them away with him some 
 whither." 
 
 " To no good end !" said Sanga emphatically ; and then 
 smiting his breast with his hand, he continued, evidently 
 much afflicted, " My poor clients ! my poor simple High 
 landers ! He will mislead them to their ruin V 
 
 " They are going toward Vesta s temple," said Arvina. 
 " If we should turn back through the arch of Fabius, and 
 BO enter into the western branch of the Sacred Way, we 
 might overtake them near the Ruminal Fig-tree." 
 
 " You. might, for you are young and active. But I am 
 growing old, Paullus, and the gout afflicts my feet, and 
 makes me slower than my years. Will you do so, and 
 mark whither he leads them; and come back, and tell me ? 
 You shall find me in Natta s, the bookseller s shop, at the 
 corner of the street Argiletum." 
 
 " Willingly, Sanga," answered the young man. " The 
 rather, if it may profit these poor Gauls anything." 
 
 " Thou art a good youth, Paullus. The Gods reward it 
 to thee. Remember Natta s book-shop." 
 
 "Doubt me not," said Arvina; and he set off at apace 
 so rapid, as brought him up with those, whom he was pur 
 suing, within ten minutes. 
 
 The ambassadors, six or eight in number, among whom 
 the old white-headed chief he had observed when he went 
 with Hortensia and his betrothed, to see their ingress into 
 Rome together with the young warrior whose haughty 
 bearing he had noticed on that occasion, were most emi 
 nent, had been joined by another Roman beside Umbrenus. 
 
 Him, Paullus recognised at once, for Titus Volturcius, a 
 native and nobleman of Crotona, a Greek city, on the Gult 
 of Tareritum, although a citizen of Rome. 
 
 He was a man of evil repute, as a wild debauchee, a 
 gambler, and seducer ; and Arvina had observed him more 
 than once in company with Cornelius Lentulus. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 71 
 
 1 his led him to suspect, that Sanga was perhaps more 
 accurate in his suspicions, than he himself imagined ; ana 
 that something might be in progress here, against the re 
 public. 
 
 He watched them warily, therefore ; and soon found an 
 ample confirmation of the worst he imagined, in seeing 
 them enter the house of Decius Brutus, the husband of the 
 beautiful, but infamous Sempronia. 
 
 It must not fee supposed, that the privity of these various 
 individuals to the conspiracy, was accurately known to young 
 Arvina ; but he was well aware, that Lentulus and Catiline 
 were sworn friends ; and that Sempronia was the very 
 queen of those abandoned and licentious ladies, who were 
 the instigators and rewarders of .the young nobles, in their 
 profligacy and their crimes ; it did not require, therefore, 
 any wondrous degree of foresight, to see that something 
 dangerous was probably brewing, in this amalgamation of in 
 gredients so incongruous, as Roman nobles and patrician 
 harlots, with wild barbarians from the Gallic highlands. 
 
 Without tai-rying, therefore, longer than to ascertain that 
 he was not mistaken in the house, he hurried back to meet 
 Sanga, at the appointed place, promising himself that not 
 Sanga only, but Cicero himself, should be made acquainted 
 with that which he had discovered so opportunely. 
 
 The Argiletum was a street leading down from the 
 vegetable mart, which lay just beyond the Porta Flumini- 
 ana, or river gate, to the banks of the Tiber, at the quays 
 called pulchrum littus, or the beautiful shore; it was there 
 fore a convenient place of meeting for persons who had 
 parted company in the forum, particularly when going in 
 that direction, which had been taken by Umbrenus and 
 the Ambassadors. 
 
 Hastening onward to the street appointed which was 
 for tha most part inhabited by booksellers, copyists, and 
 embellishers of illuminated manuscripts, beside a few tai- 
 lorsa Jje was hailed, just as he reached the river gate, by 
 a well-known voice, from a cross street ; and turning round 
 he felt his hand warmly grasped, by an old friend, Aristius 
 Fuscus, one of the noble youths, with whom he had striv 
 en, in the Campus Marti us, on that eventful day, when he 
 first visited the house of Catiline. 
 
 "Hail! Paullus/ exclaimed the new comer, " I have 
 
72 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 n seen you in many days. Where have you been, since 
 you oeat us all m me quinqueruun^ :" 
 
 " Absent from town, on business of the state, part of the 
 tittie, mv Fuscus," answered Arvina, shaking his friend s 
 hand gayly. " I was sent to Praeneste, with my troop of 
 horse, before the calends of November ; and returned not 
 until the Ides." 
 
 " And since that, I fancy" replied the other laughing, 
 "You have been sunning yourself in the bright smiles of 
 the fair Julia. I thought you were to have led her home, 
 as your bride, ere this time." 
 
 " You are wrong for once, good friend," 1 said Paullus, 
 with a well-pleased smile. " Julia is absent from the city 
 also. She and Hortensia are on a visit to their farm, at the 
 foot of Mount Algidus. I have not seen them, since my 
 return from Praeneste." 
 
 " Your slaves, I trow, know every mile-stone by this 
 time, on the via Labicana ! Do you write to her daily V 
 
 " Not so, indeed, Aristius ;" "he replied. " We are 
 too long betrothed, and too confident, each in the good 
 faith of the other, to think it needful to kill my poor slaves 
 in bearing amatory billets." 
 
 " You are wise, Paullus, as you are true, and will, I 
 hope, be happy lovers !" 
 
 " The Gods grant it !" replied Paullus. 
 
 " Do they return shortly 1 It is long since I have visited 
 Hortensia. She would do justly to refuse me admittance 
 when next I go to salute her." 
 
 " Not until after the next market day. But here I must 
 leave you ; I am going to Natta s shop, in the Argiletum." 
 
 " To purchase books ? Ha ! or to the tailor s 1 the last, 
 I presume, gay bridegroom there are, you know, two 
 Nattas." 
 
 " Natta, the bookseller, is my man. But I go thither, not 
 as a buyer, but to meet a friend, Fabius Sanga." 
 
 " A very wise and virtuous Roman," replied the other, 
 stopping at the corner of the street Argiletum, " but tarry 
 a moment; when shall we meet again 1 I am going down 
 to the hippodrome, can you not join me there, when you 
 have finished your business with Sanga ]" 
 
 " I can ; gladly." answered Arvina. 
 
 As they stopped, previous to separating, a young man, 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 73 
 
 who nad been walking for some distance close at their heels, 
 passed tnem, nodding as he did so, to Arvina, who returned 
 his salutation, very distantly. 
 
 "Aulus Fulvius!" said Aristius, as Paullus bowed 
 to him, " as bad a specimen of a young patrician, as one 
 might see for many days, even if he searched for rascals, 
 as the philosopher did for an honest man, by lanthorn s 
 light at noon. He has been following our steps, by my 
 head ! to pick up our stray words, and weave them into 
 calumnies, and villainy." 
 
 " I care not," answered Arvina, lightly. " He may make 
 all he can of what he heard, we were talking no treason!" 
 
 " No, truly ; not even lover s treason," said his friend. 
 " Well, do not tarry long, Arvina." 
 
 " I will not ; be assured. Not the fourth part of an hour. 
 See ! there is Fabius Sanga awaiting me even now. 
 Walk slowly, and I will overtake you, before you reach the 
 Campus." 
 
 And with the word, he turned down the Argiletum, and 
 joined the patron of the Allobroges, at the bookseller s 
 door. 
 
 In the meantime Aulus Fulvius, who had heard all that 
 he desired, wheeled about, and walked back toward tho 
 Carmental gate. But, as he passed the head of the Argile 
 tum, he cast a lurid glance of singular malignity upon Ar 
 vina, who was standing in full view, conversing with his 
 friend ; and muttered between his teeth, 
 
 " The fool ! the hypocrite ! the pedant ! well said, wise 
 Catiline, that it matters not much whether one listen to 
 his friends, so he listen well to his enemies! The fool 
 so he thinks he shall have Julia. But he never shall, by 
 Hades ! never !" 
 
 A slenderly made boy, dressed in a succinct huntsman s 
 tunic, with subligacula, or drawers, reaching to within a 
 hand s breadth of his knee, was loitering near the corner, 
 ;azing wistfully on Arvina ; and, as Aulus muttered those 
 words half aloud, he jerked his head sharply around, and 
 looked very keenly at the speaker. 
 
 " Never shall have Julia !" he repeated to himself, " he 
 must have spoken that concerning Arvina. I wonder who 
 he is. I never saw him before. I must know 1 must 
 
74 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 know, forthwith ! For he shall have her, by heaven and. 
 Him, who dwells in it ! he shall have her !" 
 
 And, turning a lingering and languid look toward Fa.il- 
 lus, the slight boy darted away in pursuit of Aulus. 
 
 A moment afterward Arvina, his conference with SAH- 
 ga ended, and ignorant of all that by-play, took the road 
 leading to the Campus, eager to overtake his friend Aris- 
 tius. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 75 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LATIN VILLA. 
 
 I come, O Agamemnon s daughter fair, 
 To this thy sylvan lair. 
 
 ELECTKA. 
 
 THROUGH a soft lap in the wooded chain of Mount Al- 
 gidus, a bright pellucid stream, after wheeling and fretting 
 among the crags and ledges of the upper valleys, winds its 
 way gently, toward the far-famed Tiber. 
 
 Shut in, on every side, except the south, by the lower 
 spurs of the mountain ridge, in which it is so snugly nes 
 tled, covered with rich groves of chesnut-trees, and shel 
 tered on the northward by the dark pines of the loftier 
 steeps, it were difficult to conceive a fairer site for a villa, 
 than that sweet vale. 
 
 Accordingly, on a little knoll in the jaws of the gorge, 
 whence issued that clear streamlet, facing the pleasant 
 south, yet sheltered from its excessive heats by a line of su 
 perb plane trees, festooned with luxuriant vines, there 
 stood a long low building of the antique form, built of dark- 
 colored stone. 
 
 A villa, in the days of Cicero, was a very different thing 
 from the luxurious pleasure-houses which came into vogue 
 in the days of the later Emperors, of which Pliny has giv 
 en us descriptions so minute and glowing ; yet even his 
 Tusculan retreat was a building of vast pretension, when 
 compared with this, which was in fact neither more nor 
 less than an old Roman Farmhouse, of that innocent and 
 unsophisticated day, when the Consulars of the Republic 
 were tillers of the soil, and when heroes returned, from 
 28 
 
76 
 
 the almost immortal triumph, to the management of the 
 spade and the ploughshare. 
 
 This villa had, it is true, been adorned somewhat, and 
 fitted to the temporary abode of individuals more refined 
 and elegant, than the rough steward and rustic slaves, who 
 were its usual tenants. Yet it still retained its original 
 form, and was adapted to its original uses. 
 
 The house itself, which was but two stories high, was in 
 form a hollow square, to the courts enclosed in which ac 
 cess was gained by a pair of lofty wooden gates in the rear. 
 It had, in the first instance, presented on all sides merely a 
 blank wall exteriorly, all the windows looking into the court, 
 the centre of which was occupied by a large tank of water, 
 the whole interior serving the purpose of a farm yard. 
 The whole ground floor of the building, had formerly been 
 occupied by stables, root-houses, wine-presses, dairies, 
 cheese-rooms and the like, and by the slaves kitchen, 
 which was the first apartment toward the right of the en 
 trance. The upper story contained the granaries and the 
 dormitories of the workmen ; and three sides still remained 
 unaltered. 
 
 The front, however, of the villa had been pierced with a 
 handsome doorway, and several windows ; a colonnade of 
 rustic stonework had been carried along the facade, and a 
 beautiful garden had been laid out before it, with grassy 
 terraces, clipped hedges, box trees, transmuted by the 
 gardener s art into similitudes of Peacocks, Centaurs, Tri 
 tons, Swans, and many other forms of fowls or fishes, un 
 known alike and unnamed by Gods or mortals. 
 
 The sun was within about half an hour of his setting, 
 and his slant beams, falling through a gap in the western 
 hills, streamed down into the little valley, casting long 
 stripes of alternate light and shadow over the smoothly 
 shaven lawn, sparkling upon the ripples of the streamlet, 
 and gilding the embrowned or yellow foliage of the sere 
 hill-sides, with brighter and more vivid colors. 
 
 At this pleasant hour, notwithstanding the lateness of the 
 season, and looking upon this pleasant scene, a group of 
 females were collected, under the rustic colonnade of Ital 
 ian marble, engaged in some of those light toils, which in 
 feminine hands are so graceful. 
 
 The foi emost of these, sealed apart somewhat from the 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 77 
 
 others, were the stately and still beautiful Hortensia, and 
 her lovely daughter, both of them employed in twirling the 
 soft threads from the merrily revolving spindle, into large 
 osier baskets ; and the elder lady, glancing at times to 
 ward the knot of slave girls, as if to see that they per 
 formed their light tasks ; and at times, if their mirth waxed 
 too loud, checking it by a gesture of her elevated finger. 
 
 A little while before, Julia had been singing in her sweet 
 low voice, one of those favorite old ballads, which were so 
 much prized by the Romans, and to which Livy is proba 
 bly so much indebted for the redundant imagery of his 
 " pictured page," commemorative of the deeds and virtues 
 of the Old Houses. 
 
 But, as her lay came to its end, her eye had fallen on the 
 broad blood-red disc of the descending day-god, and had 
 followed him upon his downward path, until he was lost to 
 view, among the tangled coppices that fringed the brow 
 of the western hill. 
 
 Her hands dropped listlessly into her lap, releasing the 
 snow-white thread, which they had drawn out so daintily; 
 and keeping her eyes still fixed steadily on the point where 
 he had disappeared, she gave vent to her feelings in a long- 
 drawn heigho! in every language, and in all times, ex 
 pression of sentimental sadness. 
 
 " Wherefore so sad a sigh, my Julia 1" asked Hortensia, 
 gazing affectionately at the saddened brow of the fair girl 
 "methinks ! there is nothing very melancholy here; 
 nothing that should call forth repining." 
 
 " See, see Hortensia, how he sinks like a dying warrior, 
 amid those sanguine clouds," cried the girl, pointing to the 
 great orb of the sun, just as its last limb was disappear 
 ing. 
 
 "And into a couch of bays and myrtles, like that war 
 rior, when his duty is done, his fame won !" exclaimed 
 Hortensia, throwing her arm abroad enthusiastically ; and 
 truly the hill-side, behind which he was lost to view, was 
 feathered thick with the shrubs of which she spoke " me 
 thinks! there is nought for which to sigh in such a setting, 
 either of the sun, or the hero !" 
 
 " But see, how dark and gloomy he has left all behind 
 him ! the river which was golden but now, while he smiled 
 upon it, now that he is gone, is leaden." 
 
78 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " But he shall rise again to-morrow, brighter and yet 
 more glorious ; and yet more gloriously shall the stream 
 blaze back his rising than his setting lustre." 
 
 "Alas! alas! Hortensia!" 
 
 " Wherefore, alas, my Julia ?" 
 
 " For so will not the warrior rise, who sinks forever, 
 although it may be into a bed of glory ! And if the set 
 ting of the sun leave all here lustreless and dark and gloomy, 
 although that must arise again to-morrow, what must the 
 setting do of one who shall arise no more for ever; whose 
 light of life was to one heart, what the sunbeam was to 
 the streamlet, but which, unlike that sunbeam, shall never 
 shine on the heart any more, Hortensia." 
 
 " My poor child," cried the noble matron, affected almost 
 to tears, " you are thinking of Paullus." 
 
 " When am I not thinking of him, mother ]" said the 
 girl. " Remember, we have left the city, seeking these 
 quiet shades, in order to eschew that turmoil, that peril, in 
 the heat of which he is now striving for his country ! Re 
 member, that he will plunge into all that strife, the more 
 desperately, because he fancies that he was too remiss be 
 fore! Remember this, Hortensia ; and say, if thou canst, 
 that I have no cause for sad forebodings!" 
 
 " That can I not, my Julia," she replied " For who is 
 there on earth, who knoweth what the next sun shall bring 
 forth ? The sunshine of to-day, oft breeds the storm of 
 to-morrow and, again, from the tempest of the eve, how 
 oft is born the brightest and most happy morning. Wisest 
 is he, and happiest, my child, who wraps himself in his own 
 virtue, careless of what the day shall bring to pass, and 
 confident, that all the shafts of fortune must rebound, harm 
 less and blunted, from his sure armor of philosophy." 
 
 " Must not the heart have bled, Hortensia, before it can 
 so involve itself in virtue 1 must not such philosophy be 
 the tardy offspring of great sorrow V 
 
 "For the most part I fear it is so, Julia," answered the 
 matron, " but some souls there are so innocent and quiet, 
 so undisturbed by the outward world, that they have that, 
 almost by nature, which others only win by suffering and 
 tears." 
 
 " Cold and unfeeling souls, i fancy," replied the girl. 
 f> For it appears to me that this philosophy which smiles on 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 79 
 
 all spite of fortune, must be akin to selfish and morose in 
 difference. I see not much to love, Hortensia, or to ad 
 mire in the stoic 5" 
 
 " Nor much more, I imagine," said Hortensia, not 
 sorry to draw her mind from the subject which occupied it 
 so painfully, "in the Epicurean !" 
 
 "Much less!" answered Julia, quickly, "his creed is 
 mere madness and impiety. To believe that the Gods care 
 
 nothing for the good or evil ye Gods !" she interrupted 
 
 herself suddenly, almost with a shriek. "What is this] a 
 slave riding, as if for life, on a foaming horse, from the 
 cityward. Oh ! my prophetic soul, Hortensia!" 
 
 And she turned pale as death, although she remained 
 quite firm and self-possessed. 
 
 " It may be nothing, Julia ; or it may be good tidings," 
 answered Hortensia, although she was in truth scarce less 
 alarmed, than her daughter, by the unexpected arrival. 
 
 " Good tidings travel not so quickly. Beside, what can 
 there be of good, so unexpected 1 But we shall know we 
 shall know quickly," and she arose, as if to descend the 
 steps into the garden, but she sank back again into her seat, 
 crying, "I am faint, I am sick, here, Hortensia," and she 
 laid her hand on her heart as she spoke. " Nay ! do not 
 tarry with me, I pray thee, see what he brings. Anything 
 but the torture of suspense!" 
 
 " I go, I go, my child," cried the matron, descending the 
 marble steps to the lawn, oft which the slave had just drawn 
 up his panting horse. " He has a letter in his hand, be of 
 good courage." 
 
 And a moment afterward she cried out joyously, " It is 
 in his hand, Julia, PaulhfS Arvina shand. Fear nothing." 
 
 And with a quick light step, she returned, and gave the 
 little slip of vellum into the small white hand, which trem 
 bled so much, that it scarcely could receive it. 
 
 "A snow-white dove to thee, kind Venus!" cried the 
 girl, raising her eyes in gratitude to heaven, before she 
 broke the seal. 
 
 But as she did so, and read the first lines, her face was 
 again overcast, and her eyes were dilated with wild terror. 
 
 "It is so it is so Hortensia! I knew oh ! my soul ! I 
 knew it!" and she let fall the letter, and fell back in her 
 seat almost fainting. 
 
 .28* 
 
80 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " What 1 what T exclaimed Hortensia. " It is Arvina s 
 hand he must be in life ! what is it, my own Julia 1" 
 
 " Wounded almost to death !" faltered the girl, in ac 
 cents half choked with anguish. " Read ! read aloud, 
 kind mother." 
 
 Alarmed by her daughter s suffering and terror, Horten- 
 eia caught the parchment from her half lifeless fingers, and 
 scanning its contents hastily with her eyes, read as follows. 
 
 " Paullus Arvina, to Julia and Hortensia, greeting ! 
 Your well known constancy and courage give me the con 
 fidence to write frankly to you, concealing nothing. Your 
 affection makes me sure, that you will hasten to grant my 
 request. Last night, in a tumult aroused by the desperate 
 followers of Catiline, stricken down and severely wounded, 
 I narrowly missed death. Great thanks are due to the 
 Gods, that the assassin s weapon failed to penetrate to my 
 vitals. Be not too much alarmed, however; Alexion, Ci 
 cero s friend and physician, has visited me ; and declares, 
 that, unless fever supervene, there is no danger from the 
 wound. Still, I am chained to my couch, wearily, and in 
 pain, with none but slaves about me. At such times, the 
 heart asks for more tender ministering wherefore I pray 
 you, Julia, let not one clay elapse ; but come to me ! Hor 
 tensia, by the Gods ! bring her to the city ! Catiline hath 
 fled, the peril hath passed over but lo ! I am growing faint 
 T can write no more, now there is a swimming of my 
 brain, and a cloud over my eyes. Farewell. Come to me 
 quickly, that it prove not too late come to me quickly, 
 if you indeed love ARVINA." 
 
 " We will go, Julia. We will go to him instantly," said 
 Hortensia " but be of good cheer, poor child. Alexion 
 declares, that there is no danger ; and no one is so wise as 
 he ! Be of good cheer, we will set forth this night, this 
 hour ! Ere daybreak, we will be in Rome. Hark, Ly- 
 dia," she continued, turning to one of the slave girls, " call 
 me the steward, old Davus. Let the boy Geta, take the 
 horse of the messenger ; and bring thou the man hither." 
 Then she added, addressing Julia, " I will question him 
 farther, while they prepare the carpentum ! Ho, Davus," 
 for the old slave, who was close at hand, entered forth 
 with " Have the mules harnessed, instantly, to the car 
 pentum, and let the six Thracians, who accompanied us 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 81 
 
 from Rome, saddle their horses, and take arms. Ill for 
 tune has befallen young Arvina ; we must return to town 
 this night as speedily as may be." 
 
 " Within an hour, Horteiisja, all shall be in readiness, on 
 my head be it, else." 
 
 " It is well and, hark you ! send hither wine and bread 
 we will not wait until they make supper ready; beside, 
 this youth is worn out with his long ride, and needs refresh 
 ment." 
 
 As the steward left the room, she gazed attentively at 
 the young slave, who had brought the despatch, and, not re 
 cognising his features, a half feeling of suspicion crossed 
 her mind ; so that she stooped and whispered to Julia, who 
 looked up hastily and answered, 
 
 "No no but what matters it 1 > It is his handwriting, 
 and his signet." 
 
 " I do not know," said Hortensia, doubtfully "I think 
 he would have sent one of the older men ; one whom we 
 knew ; I think he would have sent Medon" Then she 
 said to the boy, " I have never seen thy face before, I be 
 lieve, good youth. How long hast thou served Arvina ]" 
 
 " Since the Ides of October, Hortensia. He purchased 
 me of Marcus Crassus." 
 
 "Purchased thee, Ha T said Hortensia, yet more doubt 
 fully than before " that is strange. His household was 
 large enough already. How came lie then to purchase 
 thee ]" 
 
 " I was hired out by Crassus, as is his wont to do, to 
 Crispus the sword-smith, in the Sacred Way a cruel ty 
 rant and oppressor, whom, when he was barbarously scour 
 ging me for a small error, noble Arvina saw; and then, 
 finding his intercession fruitless, purchased me, as he said, 
 that thereafter I should be entreated as a man, not as a 
 beast of burthen." 
 
 " It is true ! by the Gods !" exclaimed the girl, clasping 
 her hands enthusiastically, and a bright blush coming up 
 into her pale face. " Had I been told the action, without 
 the actor s name, I should have known therein Arvina." 
 
 " Thou shouldst be grateful, therefore, to this good Ar 
 vina" said Hortensia, gazing at him with a fixed eye, she 
 knew not wherefore, yet with a sort of dubious presenti 
 ment of coming evil. 
 
82 THE ROMAN TRAITOR } OR, THE 
 
 "Grateful !" cried the youth, clasping his hands fervent 
 ly together " ye Gods ! grateful ! Hortensia, by your 
 head ! I worship him I would die for him." 
 
 " How came he to send thee on this mission 1 "Why 
 sent he not Medon, or Euphranor, or one of his elder freed- 
 men V 
 
 "Medon, he could not send, nor Euphranor. It went 
 ill with them both, in that affray, wherein my lord was 
 wounded. The older slaves keep watch around his bed ; 
 the strongest and most trusty, are under arms in the Atri 
 um." 
 
 " And wert thou with him, in that same affray ]" 
 
 " I was with him, Hortensia." 
 
 " When fell it out, and for what cause 1" 
 
 " Hast thou not heard, Hortensia ? has he not told you ? 
 by the Gods! I thought, the world had known it. How be 
 fore Catiline, may it be ill with him and his, went forth 
 from the city, he and his friends and followers attacked the 
 Consuls, on the Palatine, with armed violence. It was 
 fought through the streets doubtfully, for near three hours ; 
 and the fortunes of the Republic were at stake, and well 
 nigh despaired of, if not lost. Cicero was down on the 
 pavement, and Catiline s sword flashing over him, when, 
 with his slaves and freedmen, my master cut his way 
 through the ranks of the conspiracy, and bore off the great 
 magistrate unharmed. But, as he turned, a villain bu 
 ried his sica in his back, and though he saved the state, he 
 well nigh lost his life, to win everlasting fame, and the love 
 of all good citizens !" 
 
 " Hast seen him since he was wounded ]" exclaimed 
 Julia, who had devoured every word he uttered, with in 
 satiable longing and avidity. 
 
 " Surely," replied the boy. " I received that scroll from 
 his own hands my orders from his own lips spare not 
 an instant, he said, Jason ; tarry not, though you kill your 
 steed. If you would have me live, let Julia see this letter 
 before midnight. It lacks as yet, four hours of midnight. 
 Doth it not, noble Julia 1" 
 
 ** Five, I think. But how looked, how spoke he 1 Is 
 he in great pain, Jason 1 how seemed he, when you left 
 him ]" 
 
 " He was very pale, Julia very wan, and his lips ashy 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 83 
 
 white. His voice faltered very much, moreover, and when 
 he had made an end of speaking, he swooned away. J 
 heard that he was better somewhat, ere I set out to come 
 hither ; but the physician speaks of fever to be apprehen 
 ded, on any irritation or excitement. Should you delay 
 long in visiting him, I fear the consequences might be pe 
 rilous indeed." 
 
 " Do you hear ] do you hear that, Hortensia 1 By the 
 Gods ! Let us go at once ! we need no preparation!" 
 
 " Wo will go, Julia. Old Davus hour hath nearly pass 
 ed already. We will be in the city before day-break ! 
 Fear not, my sweet one, all shall go well with our beloved 
 Paullus." 
 
 "The Gods grant it!" 
 
 " Here is wine, Jason," said Hortensia. " Drink, boy, 
 you must needs be weary after so hard a gallop. You 
 have done well, and shall repose here this night. To-mor 
 row, when well rested and refreshed, you shall follow us 
 to Rome." 
 
 " Pardon me, lady," said the youth. " I am not weary ; 
 love for Arvina hath prevailed over all weariness ! Fur 
 nish me, I beseech you, with a fresh horse ; and let me go 
 with you." 
 
 " It shall be as you wish," said Hortensia, " but your 
 frame seems too slender, to endure much labor." 
 
 " The Gods have given me a willing heart, Hortensia 
 and the strong will makes strong the feeble body." 
 
 " Well spoken, youth. Your devotion shall lose you 
 nothing, believe me. Come, Julia, let us go and array us 
 for the journey. The nights are cold now, in December, 
 and the passes of the Algidus are bleak and gusty." 
 
 The ladies left the room ; and, before the hour, which 
 Davus had required, was spent, they were seated together 
 in the rich carpentum, well wrapped in the soft many-col 
 ored woollen fabrics, which supplied the place of furs 
 among the Romans it being considered a relic of barbar 
 ism, to wear the skins of beasts, until the love for this de 
 coration again returned in the last centuries of the Em 
 pire. 
 
 Old Davus grasped the reins ; two Thracian slaves, well 
 mounted, and armed with the small circular targets and 
 lances of their native land, gallopped before the carriage, 
 
84 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 accompanied by the slave who had brought the message, 
 while four more similarly equipped brought up the rear; 
 and thus, before the moon had arisen, travelling at a rapid 
 pace, they cleared the cultivated country, and were invol 
 ved in the wild passes of Mount Algidus. 
 
 Scarcely, however, had they wound out of sight, when 
 gallopping at mad and reckless speed, down a wild wood- 
 road on the northern side of the villa, there came a horse 
 man bestriding a white courser, of rare symmetry and ac 
 tion, now almost black with sweat, and envelopped with 
 foam-flakes. 
 
 The rider was the same singular-looking dark-complex 
 ioned boy, who had overheard the exclamation of Aulus 
 Fulvius, concerning young Arvina, uttered at the head of 
 the street Argiletum. 
 
 His body was bent over the rude saddle-bow with wea 
 riness, and he reeled to and fro, as if he would have fallen 
 from his horse, when he pulled up at the door of the villa. 
 
 " I would speak," he said in a faint and faltering voice, 
 " presently, with Hortensia matters of life and death de- 
 pend on it." 
 
 " The Gods avert the omen !" cried the woman, to whom 
 he had addressed himself, " Hortensia hath gone but now 
 to Rome, with young Julia, on the arrival of a message 
 from Arvina." 
 
 " Too late ! too late !" cried the boy, beating his breast 
 with both hands. " They are betrayed to death or dishon 
 or !" 
 
 "Howl what is this] what say you ?" cried the chief 
 slave of the farm, a person of some trust and importance, 
 who had just come up. 
 
 " It was a tall slight fair-haired slave who bore the mes 
 sage he called himself Jason he rode a bay horse, did 
 he not T asked the new comer. 
 
 " He was ! He did ! A bay horse, with one white foot 
 before, and a white star on his forehead. A rare beast 
 from Numidia, or Cyrenaica," replied the steward, who 
 was quite at home in the article of horse-flesh. 
 
 " He brought tidings that Arvina is sorely wounded?" 
 
 " He brought tidings ! Therefore it was that they set 
 forth at so short notice ! He left the horse here, and was 
 mounted on a black horse of the farm." 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 85 
 
 " Arvinais not wounded ! That bay horse is Cethegus , 
 the conspirator s ! Arvina hath sent no message ! They 
 are betrayed, I tell you, man. Aulus Fulvius awaits them 
 with a gang of desperadoes in the deep cleft of the hills, 
 where the cross-road comes in by which you reach the Fla- 
 minian from the Labican way. Arm yourselves speedily and 
 follow, else will they carry Julia to Catiline s camp in the 
 Appenines, beside Fiesole ! What there will befall her, 
 Catiline s character best may inform you ! Come to 
 arms men ! to horse, and follow!" 
 
 But ignorant of the person of the messenger, lacking 
 an authorized head, fearful of taking the responsibility, 
 and incurring the reproach, perhaps the punishment, of 
 credulity, they loitered and hesitated; and, though they 
 did at length get to horse and set out in pursuit, it was riot 
 till Hortensia s cavalcade had been gone above an hour. 
 
 Meanwhile, unconscious of what had occurred behind 
 them, and eager only to arrive at Rome as speedily as pos 
 sible, the ladies journeyed onward, with full hearts, in si 
 lence, and in sorrow. 
 
 There is a deep dark gorge in the mountain chain, 
 through which this road lay, nearly a mile in length ; with 
 a fierce torrent on one hand, and a sheer face of craggy 
 rocks towering above it on the other. Beyond the torrent, 
 the chesnut woods hung black and gloomy along the pre 
 cipitous slopes, with their ragged tree-tops distinctly mark 
 ed against the clear obscure of the nocturnal s*. 
 
 Midway this gorge, a narrow broken path comes down 
 a cleft in the rocky wall on the right hand side, as you go 
 toward Rome, by which through a wild and broken coun 
 try the Flaminian way can be reached, and by it the dis 
 trict of Etruria and the famous Val d Arno. 
 
 They had just reached this point, and were congratula 
 ting themselves, on having thus accomplished the most dif 
 ficult part of their journey, when the messenger, who rode 
 in front, uttered a long clear whistle. 
 
 The twang of a dozen bowstrings followed, from some 
 large blocks of stone which embarrassed the pass at the 
 junction of the two roads, and both the Thracians who pre 
 ceded the carriage, went down, one of them killed outright, 
 the other, with his horse shot dead under him. 
 
 "Ho! Traitor!" shouted the latter, extricating himself 
 
86 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 from the dead charger, and hurling his javelin with fatal 
 accuracy at the false slave, " thou at least shalt not boast of 
 thy villainy ! Treachery ! treachery ! Turn back, Hor- 
 tensia! Fly, avus ! to me! to me, comrades!" 
 
 But with a loud shout, down came young Aulus Fulvius, 
 from the pass, armed, head to foot, as a Roman legionary 
 soldier down came the gigantic smith Caius Crispus, and 
 fifteen men, at least, with blade and buckler, at his back. 
 
 The slaves fought desperately for their mistress liberty 
 or life ; but the odds were too great, both in numbers and 
 equipment ; and not five minutes passed, before they were 
 all cut down, and stretched out, dead or dying, on the 
 rocky floor of the dark defile. 
 
 The strife ended, Aulus Fulvius strode quickly to the 
 carpentum, which had been overturned in the affray, and 
 which his lawless followers were already ransacking. 
 
 One of these wretches, his own namesake Aulus, the 
 sword-smith s foreman, had already caught Julia in his li 
 centious grasp, and was about to press his foul lips to her 
 cheek, when the young patrician snatched her from his 
 arms, and pushed him violently backward. 
 
 " Ho! fool and villain !" he exclaimed, " Barest thou to 
 think such dainties are for thee 1 She is sacred to Cati 
 line and vengeance !" 
 
 " This one, at least, then!" shouted the ruffian, making 
 at Hortens,ia. 
 
 " Nor thm one either !" cried the smith interposing ; but 
 as Aulus, the foreman, still struggled to lay hold of the Pa 
 trician lady, he very coolly struck him across the bare brow 
 with the edge of his heavy cutting sword, cleaving him 
 down to the teeth " Nay ! then take that, thou fool." 
 Then turning to Fulvius, he added ; " He was a brawler 
 always, arid would have kept no discipline, now or ever." 
 
 "Well done, smith!" replied Aulus Fulvius. "The 
 same fate to all who disobey orders ! We have no time 
 for dalliance now ; it will be day ere long, and we must be 
 miles hence ere it dawns ! Bind me Hortensia, firmly, to 
 yon chesnut tree, stout smith ; but do not harm her. We 
 too have mothers !" he added with a singular revulsion of 
 feeling at such a moment. " For you, my beauty, we will 
 have you consoled by a warmer lover than that most shal- 
 lovv-pated fool and sophist, Arvina. Come! I say come! 
 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 87 
 
 no one shall harm you !" and without farther words, de 
 spite all her struggles and remonstrances, he bound a 
 handkerchief tightly under her chin to prevent her cries, 
 wrapped her in a thick crimson pallium, and springing up 
 on his charger, with the assistance of the smith, placed her 
 before him on the saddle-cloth, and set off a furious pace, 
 through the steep by-path, leaving the defile tenanted only 
 by the dying and the dead, with the exception of Horten- 
 sia, who rent the deaf air in vain with frantic cries of an 
 guish, until at last she fainted, nature being to weak for the 
 endurance of such prolonged agony. 
 
 About an hour afterward, she was released and carried 
 to her Roman mansion, alive and unharmed in body, but 
 almost frantic with despair, by the party of slaves who had 
 come up, too late to save her Julia, under the guidance of 
 the young unknown. 
 
 He, when he perceived that his efforts had been useless, 
 and when he learned how Julia had been carried off by 
 the conspirators, leaving the party to escort Hortensia, 
 and bear their slaughtered comrades homeward, rode 
 slowly and thoughtfully away, into the recesses of the wild 
 country whither Aulus had borne his captive, exclaiming irx 
 a low silent voice with a clinched hand, and eyes turned 
 heavenward, " I will die, ere dishonor reach her! Aid me ! 
 aid me, thou Nemesis aid me to save, and avenge !" 
 
 29 
 
88 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE MULVIAN BRIDGE. 
 
 Under which king, Bezoninn ? Speak, or die ! 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA . 
 
 ON that same night, and nearly at the same hour where 
 in the messenger of Aulus Fulvius arrived at the Latin 
 villa, there was a splendid banquet given in a house near 
 the forum. 
 
 It was the house of Decius Brutus, unworthy bearer of 
 a time-honored name, the husband of the infamous Sem- 
 pronia. 
 
 At an earlier hour of the evening, a great crowd had 
 been gathered round the doors, eager to gaze on the am 
 bassadors of the Highland Gauls, who, their mission to 
 Rome ended unsuccessfully, feasted there for the last time 
 previous to their departure. 
 
 As it grew dark, however, tired of waiting in the hope 
 of seeing the plaided warriors depart, the throng had dis 
 persed, and with exception of the city watches and the 
 cohorts, which from hour to hour perambulated them, the 
 streets were unusually silent, and almost deserted. 
 
 There was no glare of lights from the windows of Bru 
 tus house, as there would be in these days, and in modern 
 mansions, to indicate the scene of festivity ; for it was in 
 the inmost chamber, of the most secluded suite of apart 
 ments, that the boards had been spread for the comissatio, 
 or nocturnal revel. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 89 
 
 The ccena, or dinner, had been partaken by all the guests 
 previous to their arrival at their entertainer s, and the ta 
 bles were laid only with light dainties and provocatives to 
 thirst, such as salted meats and fishes, the roe of the stur 
 geon highly seasoned, with herbs and fruits, and pastry 
 and confections, of all kinds. 
 
 Rich urns, with heaters, containing hot spiced wines, 
 prepared with honey, smoked on the boards of costly ci- 
 trean wood, intermixed with crystal vases filled with the 
 rarest vintages of the Faleruian hills, cooled and diluted 
 with snow-water. 
 
 And around the circular tables, on the tapestried couch 
 es, reclined the banqueters of both sex^s, quaffing the rich 
 wines to strange toasts, jesting, and toughing wildly, sing 
 ing at times themselves as the myrtle branch and the lute 
 went round, at times listening to the licentious chaunts of 
 the unveiled and almost unrobed dancing girls, or the ob 
 scene and scurrilous buffoonery of the mimes and clowns, 
 who played so conspicuous a part in the Roman entertain 
 ments of a later period. 
 
 Among these banqueters there was not a single person 
 not privy to the conspiracy, and few who have not been 
 introduced already to the acquaintance of the reader, but 
 among these few was Sempronia Sempronia, who could 
 be all things, at all times, and to all persons who with all 
 the. softness and grace and beauty of the most feminine of 
 her sex, possessed all the daring, energy, vigor, wisdom 
 of the bravest and most intriguing man accomplished to 
 the utmost in all the liberal arts, a poetess and minstrel 
 unrivalled by professional performers, a dancer more fin 
 ished and voluptuous than beseemed a Roman matron, a 
 scholar in both tongues, the Greek as well as her own, 
 and priding herself on her ability to charm the gravest and 
 most learned sages by the modesty of her bearing and the 
 wealth of her intellect, as easily as the most profligate de 
 bauchees by her facetious levity, her loose wit, and her 
 abandonment of all restraint to the wildest license. 
 
 On this evening she had strained every nerve to fasci 
 nate, to dazzle, to astonish. 
 
 She had danced as a bacchanal, with her luxuriant hair 
 dishevelled beneath a crown of vine leaves, with her bright 
 shoulders and superb bust dfsplayed at every motion by 
 
90 
 
 the displacement of the panther s skin, which alone cover 
 ed them, timing her graceful steps to the clang of the sil 
 ver cymbals which she waved and clashed with her hare 
 arms above her stately head, and showing off the beauties 
 of her form in attitudes more classically graceful, more 
 studiously indelicate, than the most reckless figurante of 
 our days. 
 
 She had sung every species of melody and rythm, from 
 the wildest dithyrambic to the severest and most grave 
 alcaic ; she had struck the lute, calling forth notes such as 
 might have performed the miracles attributed to Orpheus 
 and Amphion. 
 
 She had exerted her unrivalled learning so far as to dis 
 course eloquently in the uncouth and almost unknown 
 tongues of Germany and Gaul. ^ 
 
 For she had Gaulish hearers, Gaulish admirers, whom, 
 whether from mere female vanity, whether from the awa 
 kening of some strange unbridled passion, or whether from 
 some deeper cause, she was bent on delighting. 
 
 For mixed in brilliant contrast with the violet and flower 
 enwoven tunics, with the myrtle-crowned perfumed love 
 locks of the Roman feasters, were seen the gay and many- 
 chequered plaids, the jewelled weapons, and loose lion- 
 like tresses of the Gallic Highlanders, and the wild blue 
 eyes, sharp and clear as the untamed falcon s, gazing in 
 wonder or glancing in childlike simplicity at the strange 
 scenes and gorgeous luxuries which amazed all their 
 senses. 
 
 The tall and powerful young chief, who had on several 
 occasions attracted the notice of Arvina, and whom he had 
 tracked but a few days before into this very house, recli 
 ned on the same couch with its accomplished mistress, and 
 it was on him that her sweetest smiles, her most speaking 
 glances were levelled, for him that her charms were dis 
 played so unreservedly and boldly. 
 
 And the eyes of the young Gaul flashed at times a 
 strange fire, but it was difficult to tell, if it were indigna 
 tion or desire that kindled that sharp flarne and his cheek 
 burned with a hectic and unwonted hue, but whether it 
 was the hue of shame or passion, what eye could deter 
 mine. 
 
 One thing alone was evident, that he encouraged her in 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 91 
 
 her wild licence, and affected, if he did not feel, the most 
 decided admiration for her beauty. 
 
 His hand had toyed with hers, his fingers had strayed 
 through the mazes of her superb raven ringlets, his lip had 
 pressed hers unrebuked, and his ear had drunk in long 
 murmuring low-breathed sighs, and whispers unheard by 
 any other. 
 
 Her Roman lovers, in other words two-thirds of those 
 present, for she was no chary dame, looked at each other, 
 some with a sneering smile, some with a shrewd and know 
 ing glance, and some with ill-dissembled jealousy, but not 
 one of them all, so admirable was her dissimulation if 
 that may be called admirable, which is most odious could 
 satisfy himself, whether she was indeed captivated by the 
 robust and cmanly beauty of the young barbarian, or 
 whether it was merely a piece of consummate acting, the 
 more to attach him to their cause. " 
 
 It might have been observed had the quick eye of Cati 
 line been there, prompt to read human hearts as if they 
 were written books that the older envoys looked with sus 
 picious and uneasy glances, at the demeanor of their young 
 associate, that they consulted one another from time to time 
 with grave and searching eyes, and that once or twice, when 
 Sempronia, who alone of those present understood their 
 language, was at a distance, they uttered a few words in 
 Gaelic, not in the most agreeable or happiest accent. 
 
 Wilder and wilder waxed the revelry, and now th* 
 slaves withdrew, and breaking off into pairs or groups, the 
 guests dispersed themselves among the peristyles, dimly il 
 luminated with many twinkling lamps, and shrubberies of 
 myrtle arid laurestinus which adorned the courts and gar 
 dens of the proud mansions. 
 
 Some to plot deeds of private revenge, private cruelty 
 some to arrange their schemes of public insurrection 
 some to dally in secret corners with the fair patricians 
 some to drain mightier draughts than they had yet parta 
 ken, some to gamble for desperate stakes, all to drown care 
 and the anguish of conscious guilt, in the fierce pleasure of 
 excitement. 
 
 Apart from the rest, stood two of the elder Gauls, in 
 deep and eager conference -one the white-headed chief. 
 29* 
 
92 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 and leader of the embassy, the other a stately and noble- 
 looking man of some forty-five or fifty years. 
 
 They were watching their comrade, who had just stolen 
 away, with one arm twined about the fair Sempronia s 
 waist, and her hand clasped in his, through the inner per 
 istyle, into the women s chambers. 
 
 " Feargus, I doubt him," said the old man in a low guar 
 ded whisper. " 1 doubt him very sorely. These Roman 
 harlots are made to bewitch any man, much more us Gael, 
 whose souls kindle at a spark !" 
 
 " It is true, Phadraig," answered the other, still speaking 
 in their own tongue. " Saw ever any man such infamy 1 
 And these these dogs, and goats, call us barbarians ! 
 Us, by the Spirit of Thunder ! who would die fifty deaths 
 every hour, ere we would see our matrons, nay ! but our 
 matrons basest slaves, demean themselves as these patri 
 cians ! Base, carnal, bloody-minded beasts are they and 
 yet forsooth they boast themselves the masters of the 
 world." 
 
 " Alas ! that it should be so, Feargus," answered the 
 other. " But so it is, that they are masters, and shall be 
 masters yet awhile, but not long. I have heard, I have 
 seen among the mist of our water-falls, the avalanches of 
 our hills, the voices and the signs of Rome s coming ruin, 
 but not yet. Therefore it is that I counselled peace." 
 
 " I know that thou art Taishatr, the great seer of our 
 people," replied the other with an expression of deep awe 
 on his features " Shall Rome indeed so perish !" 
 
 " She shall, Feargus. Her sons shall forget the use of 
 the blade, her daughters of the distaff for heroes and war 
 riors she shall bring forth pipers and fiddlers, pandars and 
 posturers ; for heroines and matrons, songstresses, dancing 
 girls, and harlots. The beginning thou seest now, the end 
 cometh not in ages." 
 
 "And our people, Phadraig, our northern races" 
 
 " Shall govern and despise them ! our arms shall carry 
 devastation into regions of which their Consuls never 
 heard, and under Gaelic eagles ; our men shall wield thun 
 der louder and deadlier, than the bolts of Roman GODS. I 
 have said, Feargus. It shall be, but not yet ; nor shall our 
 eyes behold it; but it shall soothe us yet, in these days of 
 our country s desolation, to know how great she shall be 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATC AND CATALINE. 93 
 
 hereafter, and these how less than little the very name of 
 Roman syrionimous with slavery and degradation !" 
 
 There was a long pause, during which neither of the 
 chieftains spoke, the one musing over the strange visions, 
 which are phenomena by no means unusual to mountain 
 eers, in all ages ; the other dreaming of future glory to his 
 race, arid aroused by the predictions of the seer, to an ec- 
 stacy, as it were, of expectant triumph. 
 
 " Enough of this" said the old man, at length. " As I 
 said but now, I doubt Eachin sorely." 
 
 " If he prove false, I will stab him to the heart, with my 
 own hand, though he be my father s brother s grandson, and 
 the best warrior of our tribe ; but no, no, Phadraig, the boy 
 is young, and his blood is hot and fiery ; and the charms of 
 that witch might well move a colder spirit but he is true 
 as steel, and wise and wary for one so young. He may 
 sun himself in her smiles, or revel on her lips, but trust me, 
 Eachin of the iron hand, will never betray council." 
 
 " Keep your eye on him, nevertheless, Feargus," said the 
 other, " and, as you said but now, kill him at once, if you 
 perceive him false." 
 
 " Ha ! what ! noble Patricius 1" cried Lentulus, coining 
 up to them suddenly, and addressing the old chief by his 
 latinized name "what is this that thou arguest so sagely, 
 in thy sonorous and male tongue." 
 
 " The might and majesty of Rome," answered the old 
 man quietly, " and our people s misery and degradation." 
 
 " Nay! nay! chief, be not downhearted. Look upward 
 now, after dark night comes brilliant morning," said the Ro 
 man. " Your people shall rise ere long, to power and glo 
 ry and dominion." 
 
 " So I told Feargus." 
 
 " Ha ! the brave Ferragus ! and doth he not credit your 
 wisdom s prophecy." 
 
 " I put all faith in Rome s gratitude, in Catiline s valor 
 and justice." 
 
 " Aye ! when we once have put down this faction, we 
 will do justice to our friends." 
 
 " And we are of the number !" 
 
 " Surely, the twenty thousand horse, which you have 
 promised us, are twenty thousand pledges of your friend 
 ship, as many claims on our favor." 
 
94 
 
 " See, here comes Eachin," said the o*a man ; " and 
 time wears onward, it is nigh midnight. We must away to 
 our lodgings. Our train awaits us, and we but tarry for 
 your envoy and the letters." 
 
 " Titus Volturcius! I will go fetch him hither. He hath 
 our letters sealed and ready. He is but draining a last 
 cup, with our brave Cethegus. I will go fetch him." And, 
 with the words, he turned away, gathering his toga in su 
 perb draperies about his stately person, and traversing the 
 corridor with proud and measured strides, and as he went, 
 muttered through his teeth " The fool barbarians ! As if 
 we would give them anything but chains and scourges ! 
 The poor benighted idiots !" 
 
 " Ho, Eachin, where left you our fair hostess ?" asked 
 Feargus in Latin " methinks you are smitten somewhat 
 with her beauty !" 
 
 " She is very beautiful!" said the old chieftain gravely. 
 
 "Beautiful! Feargus ! Phadraig ! beautiful, did ye say]" 
 and the youth gazed at them in wonder, " That vile sen 
 sual, soulless harlot ! she beautiful! Then virtue must be 
 base indeed, and honor shameful !" he cried, with noble 
 indignation, in his own Gaelic tongue, his eyes flashing, 
 and his cheek burning crimson. 
 
 " Why, if you held her then so cheaply, have you so 
 much affected her society T 
 
 " Oh ! you suspect me, Feargus. But it needs not. The 
 
 barbarian hath some shrewdness, and some honesty. Sem- 
 
 pronia too, suspected us, and would have won my secret 
 
 from me, had I indeed a secret, by sweet words and 
 
 sweeter kisses." 
 
 " And thou" 
 
 " Gave kiss for kiss, with interest ; and soft word for 
 soft word. I have sighed as if I were any Roman but 
 no secret, Feargus ; Phadraig, no secret. Do you doubt 
 me ?" 
 
 " Not T, boy," answered the warrior. " Your father was 
 my cousin, and I think you are not a bastard." 
 
 " I think not either. But see, here come these noble 
 Romans !" 
 
 " It is their envoy with the letters for their leader. We 
 shall be dismissed now, from this haunt of thieves and har 
 lots !" 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 95 
 
 " And laughed at, when dismissed, for fools and barbari 
 ans!" 
 
 " One never knows who is the fool, till the game is lost."\ 
 
 " Nor who is laughed at till it is won !" 
 
 " Here is our Titus, my good friends," said Lentulus, 
 coming forward, leading along with him a slightly-made but 
 well-formed arid active-looking man, with a downcast yet 
 roving eye, and a sneering lip, as if he were one who be 
 lieving nothing, deserved not to be believed in anything 
 himself. " He hath the letters, and credentials secured on 
 his person. On his introduction, our Catiline shall know 
 you as true friends, and as such receive and reward you !" 
 
 " Titus Volturcius, is k welcome. We tarried but for 
 him, we will now take our leaves, with thanks for your 
 gracious courtesies." 
 
 " A trifle, a mere trifle," said Sempronia, who had that 
 moment returned " We only desired to teach you how 
 we Romans live in our homes daily." 
 
 "A very pleasant lesson, ha! my young friend" said 
 Lentulus to Eachin; and then he said out to Cethegus, 
 in Greek, " I am compelled to call the Highland bull my 
 friend, for his accursed name would break the jaws of any 
 Roman there is no twisting it into Latin !" 
 
 " Hush ! he will hear you, Lentulus," said the other. 
 " I believe the brutes hear with their eyes, and understand 
 through their finger-ends," and he too used the same lan 
 guage ; yet, strange to say, it would have seemed as if the 
 young man did in some sort comprehend his words, for his 
 cheek turned fiery red, and he bit his lip, and played ner 
 vously with the hilt of the claymore. 
 
 " Thou will not forget the lesson !" whispered Sempro 
 nia. 
 
 " Never !" replied the Highlander. " Never while one 
 red drop runs in these veins. And the last drop in them 
 will I shed gladly, to teach these noble Romans how grate 
 ful a barbarian can be, poor though he be and half savage, 
 for being thus instructed in Roman hospitality and Roman 
 virtue ! Farewell, ye noble Senators, farewell most beau 
 tiful and noble matron !" 
 
 And with deep salutations, half dignified, half awkward, 
 the Gauls strode away, into the quiet and moon-lighted 
 
96 THE ROMAN Til AIT OR ] OR, THE 
 
 streets, strange contrast to the glare and riot of those 
 patrician halls and polluted chambers. 
 
 " A singular speech that !" said Cethegus musing. " It 
 Bounded much as if it might bear a double meaning ! could 
 it be irony and cover treason V 
 
 " Irony in a stupid Gaul ! thou art mad, Cethegus, to 
 think of it !" said Autronius with a sneer. 
 
 " I should as soon look for wit in an elephant," said 
 Longinus Cassius. 
 
 "Or [ for love in a cold lizard!" cried Sempronia, 
 laughing. 
 
 " You found some love in the barbarian, I think, my 
 Sempronia 1" exclaimed Cethegus. 
 
 " More warmth than wit, I assure you," she replied still 
 laughing. " I acted my part with him rarely. If he 
 were inclined once to play us false, he is bound to us now 
 by chains" 
 
 " Of roses, fair one V 9 
 
 " Never mind. If he break them, call me" 
 
 " Chaste 1 Sempronia" enquired Caeparius, interrupt 
 ing her. 
 
 " Audacious !" she answered with an affected frown, 
 amid the laugh which followed the retort. 
 
 " What do you think of it, my Lentulus ?" asked Cethe 
 gus, who although he had jested with the others, did not 
 by any means appear satisfied in his mind, or convinced of 
 the good faith of the Highlanders. 
 
 " That it is two hours now past midnight," answered 
 Lentulus yawning, " and that I am amazing sleepy. I 
 was not in bed till the third watch last night, writing those 
 letters, ill luck to them. That is what I think, Cethegus. 
 And that I am going to bed now, to trouble myself about 
 the matter no more, until the Saturnalia." 
 
 And so that company broke up, never to meet again, on 
 this side Hades. 
 
 Not long thereafter the Gauls, having reached their 
 lodgings at the house of their patron Fabius Sanga, where 
 everything had been prepared already for their departure, 
 mounted their horses, and set forth on their way home 
 ward, accompanied by a long train of armed followers ; 
 Titus Volturcius riding in the first rank, between the prin 
 cipal chiefs of the party. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 97 
 
 The moon had risen ; and the night was almost as clear 
 as day, for a slight touch of frost had banished all the va 
 pors from the sky, and the stars sparkled with unusual 
 brilliancy. 
 
 Although it was clear and keen, however, the night was 
 by no means cold, as it would have been under the like 
 circumstances in our more northern climes ; and the gar 
 dens in the suburbs of the city with their numerous clumps 
 of stone-pine, and thickets of arbutus and laurestinus, looked 
 rich and gay with their polished green foliage, long after 
 the deciduous trees had dropped their sere leaves on the 
 steamy earth. 
 
 No sounds came to the ears of the travellers, as they 
 rode at that dead hour of night through the deserted 
 streets; the whole of the vast city appeared to be hushed 
 in deep slumber, soon, Caius Volturcuis boasted as they 
 rode along, to burst like a volcano into the din and glare 
 of mighty conflagration. 
 
 They met not a single individual, as they threaded the 
 broad suburra with their long train of slaves and led-horses ; 
 not one as they passed through the gorge between the Vi- 
 minal and Quirinal hills, nor as they scaled the summit of 
 the latter eminence, and reached the city walls, where 
 they overlooked Sallust s gardens in the valley, and on the 
 opposite slope, the perfumed hill of flowers. 
 
 A sleepy sentinel unbarred the gate for the ambassadors, 
 while four or five of his comrades sat dozing in their armor 
 around a stove, in the centre of the little guard-house, or 
 replenishing their horn cups, at short intervals, from an 
 urn of hot wine, which hissed and simmered on the hearth. 
 
 "Excellent guard they keep!" said Volturcius sneer- 
 ingly, " right trusty discipline ! of much avail would such 
 watchers be, were Catiline without the walls, with ten 
 thousand men, of Sylla s veterans." 
 
 " And is your Catiline so great a captain V asked the 
 Highlander. 
 
 " The best in Rome, since Sylla is no more ! He learned 
 the art of war under that grand, that consummate soldier! 
 He was scarce second to him in his life time !" 
 
 " Why, then, hath Rome found no service for him 1" 
 asked the Gaul. " If he, as you say, is so valiant and so 
 
THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 skillful, why hath he not commanded in the east, in place 
 of Pompey, or Lucullus ?" 
 
 "Jealousy is the bane of Rome! jealousy and corrup 
 tion ! Catiline will not pander to the pride of the insolent 
 patricians, nor buy of them employments or honors with 
 his gold." 
 
 " And is Tie, free from this corruption T 
 
 "No man on earth of more tried integrity ! While all 
 of Rome beside is venal, his hand alone is conscious of no 
 bribe, his heart alone incorruptible !" 
 
 " Thou must be a true friend of his ; all men speak not 
 so highly of this Catiline." 
 
 " Some men lie! touching Tiim specially, they lie !" 
 
 "By the Gods! I believe so!" answered the old Gaul, 
 with calm irony. 
 
 " By Mars ! and Apollo ! they lie foully ! " 
 
 " I think I have heard one, at least, do so." 
 
 "Thou shalt hear hundreds, if thou listen to them." 
 
 "So many V 
 
 " Aye ! by the Gods ! most of the by your head ! Pa- 
 tricius, that was a man, I think ; armed too ; who looked 
 forth from behind yon buttress of the bridge." 
 
 " No! no ! Volturcius, twas but the shadow of yon pine 
 tree, waving athwart the moonlight. I marked it long 
 since," answered the wily Gaul. " Proceed, 1 pray you 
 most of the what, wert thou about to say 1" 
 
 But, by this time, the speakers had advanced to the cen 
 tre of the long Mulvian bridge, a magnificent stone struc 
 ture crossing the broad and sluggish Tiber, two miles be 
 low the city; and giving access to the far-famed Flaminian 
 way. 
 
 Their train, following closely after them, had all entered 
 into the defile, the last of them having already passed the 
 abutment nearest to Rome, when a loud shout arose from 
 either side the bridge ; and from the thickets and gardens 
 at each extremity forth rushed a band of stout youths 
 armed with casques and cuirasses of bronze, with the ob 
 long shields and Spanish stabbing swords of the legiona 
 ries. 
 
 Each band was led by a Praetor, Lucius Valerius Flaccus 
 commanding at the end next Rome, and Caius Pompti- 
 nus, on the Emilian way, and each fell into accurate and 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 99 
 
 beautiful array, barring the outlets of the bridge with a 
 triple file of bright blades and sturdy bucklers. 
 
 Nor was this all ; for a little party was pushed forward 
 on each flank, with bows and javelins, ready to enfilade 
 the narrow pass with cross shot of their missiles, in case 
 any attempt should be made to force a passage. And at 
 the end, moreover, of the bridge toward Etruria and the 
 camp of Catiline, at which such an attempt was most like? 
 ly to occur, the glittering helmets and crimson horsehair 
 crests of a troop of cavalry were seen glancing in the 
 moonbeams, as they wheeled into line behind the footmen, 
 ready to charge at once should the infantry be broken, 
 
 "Stand! stand!" cried the soldiery at each end. "Stand 
 and surrender!" 
 
 But the younger men of the Gauls, unsheathing their 
 claymores, set up their terrible slogan, or Celtic battle 
 cry ; and, plunging their spurs into the sides of their fiery 
 horses came thundering across the bridge with a charge 
 that would probably have trodden the Praetor s infantry un 
 der foot, had not the old chief, whom the Romans called 
 Patricius, and Ferragus reined their steeds suddenly across 
 the way, calling upon their men to halt and be steady. 
 
 But Volturcius, knowing too well the consequence of 
 being taken, dashed forward with his sword drawn; and 
 made a desperate attempt to cut his way through the in 
 fantry, striking down two or three, slashing and stabbing 
 to the right and left, displaying singular skill in the use of 
 his weapon, and extreme personal intrepidity. 
 
 "Treason! treason, my friends!" he shouted. "Ho, 
 Ferragus, Patricius, ho ! Charge, charge, men, gallantly. 
 They are but a handful !" and still he plied his blade, 
 which was now crimson to the hilt, with fearful energy. 
 
 " No ! no ! not so !" cried the ambassadors " lay down 
 your arms ! it is the praetor s train. Lay down your arms! 
 all shall be well, if you resist not." 
 
 And at the same time, " Yield thee ! yield thee ! Voltur 
 cius," cried Pomptinus. " We are friends all; and would 
 not hurt thee but have thee we must, and thy letters. 
 Dost thou not know me, Titus]" 
 
 " Very well, Caius," cried the other, still fighting des 
 perately against a host ; for the men were commanded not 
 to kill, but to take him alive nt all hazards. " I know thee 
 30 
 
100 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 very well ; but I will not yield to thee ! So take that, 
 Praetor!" and, with the word, he dealt him a blow on his 
 crest that brought him to his knee in a moment. 
 
 " He is a mad man !" cried a veteran legionary. " We 
 must kill him!" 
 
 " Not for your lives," shouted Pomptinus, and springing 
 to his feet he plunged his sword home into his horse s 
 chest, up to the very hilt ; and then leaping on one side 
 nimbly, as the animal fell headlong, being slain outright, 
 he seized Volturcius by the shoulder, and pulled him down 
 from the saddle. 
 
 But even at this disadvantage, the conspirator renewed 
 the single combat with the praetor ; until at length, assured 
 by his repeated promises that his life should be spared, he 
 yielded his sword to that oflicer, and adjuring him in the 
 name of all the Gods ! to protect him, gave himself up a 
 prisoner, as if to avowed enemies. 
 
 Those of the Gauls, who had been ignorant, at first, 
 what was in progress, perceiving now that the whole mat 
 ter had been arranged with the concurrence of their chiefs, 
 submitted quietly ; and two or three of the praetor s people 
 who had been wounded being accommodated with tem 
 porary litters made of bucklers and javelins with watch 
 cloaks thrown over them, the whole party turned their 
 horses heads, and directed their march toward Rome. 
 
 And silence, amid which the gentle murmur of the river, 
 and the sigh of the breeze were distinctly audible, suc 
 ceeded to the clang of arms, and the shouts of the com 
 batants, unheard for many a year, so near to the walls of 
 the world s metropolis. 
 
 s 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 101 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ARREST. 
 
 Rebellious subjects ; Enemies of peace. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET. 
 
 IT was already daylight, when the loud clang and clatter 
 of a squadron passing along the streets, at a sharp trot, 
 aroused the citizens of Rome from their beds, for though 
 the morning had broke, it was still very early. 
 
 Many a lattice was opened, and many a head thrust out, 
 as the troopers swept along with all their accoutrements 
 jingling and clashing through the early silence, a spectacle 
 which in ordinary times, would have excited much aston 
 ishment, perhaps aroused a tumult, since it was in direct 
 opposition to the laws, that armed soldiers should enter the 
 city walls in time of peace. 
 
 But so much had the public mind been disturbed of 
 late, that the sight, which a month before would have filled 
 the streets with anxious or angry multitudes, now hardly 
 seemed to merit a second glance, and the spectators hur 
 ried back to their couches, invoking the aid of the good 
 Consul, who watched so well over the liberties and lives of 
 Rome, or muttering curses on his head, according as they 
 were well or ill-afflicted toward the state. 
 
 One man there was, however, who was awakened by the 
 clatter from the deep sleep of drunkenness, with a flushed 
 face and an aching head, in a house on the Clivus Scauri, 
 
 steep street running down the southern slope of the Pa- 
 
102 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 latine, into the Cerolian Place, and overlooking the man 
 sion of Cicero. 
 
 Starting up from his low couch, he called out sharply 
 and with a querulous accent to a freedman, who was 
 watching his feverish slumbers, desiring him to look out 
 and see what made that clatter. 
 
 The man passed quickly into an adjoining room which 
 commanded a view of the street, and returned instantly, 
 saying, ^ 
 
 "It is a squadron df horse, Caeparius. Young Arvi- 
 na s, I think ; and they appear to be conducting a prisoner, 
 for there is one man among them, in his tunic and abolla 
 only, while the troopers around him have their swords 
 drawn." 
 
 Sobered at once, the conspirator leaped from his couch, 
 and almost overthrew the attendant, in his eagerness to 
 reach the window in time to observe the troopers. 
 
 They were just halting in the Cerolian place, when he 
 saw them, and dismounting, chargers and men in a con 
 fused and dusty group before the door of Cicero. 
 
 He gazed, as if his eyes would burst from their sockets, 
 if possibly he might distinguish the wearer of the rich blue 
 riding cloak, of which he could catch glimpses among the 
 glittering corslets and scarlet cassocks of the legionary 
 horse. But for a while he gazed in vain. 
 
 At length two figures mounted the marble steps, leading 
 to the Tuscan colonnade, and were thus brought clearly 
 into view, above the crested casques of the soldiery. 
 
 One, a tall well-made figure, splendidly accoutred in the 
 cavalry armor of the day, lie recognized at once for Arvi- 
 na, and in the stouter person, clad in the blue abolla, 
 the color of which he had already connected with one 
 whom he knew his worst fears all realized he discov 
 ered the messenger of treason, Titus Voltufcius of Crotona. 
 
 "By the Gods ! all is lost," he muttered, striking his 
 hand violently on his thigh. " Escape alone, is left to us. 
 Ha !" he continued, addressing his freedman, " I will arise, 
 and go forth speedily. Give me my tunic. So never 
 mind the ferninalia ; there, clasp my sandals ! Death and 
 furies ! how slow thou art, now my dagger, and my toga. 
 Hark, now. I go to the house of Lentulus. See thou, and 
 have my chariot harnessed for a journey, with the four 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 103 
 
 Thracian steeds ; put into it my armor, a sword, casque and 
 buckler for thyself; and all the gold which is locked in the 
 great chest in the Atrium. Here is the key. Tarry not 
 for thy life, and bring the car thyself to the arch of Fabiua 
 Allobrox; wait there until I come to thee. I will be there 
 within the hour." 
 
 " It shall be done, Caeparius." 
 
 " See that it be done, if thou wouldst scape the scourge !" 
 and with the word he rushed out of the chamber, as if the 
 avenger of blood were at his heels. 
 
 But the freedman looked after him, with a bitter and 
 scornful smile, and muttered 
 
 " The scourge ! the scourge ! and I a freedman ! This 
 is another friend of the people. His villanies, I fancy, are 
 near upon detection, and he would fly to join Catiline, but 
 I will thwart him." 
 
 In the meantime, quitting his own house in great trepi 
 dation, the conspirator walked very rapidly through the 
 streets, until he reached the house of Lentulus, which was 
 not far distant from the forum. 
 
 He was admitted instantly, and without question, for all 
 the slaves knew him, as the intimate friend of their master; 
 but at the bed room door, he was stopped by the favorite 
 freedman of Lentulus, who urged that his lord had not re 
 tired till morning, and had desired that he should not be 
 disturbed earlier than noon. 
 
 Caeparius, o/n the other hand insisted, raising his voice 
 so loudly that the sleeper was awakened, and recognizing 
 the accent of his friend, cried out peevishly 
 
 " Oh! let him in, Agathon ; let him in quickly, or he will 
 talk thee deaf, and me frantic ! What in the name of Pro 
 serpine and Pluto ! is it now ?" 
 
 " The plot is discovered ! all is lost !" exclaimed the 
 other, forgetting all prudence in the haste and terror of the 
 moment. 
 
 " To the abyss of Tartarus with the plot, and thee also !" 
 replied the other savagely. " I hope it is discovered, for 
 I shall get some sleep then. I have had none these six 
 months." 
 
 And turning on hh other side, he drew the embroidered 
 coverlid over his head, and appeared to court the interrupt 
 ed slumber. 30* 
 
104 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " By all Gods ! I tell thee, Lentulus, Volturcius is arres 
 ted. These eyes beheld him dragged into the house of 
 Cicero. My chariot waits me now, at the arch of Fabius. 
 I go to join Catiline." 
 
 " I prithee, then, go quickly thou torturest me, man, 
 I say. Get thee gone ! get thee gone ! Better to die, than 
 to live thus sleepless." 
 
 " Whom the Gods wish to ruin, they first dementate !" 
 exclaimed Ceeparius " thou wilt be seized, within the 
 hour." 
 
 " I care not. So that till then I can sleep ; once more, I 
 say Begone !" 
 
 Ca?parius shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head 
 as he left the room ; and then made the best of his way to 
 the arch of Fabius; but he found not his chariot there, noi 
 though he waited well nigh two hours, did it arrive at all. 
 Hopeless at length, and desperate, he set forth alone and 
 on foot, in the vain hope of escaping the pursuit of Cice 
 ro s unerring justice. 
 
 Meanwhile, disturbed more than he would admit by Cae- 
 parius tidings, Lentulus did, in some sort, arouse himself 
 to consideration. 
 
 " It may be so," he said to himself. " Ceeparius de 
 clared he saw him. If it be so, twere better perhaps, in 
 deed, to leave the city. And yet," he continued ponder 
 ing deeply, " to fly is to admit guilt, and it is too late, 
 moreover. Tush ! tush ! I daresay, it is but Caeparius 
 terror he was a fool always, and I believe a coward also. 
 Beside, if it be true, there is no proof; and what dare Ci 
 cero against me against me, a Consular of Rome 1 At 
 the worst, he will implore me to deliver the city of my pre 
 sence, as he did Catiline. Ha ! Ha ! I will to sleep again. 
 Yet stay, I am athirst, after Sempronia s revel ! Fool, 
 that I was, not to drink more last night, and quench this 
 fiery craving. Ho ! Agathon, my boy, fetch me the great 
 goblet, the double* sextarius, of spiced mulse with a snow 
 water." 
 
 This order was obeyed instantly, and after draining the 
 huge beaker to the bottom, the indolent and reckless trai- 
 
 * The latin Sextarius contained about 99-100 parts of an English 
 Pint. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 105 
 
 toi, rolled himself over, and was asleep again as soundly 
 in five minutes, as if he were not in truth slumbering upon 
 the brink of a volcano. 
 
 Not long however did he sleep in peace, for Caeparius 
 had scarcely been gone an hour, when he was again start 
 led from his doze, by a knocking so violent, at the outer 
 door, that the whole house reechoed with the din. 
 
 He heard the doors opened, and a short angry parle, 
 broken short by the raised voice of the new comers, and 
 the clanging of armed footsteps, along the marble corridor 
 which led toward his chamber. 
 
 A moment afterward, pale as death, with his hair starting 
 and a wild eye, Agathon entered the room. 
 
 " How now 1" exclaimed Lentulus, who fully aroused 
 by this time, was sitting on the edge of the low bedstead, 
 with a purple gown cast carelessly around him, " what is 
 this new disturbance." 
 
 " The Atrium is full of armed soldiers, Lentulus," re 
 plied the man with a faltering accent. 
 
 " Well ! hast thou never seen a soldier before, that thou 
 Btarest so wildly 1" asked his master with a sneer, which 
 even the extremity of danger could not restrain. 
 
 " Their leader insists on present speech with thee. 1 
 told him that thou wert asleep ; but he replied that, waking 
 or asleep, he must have speech with thee." 
 
 " Truly a valiant leader," answered the Praetor. " Hath 
 he a name, this bold centurion]" 
 
 "Paullus Caecilius Arvina," replied the young man, who 
 having followed the freedrnan to the door had overheard 
 all that was passing, " is my name no centurion, as thou 
 mayest see, Lentulus. Loth am I to disturb thy slum 
 bers." 
 
 " Then wherefore do it, youth ?" asked Lentulus, quick 
 ly. " Most broken things may be repaired, but I know 
 not how you shall mend a broken nap, or recompense the 
 loss of it, if irreparable." 
 
 " Not of my own will, but by the Consul s order." 
 
 " The Consul s ] What 1 Antonius? He scarce need 
 have sent a troop of horse, to ask an old friend to break 
 fast !" 
 
 " Cicero sent me, Praetor, to crave your instant presence 
 at his house, touching affairs of state." 
 
106 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " Ha ! Cicero !" said he, affecting to De much surprised 
 " Cicero scarcely is on such terms with me, as to take such 
 a liberty, waking me thus at the dead of night." 
 
 " It is well nigh the fourth hour, Lentulus." 
 
 " What if it be, an I choose to call it midnight ] and 
 what, if I refuse to obey such unceremonious bidding 1" 
 
 " In that case, Lentulus, my orders are to compel your 
 attendance. I have two decuries of men in your Atrium. 
 But I trust that you will drive me to no such necessity." 
 
 " Two decuries !" replied Lentulus scornfully. " I have 
 but to lift my little finger, and my freedmen and slaves 
 would kick your decuries, and yourself after them into the 
 velabrum." 
 
 The blood mounted to the brow of the young soldier. 
 " I have endured," he said, " something too much of this 
 Will you go with us peacefully, Lentulus, or will you force 
 us to take you through the street like a felon V 
 
 " Oh ! peacefully, Arvina, peacefully. I did but jest 
 with you, my hero. But I knew not that the cavalry of 
 the seventh legion the legion of Mars I think they call it 
 had become so degraded, as to do the work of thiefta- 
 kers." 
 
 "Nor I, Lentulus," answered Paul. "But you should 
 know best in this matter. If it be theft for which thou art 
 summoned before Cicero, then are we indeed thieftakers. 
 But if so, not only I believe should we be the first legiona 
 ries of Rome so employed, but thou the first Roman Consu 
 lar so guilty." 
 
 "So proud! ha !" exclaimed the haughty conspirator, 
 gazing at him with a curled lip and flashing eye. "Well, 
 I could quell that pride in one moment, with one word." 
 
 " Even so proud, because honest !" answered the young 
 man, as haughtily as the other. " For the rest, will you 
 clothe yourself at once ] I can wait babbling here no lon 
 ger." 
 
 " I will quell it. Look you, boy, you love Julia, the 
 bright daughter of Hortensia she is worth loving, by the 
 way, and Catiline hath noted it. You fancy that she is safe 
 now, at the Latin villa of her mother. She is not safe 
 nor at the Latin villa ! I have touched you, have I not 1" 
 
 Arvina started, as if a serpent had bitten him ; but in a 
 
 \ 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 107 
 
 moment be recovered himself, saying calmly, " Tush ! it is 
 a poor deceit. ! you cannot alarm me." 
 
 " In truth it was a deceit, but not so very poor after all, 
 since it succeeded. You were sorely wounded a few days 
 since, Arvina, and wrote, I think, to Julia, requesting her 
 to set forth at once to Rome, with Hortensia." 
 
 Folly !" replied Arvina, " Drivelling folly ! Come, has 
 ten your dressing, Lentulus ! You need not perfume your 
 hair, and curl your beard, as if you were going to a ban 
 quet." 
 
 "I never hasten anything, my Paullus. Things done 
 hastily, are rarely things done well. What ? thou did t 
 not write such a letter? I thought thou hadst of this at 
 least I am sure, that she received such an one ; and set out. 
 for Rome, within an hour after." 
 
 " By the Gods!" exclaimed Paullus, a little eagerly, fol 
 Lentulus had changed the slight bantering tone in which 
 he had been speaking, for a quick short decided accen* 
 seeming to denote that he was in earnest. " Where is she 
 now. Speak, Lentulus, I adjure thee. Tell me, if thou 
 wouldst have me serve thee !" 
 
 " I thought I could abate that pride somewhat," said 
 Lentulus sneeringly. " I thought so indeed. But, by -ill 
 the Gods ! Arvina, I know not where your Julia may bo 
 now. I know whither they are conveying her where she 
 soon will be but [ fancy that the knowing it, would give 
 you but little pleasure ; unless, indeed, you could prevent 
 it, my poor youth !" 
 
 " To know, is something at least toward preventing it 
 If, therefore, thou art not, as I believe indeed thou art, 
 merely mocking me, I pray thee tell me, whither are they 
 conveying her 1 Where will she soon be 1" 
 
 " To the camp of Manlius, nigh Fiesole ! In the arms 
 of one Lucius Sergius Catiline a great admirer of your 
 auburn-haired, blue-eyed beauties, my Arvina." 
 
 The young man, with his eyes gleaming and his face 
 crimsoning with furious rage, made two steps forward, and 
 seizing the burly traitor by the throat, compressed his gul 
 let, as if in an iron vice, and shook him to and fro as easily 
 as if he had been a stripling. 
 
 " Shame on thee, filth and carrion that thou art, sc to 
 speak of a betrothed bride to her promised husband It 
 
108 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 it were true, wretched villain ! I would save the hangman 
 his task, and break your traitor s throat with this hand 
 but thou liest ! thou liest !" he shouted, pushing him to the 
 other end of the narrow sleeping chamber. " In poor re 
 venge thou liest ! But if you wish to live, beware how you 
 eo lie any more !" 
 
 * I do not lie indeed, my dear Arvina," replied the other 
 in a bland fawning voice full of mock humility. "But, I 
 prithee, boy, keep thy hands from my throat in future, un 
 less thou wouldst desire to know how a crook-bladed sica 
 some sixteen inches long feels in the region of thy heart. 
 Such an one as this, Arvina," he added, showing a longkeen 
 weapon not unlike a Turkish yatagan in shape, which he 
 drew from beneath his pillow. Then casting it aside, with 
 a contemptuous gesture, he continued " But this is mere 
 child s play. Now mark me. I did not lie, nor do ! Au- 
 lus Fulvius wrote the letter Aulus Fulvius slave carried 
 it, yester-even Aulus Fulvius beset the road by which 
 they must come Aulus Fulvius is ere this time on his 
 road many a league conveying her to Catiline and this," 
 he si .d, muting a small slip of parchment into the hands of 
 the astonished Paullus, " is Aulus Fulvius handwriting. 
 Ye^ certainl), that is his S in the word Salutem. He af- 
 fecis ever the Greek sigma in his writing. He is a very 
 ^retty penman, Aulus Fulvius !" 
 
 The strip of parchment bore these words : 
 
 " Whom I am you will know by the matter. * The camp 
 in Etruria will receive the dove from the Latin villa. All 
 hath succeeded health !" 
 
 "I found it on my desk, when I returned from supper 
 this morning. Aulus s slave brought it hither. He is 
 within, if thou wouldst speak him. 
 
 Arvina staggered back like a man who has received a 
 mortal stab, as he read those fatal words ; and stared about 
 him with a wild and wandering eye. 
 
 It was a moment or two before he could find any speech, 
 and when he did speak at length, it was in tones so altered 
 and broken that his nearest friend would not have recog 
 nized his voice. 
 
 " Wherefore" he gasped " Wherefore have you done 
 this to me." 
 
 " For vengeance !" thundered the proud conspirator, 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 109 
 
 rastmg his crimson-bordered toga over ms laticlavian tunic. 
 " For vengeance, boy. Lead on lead on to your con 
 sul." 
 
 "In what have I wronged you 1 ?" cried Arvina, in a pa 
 roxysm of almost unspeakable despair. " In what, that you 
 should take such infernal vengeance ]" 
 
 " For Julia s love thou didst betray Catiline ! betray us ! 
 In Julia s infamy thou shalt be punished !" 
 
 "Anything! anything! anything but this strike here, 
 strike here with that sica, thou didst unsheath but now. 
 Slay me, by inches if thou wilt but spare her, oh ! by 
 your mother s memory ! oh ! by your sister s honor ! spare 
 her, and I will" 
 
 " Lead on ! To your consul !" exclaimed Lentulus 
 waving his hand proudly to the door. " I can but die 
 the Gods be thanked for it! Thy life is bitterer than many 
 deaths already ! I say, coward and fool, lead on ! Where 
 is thy boasted pride ] In the dust ! at my feet ! I trample, 
 I spit on it ! once again to your consul 1" 
 
 " And thou couldst save her !" 
 
 " By a word ! At a hint from me Fulvius will set her 
 free." 
 
 " But that word 1 but that hint ] " 
 
 " My lips shall never utter my hand indite ; unless " 
 
 " Unless ] unless what ? speak ! speak, Lentulus. By 
 the Gods ! By your head ! By your life ! speak." 
 
 " Place ma beyond the walls of Rome, with twenty <^ e 
 my freedmer-, armed and mounted it can be done cii t^" 
 instant ; they are here ; they are ready ! and Ju i; l. oll<f \f 
 be in t uy bosom ere to-morrow s sun shall > a ink behind tl. 
 hills of Latium !" 
 
 " A Traitor f> my country \ Lentulus, never !" 
 
 " Tush! ooy ! thir>h upon beautiful, soft, weeping, innc 
 cent Julia re^oa by thee from Catiline from pollutio^ 
 think on her gratitude, her love, her kiss ! Think on a 
 life, a whole long life, of rapture ! and then balance 
 against it one small foolish word " 
 
 "Dishonor!" Arvina interrupted him fiercely. 
 
 " Aye ! to which thou consignest Julia, whom thou tov- 
 est ! Kind Venus guard me from such lovers !" 
 
 " Dishonor never can come nigh her," replied Arvina, 
 who had recovered his senses completely, and who, though 
 
110 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 unutterably wretched, was now as firm and as cold as gar 
 ble. " Death it may be, but not dishonor !" 
 
 " Be it so," answered Lentulus. " We will leave hei 
 the option of the two, but believe me, when dishonor is 
 pleasant, women rarely choose death in preference to it. 
 You have had your option too, my Arvina. But I, it seems, 
 can have none, but must wait upon your consul." 
 
 " You have the same which you give Julia !" answered 
 Paullus, sternly. " There is your dagger, and your heart 
 here!" he added, laying his hand on the broad breast of 
 the infamous Patrician. 
 
 " True ! count its pulses cooler, I think, and more 
 regular than thine, Paullus. Tush ! man ! I know a hun 
 dred wiser things and pleasanter than dying. But once 
 more, lead on ! I will speak no word again till I speak to 
 the consul!" 
 
 And without farther words he strode to the door, followed 
 closely by the young soldier, resolute and determined to 
 perform his duly, let what might come of it ! He passed 
 through his marble peristyles, looked with a cool eye on 
 his flowery parterres and sparkling fountains, nodded a 
 careless adieu to his slaves and freedmen, and entered the 
 Atrium where Arvina s troopers awaited him, wondering 
 and impatient at the long delay. 
 
 With a proud gesture he waved his hand toward the 
 door, and six of the number marched forward, three and 
 three, while the rest falling into regular array behind him, 
 escorted him with all respect, but with stern watchfulness, 
 along the Via Sacra to the Carinae. 
 
 Quickly arriving at the Atrium of Cicero s house, which 
 was filled with his friends and clients all in arms, arid with 
 many knights and patricians, whom he knew, but no one 
 of whom saluted or seemed to recognize him, he was ad 
 mitted into the Tablinum, or saloon, at the doors of which 
 six lictors were on guard with their fasces. 
 
 On entering this small but sumptuous chamber he found 
 assembled there already, Cethegus, Statilius, arid Gabinius, 
 silent, with white lips, in an agony of terror worse than 
 death. 
 
 "Ha! my friends!" he exclaimed, with an unaltered 
 mien and voice, " We are met once again. But we seem 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. Ill 
 
 not, by all the Gods ! to be well pleased with the meeting. 
 Why so downcast, Cethegus 1" 
 
 "Bacause on earth it is our last meeting," he replied. 
 And it was clear to see that the boldest and fiercest, and 
 most furious of the band, while danger -was afar, was the 
 most utterly appalled now, when fate appeared imminent 
 and certain. 
 
 " Why, then !" answered Lentulus, * we shall meet in 
 Hell, Cethegus." 
 
 " By the Gods ! jest not so foully " 
 
 "Wherefore not, I prithee? If that this be our last 
 meeting, good faith ! let it be a merry one ! I know not, for 
 my part, what ails ye all." 
 
 "Are you mad? or know you not that Volturcius is a 
 prisoner, and our letters in the hands of the consul ] They 
 will kill us ere noon." 
 
 "Then they must make haste, Caius. It is noon already. 
 But, cheer thee up, be not so much afraid, my brave Ce- 
 theprus they dare not slay us." 
 
 "Dare not?" 
 
 " For their own lives, they dare not !" But as he spoke, 
 raising his voice to its highest pitch, the curtains which 
 closed the other end of the Tablinum were suddenly drawn 
 hacK. and Cicero appeared, clad in his consular robes, and 
 with his ivory staff in his hand. Antonius his colleague 
 stood in the intercolumniation, with all the lictors at his 
 back, and many knights in their appropriate tunics, but 
 with military cloaks above them in place of the peaceful 
 toga, and with their swords girded by their sides. 
 
 " Praetor," said Cicero in a dignified but serene voice, 
 with no show of taunting or of triumph over his fallen ene 
 my. " The Senate is assembled in the temple of Concord. 
 The Fathers wait but for your coming. Give me your hand 
 that I may conduct you thither." 
 
 " My hand, consul 1 Not as a friend s, I trust," said the 
 undaunted Traitor. 
 
 " As a magistrate s, Cornelius Lentulus," replied Cicero 
 severely, " whose hand, even if guilty, may not be polluted 
 by an inferior s grasp." 
 
 "As a magistrate s you have it, consul. We go 1" 
 
 " To the shrine of Concord ! Antonius, my noble col 
 league, let us begone. Senators, follow us ; escape you 
 
 ol 
 
112 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 cannot, if you would; and t would spare you the disgrace 
 of chains." 
 
 " We follow, Cicero," answered Cethegus in a hollo vy 
 voice, and casting his eyes with a wild and haggard ex 
 pression on Gabinius, he added in a whisper, " to our 
 death !" 
 
 " Be it so !" replied the other. " One can but die once 
 and if his time be come, as well now as hereafter. I feai 
 not death now, when I see it face to face. I think, I have 
 heard thee say the same." 
 
 "He spoke," answered Statilius, with a bitter and sar 
 castic laugh, " of the death of others then. Would God, 
 he then had met his own ! So should we now have been in 
 nocent and fearless !" 
 
 "I at least, if not innocent, am fearless." 
 
 And watched on every side by the knights, and followed 
 by the lictors, two behind each, the ringleaders of the plot, 
 all save Caeparius who had fled, and Catiline who was in 
 open arms, an outlaw and proclaimed enemy of his coun 
 try the ringleaders were led away to trial. 
 
 The fate of Rome hung on the firmness of their judges. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 113 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE YOUNG PATRICIAN. 
 
 Not always robes of state are worn, 
 Most nobly by the nobly born. 
 
 H. W. H. 
 
 THE light of that eventful morning, which broke, preg 
 nant with ruin to the conspiracy, found Aulus Fulvius and 
 his band, still struggling among the rugged defiles which it 
 was necessary to traverse, in order to gain the Via Cassia 
 or western branch of the Great North Road, 
 
 It had been necessary to make a wide circuit, in order 
 to effect this, inasmuch as the Latin road, of which the La- 
 bican way was a branch, left the city to the South-eastward, 
 nearly opposite to the Flaminian, or north road, so that the 
 two if prolonged would have met in the forum, and made 
 almost a right line. 
 
 Nor had this been their only difficulty, for they had been 
 compelled to avoid all the villages and scattered farm 
 houses, which lay on their route, in the fear that Julia s out 
 cries and resistance for she frequently succeeded in re 
 moving the bandage from her mouth would awaken sus 
 picion and cause their arrest, while in the immediate vici 
 nity of Rome. 
 
 At one time, the party had been within a very few miles 
 of the city, passing over the Tiber, scarce five miles above 
 the Mulvian bridge, about an hour before the arrest of the 
 ambassadors ; and it was from this point, that Aulus sent 
 
114 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 off his messenger to Lentulus, announcing his success, 
 thereby directly disobeying the commands of Catiline, who 
 had enjoined it on him almost with his last words, to com 
 municate this enterprise to none of his colleagues in guilt. 
 
 Crossing the Flaminian, or great northern road, they had 
 found a relay of fresh horses, stationed in a little grove, 
 of which by this time they stood greatly in need, and 
 striking across the country, at length reached the Cassian 
 road, near the little river Galera, just as the sun rose above 
 the eastern hills. 
 
 At this moment they had not actually effected above ten 
 miles of their journey, as reckoned from the gates of Rome 
 to the camp of Catiline, which was nearly two hundred 
 miles distant, though they had traversed nearly forty during 
 the night, in their wearisome but unavoidable circuit. 
 
 They were, however, admirably mounted on fresh hor 
 ses, and had procured a cisium, or light carnage for two 
 persons, not much unlike in form to a light, gig, in which 
 they had placed the unhappy Julia, with a slight boy, the 
 son of Caius Crispus, as the driver, 
 
 By threats of the most atrocious nature, they had at 
 length succeeded in compelling her to temporary silence. 
 Death she had not only despised, but implored, even when 
 the point of their daggers were razing the skin of her soft 
 neck ; and so terribly were they embarrassed and exasper 
 ated by her persistence, that it is probable they would have 
 taken her life, had it not been for fear of Catiline, whose 
 orders were express to bring her to his camp alive and in 
 honor. 
 
 At length Aulus Fulvius had threatened in the plainest 
 language outrages so enormous, that the poor girl s spirit 
 sank, and that she took an oath, in order to avoid immedi 
 ate indignities, and those the most atrocious, to remain si 
 lent during the next six hours. 
 
 Had she been able to possess herself of any weapon, 
 ehe would undoubtedly have destroyed herself, as the only 
 means she could imagine of escaping what to her was worse 
 than loss of life, the loss of honor; and it was chiefly in 
 the hope of effecting this ere nightfall, that she took tho 
 *>ath prescribed to her, in terms of such tremendous sancti 
 ty, that no Roman would dream of breaking it, on any 
 fi^etsxt of compulsion. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 115 
 
 Liberated by their success in this atrocious scheme, from 
 that apprehension, they now pushed forward rapidly, and 
 reached the station at Baccanae, in a wooded gorge between 
 a range of low hills, and a clear "ake, at about nine in the 
 morning, of our time, or the third hour by Roman compu 
 tation. 
 
 Here they obtained a fresh horse for the vehicle which 
 carried Julia, and tarrying so long only as to swallow a 
 draught of wine, they pressed onward through a steep de 
 file along which the road wound among wooded crags to 
 ward Sutrium. 
 
 At this place, which was a city of some note, they were 
 joined by forty or fifty partisans^ well armed and mcanted 
 on good horses, all veteran soldiers who had been settled 
 on the confiscated estates of his enemies by the great usur* 
 per Sylla, and thenceforth feeling themselves strong enough 
 to overawe any opposition they might meet on the way, 
 they journeyed at a slower rate in perfect confidence of 
 success, numbering now not less than sixty well-equipped 
 Cavaliers. 
 
 Before noon, they were thirty miles distant from Rome, 
 and had reached the bottom of a long and almost precipi 
 tous ascent where the road, scorning any divergence to the 
 right or left, scaled the abrupt heights of a craggy hil?, 
 known at the present day as the Monte Soriano, the ancient 
 lame of which has not descended to these times. 
 
 Scarcely however had they reached the first pitch of the 
 liill, in loose and straggling order, when the rearmost rider. 
 v.ame spurring furiously to the head of the column, and 
 aLnounced to Aulus Fulvius, that they were pursued by a 
 borily of men, nearly equal to themselves in number, who 
 were coming up at a rate so rapid, as made it certain tha 
 they would be overtaken, encumbered as they were wl.h 
 the wheeled carriage conveying the hapless Julia. 
 
 A brief council was held, in which, firmly resisting the 
 proposal of the new-comers to murder their captive, and 
 disperse in small bodies among the hills, Aulus Fulvius 
 and Caius Crispus determined on dividing their men into 
 two parties. The first of these, commanded by the smith, 
 and consisting of two-thirds of their whole force, was des 
 tined to press forward as rapidly as possible ; while Ful 
 vius, with the second, should make a charge down hil] 
 
116 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 upon the pursuers, by which it was hopetl that they might 
 be so effectually checked and alarmed as to give up tho 
 pursuit. 
 
 No time was lost in the execution, a second horse was 
 attached to the cisium, for they had many sumpter animals 
 olong with them, and several spare chargers ; and so much, 
 speed did they make, that Crispus had reached the summ-t 
 of the ridge and commenced the descent before the pur 
 suers had come up with Fulvius and the rear. 
 
 There is a little hollow midway the ascent, which is 
 t.hickly set with evergreen oaks, and hollies, and in the cen 
 tre of this hollow, the road makes a turn almost at right 
 angles. 
 
 33ehind the corner of the wood, which entirely concealed 
 them from any persons coming up the hill, Aulus drew up 
 his men in double lines, and as the band, whom he suspect 
 ed to be in pursuit of him, came into the open space, in 
 loose array, and with their horses blown and weary, he 
 charged upon them with a fierce shout, and threw them into 
 disorder in a moment. 
 
 Nothing could indicate more clearly, the utter reckless 
 ness of the Catilinarian party, and the cheap estimate at 
 which they held human life, than the perfect unconcern 
 with which they set upon a party of men, whose identity 
 with those whom they feared was so entirely unproved. 
 
 Nothing, at the same time, could indicate more clearly, 
 ihe fury and uncalculating valor which had grown up 
 among them, nurtured by the strange policy of Catiline, 
 flaring a peace of eighteen years duration. 
 
 Eighteen men, for, Aulus Fulvius included, they num 
 bered no more, set fiercely upon a force of nearly three 
 times their number, with no advantage of arms or ac- 
 coutremen,t, or even of discipline, for although all old 
 soldiers, these men had not, for years, been accustomed to 
 act together, nor were any of them personally acquainted 
 with the young leader, who for the first time commanded 
 them. 
 
 The one link which held them together, was welded out 
 of crime and desperation. Each man knew that his neigh 
 bor, as well as himself, must win or die there was no 
 compromise, no half-way measure that could by any possi 
 bility preserve them. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 117 
 
 And therefore as one man they charged, as one man they 
 struck, ant! death followed every blow. 
 
 At their first onset, with horses comparatively fresh, 
 against the blown chargers and disordered mass of their 
 pursuers, they were entirely successful. Above a dozen 
 of their opponents went down horse and man, and the re 
 mainder were driven scattering along the slope, nearly to 
 the foot of the declivity. 
 
 Uncertain as he had been at the first who were the men, 
 whom he thus recklessly attacked, Aulus Fulvius had not 
 w r ell turned the angle of the wood, before he recognized 
 the faces of almost all the leading men of the opposite 
 party. 
 
 They were the oldest and most trusty of the clients of 
 his house ; and half a dozen, at the least, of his own name 
 and kindred led them. 
 
 It needed not a moment therefore, to satisfy him that 
 they were in quest of himself, and of himself alone that 
 they were no organized troop and invested with no state 
 authority, but merely a band suddenly collected from his 
 father s household, to bring him back in person from the 
 fatal road on which he had entered so fatally. 
 
 Well did he know the rigor of the old Roman law, as 
 regarded the paternal power, and well did he know, the 
 severity with which his father would execute it. 
 
 The terrors inspired by the thought of an avenging 
 country, would have been nothing the bare idea of being 
 surrendered a fettered captive to his dread father s indig 
 nation, maddened him. 
 
 Fiercely therefore, as he rushed out leading his ari- 
 V-iished followers, the fury of his first charge was mere 
 Voy s play when compared to the virulent and concemra 
 ted rage with which he fought, after he had discovered fair 
 ly against whom he was pitted. 
 
 Had his men shared his feeling, the pursuers must have 
 been utterly defeated and cut to pieces, without the possi 
 bility of escape. 
 
 But while he recognized his personal enemies in the per 
 sons he attacked, the men who followed him as quickly 
 perceived that those, whom they were cutting down, were 
 not regular soldiers, nor led by any Roman magistrate. 
 
 They almost doubted, therefore, as they charged, whe- 
 
118 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ther they were not in error ; and when the horsemen of the 
 other faction were discomfitted and driven down the hill 
 on the instant, they felt no inclination to pursue or harass 
 them farther. 
 
 Not so, however, Aulus. He had observed in the 
 first onset, the features of a cousin, whom he hated ; and 
 now, added to other motives, the fierce thirst for his kins 
 man s blood, stirred his blood almost into frenzy. Know 
 ing, moreover, that he was himself the object of their pur 
 suit, he knew likewise that the pursuit would not be given 
 up for any casual check, but that to conquer, he must crush 
 them. 
 
 Precipitately, madly therefore he drove down the hill, 
 oversetting horseman after horseman, the greater part of 
 them unwounded for the short Roman sword, however 
 efficient at close quarters and on foot, was a most ineffec 
 tive weapon for a cavalier until he reached the bottom of 
 the hill. 
 
 There he reined up his charger for a moment, and looked 
 back, waving his hand and shouting loudly to bring on his 
 comrades to a second charge. 
 
 To his astonishment, however, he saw them collected in 
 a body at nearly a mile s distance, on the brow of the first 
 hill, beckoning him to come back, and evidently possessed 
 by no thought, less than that of risking their lives or liber 
 ty by any fresh act of hostility. 
 
 In the mean time, the fugitives, who had now reached 
 the level ground and found themselves impressed, began to 
 halt ; and before Aulus Fulviushad well made up his mind 
 what to do, they had been rallied and reformed, and were 
 advancing slowly, with a firm arid unbroken front, well 
 calculated to deter his handful, which had already been, 
 diminished in strength, by one man killed, and four or five 
 more or less severely wounded, from rashly making any 
 fresh attack. 
 
 Alone and unsupported, nothing remained for him but 
 to retreat if possible, and make his way back to his peo 
 ple, who, he felt well assured would again charge, If again 
 menaced with pursuit. To do this, however, had now 
 ceased to be an easy, perhaps to be a feasible matter. 
 
 Between himself and his own men, there were at least 
 tt?n of his father s clients ; several of them imie&cl were 
 
DAYS OF CIOKRO, CATO AND CATALINE. 119 
 
 wounded, and all had been overthrown in tne snocK eitne- 
 by himself or his troopers ; but they had all regained their 
 horses, and apparently in consequence of some agree 
 ment or tacit understanding with his comrades, were com 
 ing clown the hill at a gentle trot to rejoin their own par 
 ty- 
 
 Now it was that Aulus began to regret having sent 
 forward the smith, and those of the conspirators to 
 whom he was individually known, with Julia in the van. 
 Since of the fellows who had followed him t ins far, merely 
 because inferior will always follow superior daring, an:! 
 who now appeared mightily inclined to desert him, not 
 three were so much as acquainted with his name, and not 
 one had any intimacy with him, or indeed any community 
 of feeling unless it were the community of crime. 
 
 These things flashed upon Aulus in an instant ; the 
 rather that he saw the hated cousin, whom he had passed 
 unnoticed in his headlong charge, quietly bringing the 
 clients into line between himself and his wavering asso 
 ciates. 
 
 He was in fact hemmed in on every side ; he was alone, 
 and his horse, which he had taxed to the uttermost, was 
 wounded and failing fast. 
 
 His case was indeed desperate, for he could now see 
 that his own faction were drawing off already with the 
 evident intention of rejoining the bulk of the party, care 
 less of his fate, and glad to escape at so small a sacrifice. 
 
 Still, even in this extremity he had no thought of sur 
 render indeed to him death and surrender were but two 
 names for one thing. 
 
 He looked to the right and to the left, if there were any 
 possibility of scaling the wooded slopes and so rejoining 
 the sturdy swordsmith without coming to blows again with 
 his father s household ; but one glance told him that such 
 hopes were vain indeed. On either hand the crags rose 
 inaccessible even to the foot of man, unless he were a 
 practised mountaineer. 
 
 Then rose the untamed spirit of his race, the firm Ro 
 man hardihood, deeming naught done while anything re 
 mains to do, and holding all things feasible to the bold 
 heart and ready hand the spirit which saved Rome when 
 Hannibal was thundering at her gates, which made her 
 
120 THE ROMAN TRAITOR ^>OR, THE 
 
 from a petty town the queen and mistress of the uni 
 verse. 
 
 He gathered his reins firmly in his hand, and turning 
 his horse s head down the declivity put the beast to a slow 
 trot, as if he had resolved to force his way toward Rome ; 
 but in a moment, when his manoeuvre had, as he expected 
 caused the men in his rearto put their horses to their speed, 
 and thus to break their line, he again wheeled, and giving 
 his chargei the spur with pitiless severity drove up the 
 steep declivity like a thunderbolt, and meeting his enemies 
 straggling along in succession, actually succeeded in cut 
 ting down two, before he was envelopped, unhorsed and 
 disarmed, which, as his cousin s men came charging up 
 and down the road at once, it was inevitable that he must 
 be from the beginning. 
 
 " Curses upon thee ! it is thou !" he said, grinding his 
 teeth and shaking his weaponless hand at his kinsman in 
 impotent malignity " it is thou ! Caius. Curses upon 
 thee ! from my birth thou hast crossed me." 
 
 " It were better thou hadst died, Aulus," replied the 
 other solemnly, but in sorrow more than anger, " better 
 that thou hadst died, than been so led back to Rome." 
 
 " Why didst thou not kill me then F asked Aulus with 
 a sneer of sarcastic spite " Why dost thou not kill me 
 now." 
 
 " Thou art sacro sanctus /" answered the other, with an 
 expression of horror in his eyes "doomed, set apart, 
 sanctified unto destruction words, alas! henceforth avail 
 nothing. Bind him" he continued, turning toward his 
 men " Bind him, I say, hard, with his hands behind his 
 back, and his legs under his horse s belly ! Go your way," 
 he added, " Go to your bloody camp, and accursed leader" 
 waving his hand as he spoke, to the veterans above, who 
 seemed half inclined to make an effort to rescue the pri 
 soner. " Go your way. We have no quarrel with you 
 now; we came for him, and having got him we return." 
 
 What ]" cried the dark-eyed boy who had come up 
 too late to the Latin villa on the preceding night, and who, 
 strange to state, was riding with the clients of the Fulvian 
 house, unwearied "What, will you not save licrl will 
 you not do that for which alone I led ye hither 1 will you 
 be falsifiers of your word and dishonored 1" 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 121 
 
 "Alas!" answered Caius Fulvius, " it is impossible. 
 We are outnumbered, my poor boy, and may not aid you, 
 as we would ; but be of good cheer, this villain taken, they 
 will not dare to harm her." 
 
 The youth shook his nead mournfully ; but made no re 
 ply. 
 
 Aulus, however, who had heard all that was said, glared 
 savagely upon the boy, and after examining his features 
 minutely for a moment exclaimed " I know thy face ! 
 who art thou ! quick thy name ?" 
 
 "I have no name!" replied the other gloomily. 
 
 " That voice ! I know thee !" he shouted, an expression 
 of infernal joy animating his features. " Thou miserable 
 fool, and driveller! and is it for this for this, that thou 
 hast brought the bloodhounds on my track, to restore her 
 to him ? Mark me, then, mark me, and see if I am not 
 avenged her dishonor, her agony, her infamy are no less 
 certain than my death. Catiline, Catiline shall avenge me 
 upon her upon him upon thee thou weaker, more va 
 riable thing than woman ! Catiline ! think st thou he 
 will fail ?" 
 
 "He hath failed ere now !" replied the boy proudly. 
 
 " Failed! when T exclaimed Aulus, forgetting his own 
 situation in the excitement of the wordy contest. 
 
 " When he crossed me" then turning once more to the 
 leader of the Fulvian clients, the dark-eyed boy said in a 
 calm determined voice, "You will not, therefore, aid me I" 
 
 " We cannot." 
 
 "Enough ! Look to him, then, that he escape you not." 
 
 "Fear us not. But whither goest thou "?" 
 
 " To rescue Julia. Tell thou to Arvina how these 
 things have fallen out, and whither they have led her; and, 
 above all, that one is on her traces who will die or save 
 her." 
 
 " Ha! ha !" laughed Aulus savagely in the glee of his 
 vengeful triumph. " Thou wilt die, but not save her. I 
 am avenged, already avenged in Julia s ruin !" 
 
 "Wretch!" exclaimed his kinsman, indignant and dis 
 gusted " almost it shames me that my name is Fulvius ! 
 Fearful, however, is the punishment that overhangs thee ! 
 think on that, Aulus ! and if shame fetter not thy tongue, 
 at least let terror freeze it." 
 
122 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " Terror ? of whom ? perhaps of thee, accursed ?" 
 
 " Aulus. Thou hast a father !" 
 
 At that word father, his eyes dropped instantly, their 
 haughty insolence abashed; his face turned deadly pale; 
 his tongue was frozen ; he spoke no word again until at an 
 early hour of morning, they reached the house he had so 
 fatally dishonored. 
 
 Meanwhile, as the party, who had captured him, re 
 turned slowly with their prisoner down the mountain side, 
 the last of the rebels having gallopped off long before to 
 join the swordsmith and his gang, the boy, who took so 
 deep an interest in Julia, dismounted from the white horse, 
 which had borne him for so many hours with unabated 
 fire and spirit, and leaving the high road, turned into a 
 glade among the holm oaks, watered by a small streamlet, 
 leading his courser by the rein. 
 
 Having reached a secluded spot, quite removed from 
 sight of the highway, he drew from a small wallet, which 
 was attached to the croupe, some pieces of coarse bread 
 and a skin of generous wine, of which he partook spa 
 ringly himself, giving by far the larger portion to his four- 
 footed friend, who greedily devoured the cake saturated 
 with the rich grape-juice. 
 
 This done he fastened the beast to a tree so that he 
 could both graze and drink from the stream ; and then 
 throwing himself down at length on the grass, he soon fell 
 into a heavy and quiet sleep. 
 
 It was already sunset, when he awoke, and the gray 
 hues of night were gathering fast over the landscape ; but 
 he seemed to care nothing for the approaching darkness as 
 he arose reinvigorated and full of spirit, and walked up to 
 his horse which whinnied his joyful recognition, and tossed 
 his long thin mane with a spirited and fiery air, as he felt 
 the well-known hand clapping his high arched crest. 
 
 " Courage ! brave horse," he cried " Courage, White 
 Ister. We will yet save her, for Arvina !" 
 
 And, with the words he mounted, and cantered away 
 through the gloom of the woodland night, on the road to 
 ward Bolsena, well assured of the route taken by Caius 
 Crispus arid his infernal crew. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 123 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE ROMAN FATHER. 
 
 Daughter, He fled. 
 
 That Flight was parricide. 
 
 MASON S CARACTACUS. 
 
 THE streets of Rome were in fierce and terrible confu 
 sion all that day long, on which the conspirators were ar 
 rested, and all the night that followed it. 
 
 Late on the evening of that day, when it was already 
 dark, the Consul had addressed the people by torch-light 
 in the forum, delivering that superb speech, known as 
 the third oration against Catiline. 
 
 In it, he had informed them clearly of all the events 
 which had occurred in the last twenty-four days, since the 
 delivery of his second speech, more especially treating of 
 those which had taken place in the preceding day and 
 night. 
 
 The conspiracy made manifest by overwhelming evi 
 dence the arrest of the ambassadors, the seizure of the 
 letters, the acknowledgment of those letters for their own 
 by the terrified and bewildered traitors, and last.ly the 
 committal of the ringleaders of the plot to close custody, 
 previous to the discussion of their fate such were the 
 wondrous and exciting facts, which he had announced to 
 the assembled multitudes, inviting them to join him in a 
 solemn thanksgiving to the Gods, and public celebration, 
 decreed by the Senate to his honor ; congratulating them 
 32 
 
124 THE ROMAN TRAITOR 
 
 on their escape from a danger so imminent and so general ; 
 and calling on them, in conclusion, to watch over the safe 
 ty of the city by nocturnal guards and patroles, as they had 
 done so diligently during all that emergency. 
 
 The thundering acclamations, which greeted the close 
 of that luculent and powerful exposition, the zeal with 
 which the concourse hailed him unanimously Savior of 
 Rome and Father of his country, the eagerness of affection 
 with which all ranks and ages thronged around him, ex 
 pressing their gratitude and their devotion, by all means 
 imaginable, proved satisfactorily that, whatever might have 
 been the result had massacre, plunder, and conflagration 
 fallen upon them unawares, the vast mass of the people 
 were now loyal, and true to their country. 
 
 The seven hills never had resounded with louder din of 
 civic triumph, than they did on that glorious night ; not 
 when the noble Scipio triumphed for Carthage overthrown ; 
 not when the mighty Marius,* begirt with a host of cap 
 tives and all the pomp of war, dismounted, happiest of 
 men, from his Teutonic Car. 
 
 The streets were as light as day with the glare of lamps, 
 and torches, and bonfires blazing on all the circumjacent 
 heights, as with tremendous shouts, and unpremeditated 
 triumph, the mighty multitude escorted the great Consul 
 home, not to his own house, where the rites of the Good 
 Goddess were in celebration, and whither no male could 
 be admitted, but to his next-door neighbor s mansion, in 
 which he and his friends were entertained with more than 
 regal splendor. 
 
 What could have been more glorious, what more un 
 mixed with any touch of bitterness, or self reproach, than 
 Cicero s position on that evening ] 
 
 His country saved from miseries unparalleled saved by 
 himself alone no aid of rival generals, no force of mar 
 shalled hosts to detract from the greatness of his own a- 
 chieveinent all the strife borne, all the success won, all the 
 glory conquered by the force of his own genius, of his own 
 
 * Quid illo cive tulisset 
 
 Nature in terris quid Roma beatius unquam, 
 Si circumducto captivoum agmine, et ornni 
 Belli >rum pompa, anirnam exhalasset opimam,. 
 Quurn de Teufouico vellet descendere Curru. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 125 
 
 moral resolution. No blor d of friends hat) been spilt to 
 buy that conquest, and wring its tribute of anguished sor 
 row from eyes blight with the mixed excitement of re 
 gret and triumph no widow s tears, no orphan s sighs, 
 had mounted heavenward amid those joyous conclarna- 
 tions. 
 
 With no sword drawn, with no army arrayed, alone in 
 his peaceful toga, he had conquered the world s peace ; 
 and, for that night at least, be enjoyed, as his great merit s 
 meed, a world s gratitude. 
 
 All night long had the streets been crowded with loud 
 and ardent throngs of all ages, sexes, ranks, conditions, 
 questioning, cheering, carolling, carousing all, in appear 
 ance at least, unanimous in joy ; for none dared in such 
 an ebullition of patriotic feeling to display any disaffection. 
 
 And the morrow dawned upon Rome, still noisy, still 
 alive with tumultuous joy, still filled, through the whole 
 area within its walls, by thousands, and tens of thousands, 
 hoarse with shouting, weary almost of revelling, haggard 
 arid pale from the excess of excitement. 
 
 Such was the scene, which the metropolis of the world 
 presented, when at the second hour of the morning, on the 
 day following the arrest of Lentulus, a small party consis 
 ting of about fifty horsemen, conducting a prisoner, with 
 his arms bound behind his back, gagged, and with the lap 
 pet of his cloak so disposed as to conceal his face, entered 
 the Quirinal gate, from the direction of the Flaminian 
 way. 
 
 They were the clients of the Fulvian House, leading the 
 miserable Aulus homeward, under the command of his 
 cousin. The horses were jaded, and bleeding from many 
 a spur gall ; the men were covered with dust arid sweat ; 
 and several of their number were wounded ; but, what at 
 once struck the minds of all who beheld them, was that 
 their faces, although stern and resolute, were grave, deject 
 ed and sad, while still it would seem that they were re 
 turning in triumph from some successful expedition. 
 
 At any other time, the entrance of such a party would 
 have awakened much astonishment and surprise, perhaps 
 might have created a tumult among the excitable and easily 
 agitated Romans ; but now so strangely had the popular 
 mind been stimulated during t hc *"" days, that they either 
 
126 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 paid no attention to the train at all, or observed, pointing 
 to the prisoner, that there went another of the parricides. 
 
 Just, however, as the new-comers entered the gate, 
 another armed band met them, moving outward : the lat 
 ter being a full troop, thirty in number, of cavalry of the 
 seventh legion, with a banner, and clarion, and Paullus 
 Arvina at their head, In complete armor, above which he 
 wore a rich scarlet cloak, or paludamcntum, floating over 
 his left shoulder. 
 
 The face of the young man was as pale as that of a 
 corpse, his eyes were sunken, and surrounded by dark cir 
 cles, his cheeks were hollow, and among the short black 
 curls, which were visible beneath the brazen peak of his 
 sculptured casque, there was one as white as snow. 
 
 Since the dread news had reached him of Julia s abduc 
 tion, he had not closed his eyes for a moment; and, al 
 though scarcely eight and forty hours had elapsed, since 
 he received the fatal intelligence, he had grown older by 
 many years. 
 
 No one, who looked upon him, would have judged him 
 to be younger than thirty-five or forty years, when he was 
 in truth little more than half way on life s journey toward 
 the second period. 
 
 There was a cold firm determination too written on all 
 his features, such as is rarely seen in young men; and the 
 wild vacillating light which used to flicker so changefully 
 over his fine face, was lost in an expression of mournful 
 and despairing resolution. 
 
 Still his attitude on his charger s back was fine and spi 
 rited ; his head was proudly erect : and his voice, as from 
 time to time, he uttered some command to his troopers, 
 was clear, steady, and sonorous. 
 
 So much indeed was he altered, that Caius Fulvius, who 
 knew him well, gazed at him doubtfully for half a minute 
 ere he addressed him, as the two troops came almost into 
 contact, the mounted clients of the Fulvian House, with 
 drawing to the wayside to allow the legionaries to pass. 
 
 Assured at last that it was indeed Arvina, he called out 
 as he passed 
 
 " Tell me, I pray thee, Paullus, what means this con 
 course in the streets ] hath aught of ill befallen V 
 
 "Ha! is itthuu, Caius Fulvius V replied Arvina. "I 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 127 
 
 will speak with thee anon. Lead the men forward," he 
 added, turning round in his saddle to the second Decurion 
 of his troop, " my good Drusus. I will overtake you, er 
 you shall reach the Mulvian bridge." Here wheeling his 
 horse to the side of the young nobleman, " Where hast 
 thou been, Caius, that thou hast not heard ] All the con 
 spirators have been arrested. Lentulus, and Cethegus, 
 Gabinius, Statilius, and Caeparius! They have confessed 
 their letters the Gaulish ambassadors, and Titus Voltur- 
 cius have given evidence against them. The senate is de 
 bating even now on their doom." 
 
 " Indeed ! indeed ! when did all this fall out T enquired 
 the other evidently in great astonishment. 
 
 "Yesterday morning they were taken. The previous 
 night, in the third watch, the ambassadors were stopped on 
 the Mulvian bridge, and the treasonable papers found on 
 Volturcius." 
 
 " Ha! this is indeed news !" cried Caius. "What will 
 befall Lentulus and the rest 1 Do men know anything !" 
 
 " Death !" answered Arvina gravely. 
 
 " Death ! art thou certain ] A Praetor, a consular of 
 Rome ! and all the others Senators ! Death! Paullus ?" 
 
 "Death!" replied the other still more solemnly, than 
 before. " Yet methinks ! that rather should be a boon, than 
 the fit penalty of such guilt ! But where have you been, 
 that you are ignorant of all this, and whom have you 
 there V 
 
 Caius Fulvius shook his head sorrowfully, and a deep 
 groan burst from the lips of the muffled man, a groan of 
 rage mingled with hate and terror. 
 
 " I will tell tkee, Arvina," said the young man, after a 
 moment s pause, during which Paullus had been gazing 
 with a singular, and even to himself incomprehensible, emo 
 tion at the captive horseman. " We have been sent to 
 fetch him back," and he pointed to his wretched cousin, 
 " as he fled to join Catiline. We overtook him nigh to 
 Volsiriii." 
 
 "Who who " exclaimed Arvina in a terrible hoarse 
 voice " By all the Gods ! who is he 1 " 
 
 " Aulus " 
 
 " Ha ! villain ! villain ! He shall die by my hand I 
 32* 
 
128 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 t ,rst fr<\7: Arvina s lips with a stifled cry, and drawing his 
 ewoTu as he spoke, he made toward him. 
 
 But C~ias Fulvius, and several others of the clients 
 threw themselves into the way, and the former said quietly 
 but very firmly, " No no, my Paullus, that must not be. 
 His life is oevoted to a baser doom ; nor must his blood be 
 shed by a hand so noble ! But wherefore Ha!" he ex 
 claimed, interrupting himself in mid speech. " Ha ! Julia, 
 I remember I remember would to the Gods 1 could 
 have rescued her." 
 
 For one second s space Paullus Arvina glared upon 
 the speaker, as if he would have stabbed him where he sat 
 on his horse motionless and unresisting ; then, shaking his 
 head with an abrupt impatient motion as if to rid himself 
 of some fixed image or impression, he said, 
 
 " You are right, Caius. But tell me ! by the Gods ! was 
 she with him 1 saw you aught of her, as you took him ?" 
 
 " She was in his power, my poor Paullus, as we were 
 told at Sutrium ; but when we overtook him, he had sent 
 forward all his band but a small party, who fought so hard 
 and handled us so roughly, that, he once taken, we dared 
 not set on them again. But, be of good cheer, my Paullus. 
 There is a gallant youth on the track of them; the same 
 youth who went to save her at the Latin villa but arrived 
 too late; the same who brought us the tidings of yon villain s 
 flight, who led us in pursuit of them. He follows still, and 
 swears that he will save her ! The Gods grant it 1" 
 
 " A youth, ha ! who is he V 
 
 " I know not. He refused to tell us, still saying that he 
 was nameless. A slight slender black- eyed youth. Ex 
 ceeding dark-complexioned, but handsome withal. You 
 would have said, to look on him, he would lack strength 
 to ride an hour; yet, by the God of Faith ! he was in the 
 saddle incessantly for nearly forty hours, and shewed less 
 weariness than our sturdiest men. Never saw I such fiery 
 will, and resolute endurance, in one so young and feeble." 
 
 "Strange !" muttered Paullus " strange ! why came he 
 not to me 1" 
 
 " He did go to your mansion, but found you not. You 
 were absent on state business then came he to the father 
 of this demon, who sent us in pursuit, and we have, as I 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 129 
 
 Jell you, succeeded. May you do so likewise ! He charged 
 me to say to you there was one on her track who would 
 die to save her. " 
 
 " Tis passing strange ! I may not even guess who it 
 should be," he added musing, " the Gods give him strength. 
 But tell me, Gains, can I, by any speed, overtake them V 
 
 " I fear me not, Paullus, ere they have reached the camp. 
 They were nigh to Volsinii at noon yesterday ; of course 
 they will not loiter on the way." 
 
 " Alas F replied the unhappy youth. "Curses! curses! 
 ten thousand curses on his head !" and he glanced savagely 
 upon Aulus as he spoke "to what doom do ye lead him ]" 
 
 "To an indignant father s pitiless revenge!" 
 
 " May he perish ill ! may his unburied spirit wander 
 and wail forever upon the banks of Acheron, unpardoned 
 and despairing!" 
 
 And turning suddenly away, as if afraid to trust himself 
 longer in sight of his mortal enemy, he plunged his spurs 
 deep into his charger s flank, and gallopped away in order 
 to overtake his troop, with which he was proceeding to 
 join the army which Antonius the consul and Petreius his 
 lieutenant were collecting on the sea-coast of Emma in 
 order to act against Catiline. 
 
 Meanwnil the others rode forward on their gloomy er 
 rand toward the Fulvian House. 
 
 They reached its doors, and at the trampling of their 
 horses feet, before any summons had been given, with a 
 brow dark as night and a cold determined eye, the a^ed 
 Senator came forth to meet his faithful clients. 
 
 At the first glance he cast upon the party, the old man 
 saw that they had succeeded ; and a strange expression of 
 satisfaction mixed with agony crossed his stern face. 
 
 "It is well !" he said gravely. " Ye have preserved the 
 honor of my house. I give ye thanks, my friends. Well 
 have ye done your duty ! It remains only that I do my 
 own. Bring in your prisoner, Caius, and ye, my friends, 
 leave us, I pray you, to our destiny." 
 
 The young man to whom he addressed himself, leaped 
 down from his horse with one or two of the clients, and, 
 unbuckling the thong which fastened his cousin s legs un 
 der the belly of the beast he rode, lifted him to the ground ; 
 for in a sort of sullen spite, although unable to resist, he 
 
130 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 moved neither hand nor foot, more than a marble statue 
 would have clone ; and when he stood on the pavement, he 
 made no step toward the door, and it was r.ecessary to car 
 ry him bodily up the steps of the colo T :iiade, and through 
 the vestibule into the atrium. 
 
 In that vast hall a fearful group was assembled. On a 
 large arm chair at the upper end sat an aged matron, per 
 fectly blind, with hair as white as snow, and a face furrowed 
 with wrinkles, the v/ork of above a century. She was the 
 mother of the c ^nator, the grandmother of the young cul 
 prit. At her right hand stood another large chair vacant, 
 fKj seat of the master of the house ; and at her left sat an- 
 o^-^.t lady, already far advanced in years, yet stately, firm, 
 :.nd unflinching the wretched, but proud mother. Be- 
 1 ind her stood three girls of various ages, the youngest not 
 counting above sixteen years, all beautiful, and fine y 
 made, but pale as death, with their superb dark eyes dilu 
 ted and their white lips mute with strange horror. 
 
 Lower down the hall toward the door, and not far re 
 moved from the altar of the household gods, near the im- 
 pluvium, stood a black wooden block, with a huge broad 
 axe lying on it, and a grim-visaged slave leaning against 
 the wall with folded arms in a sort of stoical indifference 
 the butcher of the family. By his trade, he little cared 
 whether he practised it on beasts or men ; and perhaps he 
 looked forward with some pleasurable feelings to the deal 
 ing of a blow against one of the proud lords of Empire. 
 
 No one could look upon that mute and sad assemblage 
 \vithout perceiving that some dread domestic tragedy was 
 in process ; but how dreadful no one could conceive, who 
 was not thoroughly acquainted with the strange and tre 
 mendous rigor of the old Roman Law. 
 
 The face of the mother was terribly convulsed, as she 
 heard the clanging hoof tramps at the door; and in an ago 
 ny of unendurable suspense she laid her hand upon her 
 heart, as if to still its wild throbbing. 
 
 Roman although she was, and trained from her child 
 hood upward in the strictest school of Stoicism, he, on 
 whom they were gathered there to sit in judgment, was still 
 her first-born, her only son ; and she could not but remem 
 ber in this hour of wo the unutterable pleasure with which 
 she had listened to the first small cry of him, then so inno- 
 
DATS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 131 
 
 cent and weak and gentle, who now so strong in 
 
 and so fierce in sin, stood living on the verge of death. 
 
 But now as the clanging of the horse hoofs ceased, dif 
 ferent sounds succeeded; and in a moment the anxious 
 ears of the wife and mother could discern the footsteps of 
 the proud husband, and the fallen child. 
 
 They entered the hall, old Aulus Fulvius striding with 
 martial steps and a resolute yet solemn brow toward the 
 chair of judgment, like to some warlike Flamen about to 
 execute the wrath of the Gods upon his fated victim ; the 
 son shuffling along, with downcast eyes and an irregular 
 pace, supported on one hand by his detested cousin, and 
 on the other by an aged freedman of the house. 
 
 The head of the younger Aulus was yet veiled with the 
 lappet of his gown ; so that he had seen none of those who 
 were then assembled, none of the fatal apparatus of his 
 fore-ordered doom. 
 
 But now, as the old man took his seat, he made a move 
 ment with his hand, and Caius, obedient to the gesture, 
 lifted the woollen covering from the son s brow, and re 
 leased his hold of his arm. At a second wafture, the 
 nephew and the freedman both departed, glad to be spared 
 the witnessing a scene so awful as that which was about to 
 ensue. 
 
 The sound of their departing footsteps fell with an icy 
 chill on the stout heart of the young conspirator ; and al 
 though he hated the man, who had just left the room, more 
 than any living being, he would yet willingly have detained 
 him at that crisis. 
 
 He felt that even hatred was less to be apprehended 
 than the cold hard decision of the impassive unrelenting 
 father, in whose heart every sentiment was dead but those 
 of justice and of rigorous honor. 
 
 " Aulus, lift up your eyes !" 
 
 And, for the first time since he had entered the hall, the 
 culprit looked up, and gazed with a wild and haggard eye 
 on the familiar objects which met his glance on every side ; 
 and yet, familiar as they were, all seemed to be strange, al 
 tered, and unusual. 
 
 The statues of his dead ancestors, as they stood, grim 
 and uncouth in their antique sculpture, between the pillars 
 of the wall, seemed to dilate in size, and, become gigantic, 
 
132 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ;o frown stern contempt on their degenerate descendant. 
 The grotesque forms of the Etruscan household Gods ap 
 peared to gibber at him ; the very flames upon the altar, 
 before them, ca,st lurid gleams and ominous to his distem 
 pered fancy. 
 
 It was singular, that the last thing which he observed 
 was that, which would have been the first to attract the no 
 tice of a stranger the block, the axe, and the sullen heads 
 man. 
 
 A quick shudder ran through every limb and artery of 
 his body, and he turned white and livid. His spirit was 
 utterly appalled and broken ; his aspect was that of a sneak 
 ing culprit, a mean craven. 
 
 " Aulus, lift up your eyes !" 
 
 And he did lift them, with a strong effort, to meet the 
 fixed and searching gaze of his father ; but so cold, so pene 
 trating was that gaze, that his glance fell abashed, nd he 
 trembled from head to foot, and came well nigh to falling 
 on the earth in his great terror. 
 
 " Aulus, art thou afraid to die 1 thou, who hast sworn 
 BO deeply to dye thine hands in my gore, in the gore of all 
 who loved their country 1 Art thou afraid to die, slabber, 
 adulterer, poisoner, ravisher, parricide, Catilinarian 1 Art 
 thou afraid to die 1 I should have thought, when thou 
 didst put on such resolves, thou wouldst have cast aside all 
 that is human ! Once more, I say, art thou afraid to die ]" 
 
 " To die !" ho exclaimed in husky tones, which seemed 
 to stick in his parched throat " to die ! to be nothing !" 
 
 And again the convulsive shudder ran through his whole 
 frame. 
 
 But ere the Senator could open his lips to reply, the 
 blind old grandam asked, in a voice so clear and shrill that 
 its accents seemed to pierce the very souls of all who 
 heard it 
 
 " Is he a coward, Aulus Fulvius 1 Is he a coward, too, 
 as well as a villain 1 The first of our race, is he a cow 
 ard r 
 
 " I fear it," answered the old man gloomily. " But, 
 cowardly or brave, he must disgrace our house no farther. 
 His time is come ! his fate cries out for him ! Aulus must 
 die ! happy to die without the taint of public and detected 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 133 
 
 infamy happy to die unseen in his father s house, not in 
 the base and sordid Tallianum." 
 
 " Mother ! mother !" exclaimed the wretched youth in 
 a paroxysm of agony. " Sisters, speak for me plead for 
 me ! I am young, oh, too young to die !" 
 
 " The mother, whom thou hast sworn to murder the 
 sisters, whose virgin youth thou hast agreed to yield to the 
 licentious arms of thy foul confederates !" answered the old 
 man sternly ; while the women, with blanched visages, 
 convulsed with agony, were silent, even to that appeal. 
 
 " Speak, speak ! will you not speak for me, for your 
 first-born son, my mother ]" 
 
 " Farewell !" the cold word came forth from her pallid 
 lips, with a mighty effort " Farewell, unhappy !" And, 
 unable to endure the dreadful scene any longer, she arose 
 from her seat, and laid her hand on the blind woman s 
 arm. " Come," she said, " mother of my lord ! our task is 
 ended ! his doom spoken ! Let us go hence !" 
 
 But the youngest sister, overcoming her fear of the stern 
 father, her modesty of youth, and her sense of high-strain 
 ed honor, cast herself at the old man s feet, and clung 
 about his knees, crying with a shrill painful cry 
 
 " Oh, father ! by your right hand ! by your gray head ! 
 by all the Gods ! I implore you, pardon, spare him !" 
 
 "Up! up! base girl !" cried the old man; " wouldst 
 have the infamy of our house made public ] and thou, most 
 miserable ooy, spare ner, thou, this disgrace, and me this 
 anguish veil thy head ! bow thee o the block ! bid the 
 slave do his office ! At least, Aulus, if thou hast not lived, 
 at least die, a Roman !" 
 
 The second of the girls, while her sister had made that 
 fruitless appeal to the father s mercy, walked steadily to 
 her brother, kissed his brow with a tearless eye, and in a 
 low voice bade him "Farewell for ever!" then turned 
 away, impassive as her father, and followed her mother 
 and the blind grandam from the fatal hall. 
 
 But the third daughter stepped up to the faltering youth 
 with a hectic flush on her cheek, and a fitful fire in her 
 eye, and whispered in his ear, 
 
 " Aulus, my brother ! unhappy one, it is vain ! Thou 
 must die, for our house s honor ! Die, then, my brother, 
 as it becomes a Fulvius, bravely, and by a free hand ! 
 
134 
 
 Which of our house perished ever by a base weapon, or a 
 slavish blow ? Thou wert brave ever, be brave now, 
 oh ! my brother !" 
 
 And at her words, his couragfc, his pride, rallied to his 
 aid ; and he met her eye with a flashing glance, and an 
 swered in a firm tone, " I will, sister, I will die as becomes 
 a Roman, as becomes a Fulvius ! But how shall I die by 
 a free hand, bound as I am, and weaponless V 1 
 
 " Thus, brother," she replied, drawing a short Keen 
 knife from the bosom of her linen stola ; and severing the 
 bonds which confined his elbows, she placed it in his hands. 
 " It is keen ! it will not fail you ! it is the last gift of the 
 last who loves you, Aulus !" 
 
 " The best gift ! Farewell, sister !" 
 
 " Farewell, Aulus, for ever!" And she too kissed him 
 on the brow ; and as she kissed him, a hot tear fell upon 
 his cheek. Then, turning toward her sister who was still 
 clinging to the old man s knees, embarrassing him with 
 useless prayers, so that he had observed none of that by 
 play, she said to her firmly, 
 
 " Come, little girl, come ! It is fruitless ! Bid him fare 
 well ! he is prepared to die ! he cannot survive his ho 
 nor !" 
 
 And she drew her away, screaming and struggling, with 
 eyes deluged in tears, from the apartment wherein the 
 Senator now stood face to face with his first born, the slave 
 alone present as. a witness of the last struggle. 
 
 But Aulus had by this time recovered all the courage of 
 his race, all his own natural audacity ; and waving his 
 hand with a proud gesture toward the slave, he exclaimed 
 in tones of severe authority : 
 
 * Dismiss that wretched slave, Aulus Fulvius. Ready 
 I am to die nay ! I wish not to live ! But it becomes 
 not thce to doom me to such a death, nor me so to die ! 
 Noble I am, and free ; and by a free hand will I die, and 
 a noble weapon !" 
 
 There was so much command, so much high pride, and 
 spirit, in his tone, his expression, and his gesture, that an 
 answering chord was struck in the mind of the old man ; 
 so that without reply, and without evincing any surprise at 
 seeing the youth s arms unbound, he waved a signal to the 
 slave to depart from the atrium 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 135 
 
 Then the youth knelt down on one knee before the 
 altar, and cried aloud in a solemn voice 
 
 " Pardon me, ye Gods of our house, for this dishonor 
 which I have brought upon you ; absolve me, ye grand an 
 cestors ; mine eyes are open now, and I perceive the sin, 
 the shame, the sorrow of my deeds ! Absolve me, ye 
 great Gods, and ye glorious men ; and thou, my father, 
 think sometimes of the son. whom it repented of his guilt, 
 but whom it pained not" he raised his arm aloft, and the 
 bright knife-blade glittered in the rays of the altar-fire, 
 when the old Senator sprang forward, with all his features 
 working strangely, and cried " Hold !" 
 
 It might be that he had relented ; but if it were so, it 
 was too late ; for, finishing his interrupted sentence with 
 these words 
 
 " to die for his house s honor !" 
 
 the young man struck himself one quick blow on the 
 breast, with a hand so sure and steady, that the knife 
 pierced througti his ribs as if they had been paper, and 
 clove his heart asunder, standing fixed hilt-deep in his 
 chest ; while, without word, or groan, t)r sigh or struggle, 
 he dropped flat on his back beside the imjyJuvium, and was 
 dead in less time than it has taken to describe the deed. 
 
 The father looked on for a moment calmly; and then 
 said in a cool hard voice, "It is well! it is well! The 
 Gods be thanked ! he died as a Roman should !" 
 
 Then he composed his limbs, and threw a w r hite cloth 
 which lay nigh the block, over the face and body of the 
 wretched youth. 
 
 But, as he turned to leave the atrium, nature was too 
 strong for his philosophy, for his pride ; and crying out, 
 " My son ! my son ! He was yet mine own son ! mine 
 own Aulus!" and burying his face in his toga, he burst 
 into a paroxysm of loud grief, and threw himself at length 
 on the dead body : father and son victims alike to the in 
 exorable Roman honor ! 
 
 33 
 
136 THE ROMAN TRAITOR: OR. THE 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE DOOM. 
 
 Without dehrUenieiit further, more or le*a, 
 lie shoiilil tin 1 beitrcrs put to sudden dentil, 
 Not striving time allowed. 
 
 HAMLET. 
 
 THE nones* of November were perilous indeed to 
 Rome. 
 
 The conspirators, arrested two days previously, and fully 
 convicted on the evidence of the Gaulish ambassadors, of 
 Titus Volturcius of Crotona, and of Lucius Tarquinius, 
 convicted on the evidence of their own letters and lastly 
 convicted by their own admissions, were yet uncondemned 
 and in free custody, as it was termed ; under the charge of 
 certain senators and magistrates, whose zeal for the repub 
 lic was undoubted. 
 
 There was still in the city a considerable mass of men, 
 turbulent, disaffected, ripe for tumult there was still, in 
 the Senate a large party, not indeed favorable to the plot, 
 but far from being unfavorable to the plotters, Catiline 
 was at the head of a f ower which had increased already to 
 nearly the force of two legions, and was in full march up 
 on Rome. 
 
 Should the least check of the armies sent against him 
 occur under such circumstances, there was but little doubt 
 that an eruption of the Gladiators, and a servile insurrec 
 tion, would liberate the traitors, and perhaps even crown 
 their frantic rashness with success. 
 
 * The fifth day of November. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 137 
 
 Such was the state of things, on the morning of the 
 nones ; and the brow of the great Consul was dark, and 
 his heart heavy, as he entered the Senate, convened on this 
 occasion in the temple of Jupiter Stator, in order to take 
 the voice of that body on the fate of Lentulus and the rest. 
 
 But scarcely had he taken his seat, before a messenger 
 was introduced, breathless and pale, the herald of present 
 insurrection. 
 
 The freedmen and clients of Lentulus were in arms ; 
 the gladiators and the slaves of Cethegus were up already, 
 and hurrying through the streets toward the house of 
 Quintus Cornificius, wherein their master was confined. 
 
 Many slaves of other houses, and no small number of 
 disaffected citizens had joined them ; and the watches 
 were well nigh overpowered. 
 
 Ere long the roar of the mob might be heard even with 
 in those hallowed precincts, booming up from the narrow 
 streets about the Forum, like the distant sound of a heavy 
 surf. 
 
 Another, and another messenger followed the first in 
 quick succession one manipule of soldiers had been over 
 powered, and driven into some houses where they defend 
 ed themselves, though hard set, with their missiles the 
 multitude was thundering at the gates of the City Prisons ; 
 and, if not quelled immediately, would shortly swell their 
 numbers by the accession of all the desperate criminals, 
 convicted slaves, and reckless debtors, who were crowded 
 together in those abodes of guilt and wretchedness. 
 
 Then was it seen, when the howls of the rabble were 
 echoing through the arches of the sanctuary wherein they 
 sate ; when massacre and conflagration were imminent, 
 and close at hand ; then was it seen, how much of real 
 majesty and power resided still in the Roman Senate. 
 
 Firm, as when Hannibal was thundering at their gates, 
 solemn as when the Gaul was ravaging their city, they sat, 
 and debated, grave, fearless, and unmoved. 
 
 Orders were issued to concentrate forces upon the spot 
 where the tumult was raging ; the knights, who were col 
 lected under arms, in the whole force of their order, with 
 out the gates of the Temple as a guard to the Senate, were 
 informed that the Fathers were sufficiently defended by 
 
138 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 their own sanctity ; and were requested to march down 
 unon the forum, and disperse the rioters. 
 
 The heavy tramp of their solid march instantly succeed 
 ed the transmission of the order ; and, in a short time af 
 ter, the deep swell of their charging shout rose high above 
 the discordant clamors of the mob, from the hollow of the 
 Velabrum. 
 
 Still, not a Senator left his seat, or changed countenance ; 
 although it might be seen, by the fiery glances and clinched 
 hands of some among the younger nobles, that they would 
 have gladly joined the knights, in charging their hereditary 
 enemies, the Democratic rabble. 
 
 The question which was then debating was of more 
 weight, however, than any triumph over the mob ; for by 
 the decision of that question it was to be determined whe 
 ther the traitors and the treason should be crushed simul 
 taneously and forever, or whether Rome itself should be 
 abandoned to the pleasure of the rebels. 
 
 That question was the life or death of Lentulus, Cethe 
 gus, Gabinius, Statilius, and Caeparius ; all of whom were 
 in separate custody, the last having been brought in on 
 the previous evening, arrested on his way to the camp of 
 Catiline and Manlius. 
 
 Should the Senate decree their death, the commoriwealth 
 might be deemed safe should it absolve them, by that 
 weakness, the republic must be lost. 
 
 And on the turn of a die did that question seem to 
 hang. 
 
 Deciua Junius Silanus, whose opinion was first asked, 
 spoke briefly, but strenuously and to the point, and as be 
 came the Consul elect, soon to be the first magistrate of 
 that great empire. He declared for the capital punishment 
 of all those named above, and of four others, Lucius Cas- 
 sius, Publius Furius, Publius Umbrenus, aud Quintus An- 
 nius, if they should be thereafter apprehended. 
 
 Several others of the high Patrician family followed on 
 the same side ; and no one had as yet ventured openly to 
 urge the impunity of the parricides, although Tiberius 
 Nero had recommended a delay in taking the question,,, 
 and the casting of the prisoners meanwhile into actual in 
 carceration under the safeguard of a military force. 
 
 But it had now come to the turn of Caius Julius Caesar, 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 139 
 
 the great leader then of the Democratic faction, the grea 
 captain that was to be in after days, and the first Emperor 
 of subjugated Rome. 
 
 An orator second, if second, to Cicero alone, ardent, im 
 passioned, yet bland, clement, easy ; liberal both of hand 
 and council ; averse to Cicero from personal pique, as well 
 as from party opposition ; an eager candidate for popular 
 applause and favor, it was most natural that he should take 
 side with the conspirators. 
 
 Still, his name having been coupled obscurely with their 
 infamous designs, although Cicero had positively refused 
 to suffer his accusation or impeachment, it required so 
 much boldness, so much audacity indeed, to enable him to 
 stand forward as their open champion, that many men dis 
 believed that he would venture on a step so hazardous. 
 
 The greatest possible anxiety was manifested, therefore, 
 in the house, when that distinguished Senator arose, and 
 jegan in low, deep, harmonious tones, and words which 
 rolled forth like a gentle river in an easy and silvery flow. 
 
 " It were well," he said, " Conscript Fathers, that all 
 men who debate on dubious matters, should be unbiassed 
 in opinion by hate or friendship, clemency or anger. When 
 passions intervene, the mind can rarely perceive truth ; 
 nor hath at one time any man obeyed his interests and his 
 pleasures. The intellect there prevails, where most it is 
 exerted. If passion governs it, passion hath the sole sway; 
 reason is powerless. It were an easy task for me, Con 
 script Fathers, to quote instances in which kings and na 
 tions, impelled by enmity or pity, have taken unadvised 
 and evil counsels ; but I prefer to cite those, wherein our 
 ancestors, defying the influence of passion, have acted well 
 and wisely. During the Macedonian war which we waged 
 against King Perseus, the state of Rhodes, splendid then 
 and stately, which had been built up by the aid and opu 
 lence of Rome,* proved faithless to us, and a foe. Yet, 
 when, the war being ended, debate was had concerning 
 lier, our fathers suffered her citizens to go unpunished, in 
 order that no men might infer that Rome had gone to war 
 for greed, and not for just resentment. Again, in all the 
 Punic wars, although the Carthaginians repeatedly com 
 mitted outrages against them, in violation both of truce 
 arid treaties, never once did they follow that example, con- 
 33* 
 
140 THE ROMAN TRAITOR J OR, THE 
 
 sidering rather what should seem worthy of themselves, 
 than what might be inflicted justly on their foes. 
 
 " This same consideration you should now take, Con 
 script Fathers ; having care that the crimes of Publius 
 Lentulus and his fellows weigh not upon your minds with 
 greater potency, than your own dignity and honor ; and 
 that ye obey not rather the dictates of resentment, than the 
 teachings of your old renown. For if a punishment wor 
 thy their crimes can be discovered, I approve of it, of how 
 new precedent soever ; but if the enormity of their guilt 
 overtop the invention of all men, then, I shall vote that we 
 abide by the customs, prescribed by our laws and institu 
 tions. 
 
 " Many of those who have already spoken, have dilatea 
 in glowing and set phrases on the perils which have me 
 naced the republic. They have descanted on the horrors 
 of warfare, on the woes which befall the vanquished. The 
 rape of virgins ; the tearing of children from parental arms; 
 the ransacking of human homes and divine temples ; the 
 subjecting of matrons to the brutal will of the conquerors ; 
 havoc and conflagration, and all places filled with arms 
 and corpses, with massacre and misery But, in the name 
 of the immortal Gods ! to what do such orations tend 1 
 Do they aim at inflaming your wrath against this conspi 
 racy { Vain, vain were such intent; for is it probable 
 that words will inflame the mind of any one, if such and 
 so atrocious facts have failed to inflame it 1 That is in 
 deed impossible ! Nor hath any man, at any period, es 
 teemed his own injuries too lightly. Most persons, on the 
 contrary, hold them more heavy than they are. But con- 
 . sequences fall not equally on all men, Conscript Fathers. 
 They who in lowly places pass their lives in* obscurity, 
 escape the censure of the world, if they err on occasion 
 under the influences of passion. Their fortunes and their 
 fame are equal. They who, endowed with high commands, 
 live in exalted stations, perform every action of their lives 
 in the full gaze of all men. Thus to the greatest fortunes, 
 the smallest licence is conceded. The great man must in 
 no case consult his affections, or his anger. Least of all, 
 must he yield to passion. That which is styled wrath in 
 the lowly-born, becomes tyranny and cruel pride in the 
 high and noble. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 141 
 
 " I indeed think, with those who have preceded me, that, 
 every torture is too small for their atrocity and crime. But 
 it is human nature s trick to remember always that which 
 occurs the last in order. Forgetful of the criminal s guilt, 
 the world dwells ever on the horror of his punishment, if 
 it lean never so little to the side of severity. Well sure arn 
 I, that the speech of Decius Silanus, a brave and energetic 
 man, was dictated by his love for the republic that in a 
 cause so weighty he is moved neither by favor nor resent 
 ment. Yet his vote to my eyes appears, I say not cruel 
 for what could be cruel, inflicted on such men ] but 
 foreign to the sense of our institutions. Now it is clear, 
 Silanus, that either fear of future peril, or indignation at 
 past wrong, impelled you to vote for an unprecedented 
 penalty ! Of fear it is needless to speak farther ; when 
 through the active energy of that most eminent man, our 
 consul, such forces are assembled under arms ! concerning 
 the punishment of these men we must speak, however, as 
 the circumstances of the case require. We must admit 
 that in agony and wo death is no penalty, but rather the 
 repose from sorrow. Death alone is the refuge from every 
 mortal suffering in death alone there is no place for joy 
 or grief. But if this be not so, wherefore, in the name of 
 the Gods ! have ye not added also to your sentence, that 
 they be scourged before their execution? Is it, that the Por- 
 cian law forbids ] That cannot be since other laws as 
 strenuously prohibit the infliction of capital punishment on 
 condemned citizens, enjoining that they be suffered to go 
 into exile. Is it, then, that to be scourged is more severe 
 and cruel than to be slain ] Not so for what can be too 
 severe or too cruel for men convicted of such crime. If 
 on the other hand it be less severe, how is it fitting to obey 
 that law in the lesser, which you set at naught in the 
 greater article ] But, you will ask me perchance, who 
 will find fault with any punishment inflicted upon the par 
 ricides of the republic] Time future days fortune, 
 whose caprice governs nations ! True, these men merit 
 all that can befall them ; but do ye, Conscript Fathers, 
 pause on the precedent which you establish against others ? 
 Never did bad example arise but from a good precedent 
 only when the reins of empire have fallen from wise 
 hands into ignorant or wicked guidance, that good exam- 
 
142 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 pie is perverted from grand and worthy to base ami un 
 worthy ends. The men of Lacedemon, when they had 
 conquered Athens, set thirty tyrants at the helm who 
 should control the commonwealth. They at the first began 
 to take off the guiltiest individuals, wretches hated by all, 
 without form of trial. Thereat the people were rejoiced, 
 and cried out that their deaths were just a^d merited. Ere 
 long, when license had gained ground, they slew alike the 
 virtuous and the guilty, and governed all by terror. Thus 
 did that state, oppressed by slavery, rue bitterly its insane 
 mirth. Within our memory, when victorious Sylla com 
 manded Damasippus and his crew, who had grown up a 
 blight to the republic, to be put to the sword s edge, who 
 did not praise the deed 1 Who did not exclaim earnestly 
 that men, factious and infamous, who had torn the repub 
 lic by their tumults, were slain justly 1 And yet that deed 
 was the commencement of great havoc. For, when one 
 envied the city mansion or the country farm, nay, but the 
 plate or garment of another, he strove with all his energy 
 to have him on the lists of the proscription. Therefore, 
 they who exulted at the death of Damasippus were them 
 selves, ere long, dragged to execution ; nor was there an 
 end put to the massacre, until Sylla had satiated all his 
 men with plunder. These things, indeed, I fear not under 
 Marcus Tullius. nor at this day ; but in a mighty state there 
 are many and diverse dispositions. It may be at another 
 time, under another consul, who shall perhaps hold an 
 army at his back, that the wrong shall be taken for the 
 right. If it be so when on this precedent, by this decree, 
 of this Senate that consul shall have drawn the sword, 
 who will compel him to put it back into the scabbard, who 
 moderate his execution 1 Our ancestors, O Conscript Fa 
 thers, never lacked either wisdom in design, or energy in ac 
 tion ; nor did their pride restrain them from copying those 
 institutions of their neighbors, which they deemed good 
 and wise. Their arms offensive and defensive they imi 
 tated from the Samnites most of the ensigns of their 
 magistracies they borrowed of the Tuscans. In a word, 
 whatsoever they observed good and fitting, among their 
 allies or their foes, they followed up with the greatest zeal 
 at home. They chose to imitate, rather than envy, what 
 was good. But in those days, after the fashion of the 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 143 
 
 Greeks, they punished citizens with stripes ; tney took the 
 lives of condemned criminals. As the republic grew in 
 size, and party strife arose among its multitudinous citi 
 zens, innocent persons were taken off under the pretext of 
 the law, and many wrongful deeds were committed with 
 impunity. Then was the Porcian Law enacted, with 
 others of like tenor, permitting convicts to depart into ex 
 ile. This I esteem, O Conscript Fathers, the first great 
 cause wherefore this novel penalty be not established as a 
 precedent. The wisdom and the valor of our ancestors 
 who from a small beginning created this vast empire, were 
 greater far than we, who scarcely can retain what they won 
 so nobly. Would I have, therefore, you will ask, these 
 men suffered to go at large, and so to augment the hosts of 
 Catiline ] Far from it. But I shall vote thus, that their 
 property be confiscated, and they themselves detained 
 in perpetual fetters, in those municipalities of Italy which 
 are the wealthiest and the strongest. That the Senate 
 never again consider their case, or bring their cause before 
 the people and that whosoever shall speak for them, be 
 pronounced, of the Senate, an enemy to his country, and to 
 the common good of all men." 
 
 This specious and artful oration, in which, while affect 
 ing to condemn what he dared not defend openly, he had 
 more than insinuated a doubt of the legality of sentencing 
 the traitors, was listened to by all present, with deep at 
 tention ; and by the secret partizans of the conspiracy with 
 joy arid exultation. So sure did they esteem it that, in the 
 teeth of this insidious argument, the Senate would not ven 
 ture to inflict capital punishment on their friends, that they 
 evinced their approbation by loud cheers ; while many of 
 the patrician party were shaken in their previous convic 
 tions ; and many of those who perceived the fallacy of his 
 sophistical reasoning, and detected his latent determina 
 tion to screen the parricides of the state, felt the hazard 
 and difficulty of proceeding as the exigencies of the case 
 required. 
 
 Cicero s brow grew dark; as Silanus avowed openly 
 that he had altered his opinion, and should vote for the mo 
 tion of Tiberius Nero, to defer judgment. 
 
 Then Cicero himself arose, and in the noblest perhaps 
 of all his orations, exerted himself strenuously to controvert 
 
141 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 the arguments and abolish the evil influence of the noble 
 demagogue. 
 
 He did not, indeed, openly urge the death of the traitors ; 
 but he dwelt with tremendous force on the atrocious na 
 ture of the crimes, and on the consequence of their suc 
 cess. He showed the fallacy of Caesar s insinuation, that 
 death was a less severe enactment than perpetual impri- 
 sonment. He pointed out the impossibility and injustice of 
 compelling the municipalities to take charge of the prison 
 ers the insecurity of those towns, as places of detention 
 the almost entire certainty, that the men would ere long 
 be released, cither by some popular tumult, or some party 
 measure ; and he concluded with a forcible and earnest 
 peroration, appealing to the Senators, by their love of life, 
 of their families, of their country, to take counsel worthily 
 of themselves, and of their common mother; entreating 
 them to decree firmly, and promising that he would exe 
 cute their sentence, be it what it might, fearlessly. 
 
 As he sat down, the order was agitated like a sea in the 
 tumultuous calm, which succeeds to the wrath and riot cre 
 ated by a succession of gales blowing from different quar 
 ters. Murmurs of approbation and encouragement were 
 mixed with groans and loud evidences of displeasure. 
 
 The passions of the great concourse were aroused tho 
 roughly, and the debate waxed wild and stormy. 
 
 Senator arose after Senator, advocating some the death, 
 some the banishment, and some, emboldened by Caesar s 
 remarks, even proposing the enlargement of the conspira 
 tors. 
 
 At length, when all*arguments appeared to be exhausted, 
 and no hope left of anything like an unanimous decision 
 being adopted, Marcus Portius Cato arose from his seat, 
 stern, grave, composed, and awful from the severe integri 
 ty of his grand character. 
 
 The turbulent assembly was calm in a moment. All 
 eyes were fixed on the harsh features of the stoic ; all ears 
 hungrivetted in expectation, on his deep guttural intona 
 tions, and short vigorous sentences. It was evident, al 
 most ere he began to speak, that his opinion would sway 
 the votes of the order. 
 
 " My mind is greatly different," he said, " Conscript Fa 
 thers, when I consider the perils of our case, and recall to 
 
DAYS OF CTCERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 145 
 
 my memory the speeches of some whom I have heard to 
 day. Those Senators, it seems to me, have descanted on 
 the punishment of the men who have levied war against 
 their country and their parents, against their hearths and 
 their altars. But the facts of the case require not punish 
 ment of their crimes, but defence from their assaults. 
 Other crimes you may punish after their commission un 
 less you prevent this from being done, when it is done, 
 vainly shall ye ask for judgment. The city stormed, no 
 thing remains to the vanquished. Now, in the name of the 
 immortal Gods ! I call upon you, you who have always set 
 more store on your mansions, your farms, your statues and 
 your pictures, than on the interests of the state, if you de 
 sire to retain these things, be they what they may, to which 
 you cling so lovingly, if you desire to give yourseN-^ 
 leisure for your luxuries, arouse yourselves, now or never 
 and take up the commonwealth ! It is no question now ?f 
 taxes ! No question of plundering our allies ! The livei^ 
 the liberties of every one of us, are hanging on your doub* 
 ful decision. Oftentimes, Conscript Fathers, have I spoke"* 
 at length in this assembly. Oftentimes have I inveighed 
 against the luxury and avarice of eur citizens, and, there 
 fore, have I many men my enemies. I, who have never 
 pardoned my own soul even for any trivial error, could not 
 readily excuse in others the lusts which result in open crim 
 inality. But, although you neglected those crimes as mat 
 ters of small moment, still the republic, by its stability and 
 opulence, sustained the weight cast on it by your negli. 
 gence. Now, however, we ask not whether we shall live, 
 corrupt or virtuous ; we ask not how we shall render Rome 
 most great, and most magnificent; we ask this whether 
 we ourselves, and with ourselves all that we possess what 
 soever, shall be yielded up to the enemy 1 ? Who here will 
 speak to me of clemency and pity 1 Long, long ago have 
 we cast away the true names of things ; for now to be 
 lavish of the goods of others is termed liberality ; au 
 dacity in guilt is denominated valor. Into such extremity 
 has the republic fallen. Let Senators, therefore, since 
 such are their habitudes and morals, be liberal of the for 
 tunes of our allies, be merciful to the pilferers of the trea 
 sury ; but let them not be lavish in bestowing our blood 
 upon them! Let them not, in pity for a few scoundrels, 
 
146 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 send all good citizens to perdition. Cains Caesar spoke a 
 while since, eloquently and in set terms, in this house, con 
 cerning life and death ; esteeming those things false, I 
 presU ne, which are believed by most men of a future 
 Bta:e that the wicked, I mean, journey on a different road 
 from the righteous, and inhabit places aloof from them, 
 dark horrid, waste, and fearful. 
 
 " le hath declared his intent, therefore, to vote for the 
 conf/scation of their property ; and the detention of them 
 selves in the borough towns in close custody. Fearing, 
 forsooth, that if they be kept in Rome, they may be res 
 cued forcibly, either by the confederates in their plot, or 
 by a hireling rabble. Just as if there were only rogues 
 and villains in this city, and none throughout all Italy. 
 Just as if audacity cannot effect the greatest things there, 
 where the means of defence are the smallest. Wherefore 
 his plan is absurd, if he fear peril from these men. And if 
 lie alone, in the midst of consternation so general, do riot 
 fear, the more need is there that you and 1 do fear them. 
 Wherefore, when you vote on the fate of Publius Lentulus 
 and the rest, hold this assured, that you are voting also on 
 the fate of Catiline s army, on the fate of the whole con 
 spiracy. With the more energy you act, the more will 
 their courage fail them. If they shall see you falter but a 
 little, all at once they will fall on fiercely. Be far from be 
 lieving that our ancestors raised this republic from a small 
 state to a great empire, by dint of arms alone. Had it 
 been so, much greater should we have rendered it, who 
 have much greater force than they, of citizens and of allies, 
 of arms and of horses. But there were other things which 
 made them great, which we lack altogether. At home, 
 industry, abroad justice ! A mind free to take counsel, 
 unbiassed by crime or passion. Instead of these things we 
 possess luxury and avarice. Public need, private opu 
 lence. We praise wealth, and practice indolence. Be 
 tween righteous and guilty we make no distinction. Am 
 bition gains all the rewards of virtue. Nor is this strange, 
 when separately every one of you takes counsel for him 
 self alone. When at home, you are slaves to pleasure ; here 
 in the Senate house, to bribery or favor. Thence it arises 
 that a general charge is made from all quarters against the 
 helpless commonwealth. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 147 
 
 " But this I will pass over. 
 
 " The noblest of our citizens have conspirec tt. put the 
 torch to the republic. They have called to their aid, in 
 open war, the Gallic nation most hostile to the name of 
 Roman. The chief of your enemy is thundering above 
 your very heads; and are you hesitating even now what 
 you shall do with enemies taken within your very walls? 
 Oh ! you had better pity them, I think the poor young men 
 have only erred a little, misled by ambition you had 
 better send them away in arms ! I swear that, should they 
 once take those arms, that clemency and mercifulness of 
 yours will be changed into wo and wailing. Forsooth, it 
 is a desperate crisis ; and yet you fear it not. Yea, by the 
 Gods ! but you do fear it vehemently. Yet, in your indo 
 lence and feebleness of mind, waiting the one upon tho 
 other, you hesitate, relying, I presume, on the protection 
 of the Immortals, who have so many times preserved this 
 republic in its greatest dangers. The aid of the Gods ia 
 not gained by prayers or womanish supplication. To those 
 who watch, who act, who take counsel, wisely, all things 
 turn out successful. Yield yourselves up to idleness and 
 sloth, and in vain you shall implore the Gods they are 
 irate and hostile. 
 
 " In the time of our forefathers, Titus Manlius Torqua- 
 tus during the Gallic war commanded his own son to be 
 slain, because he had fought against orders; and that illus 
 trious youth suffered the penalty of his immoderate valor. 
 Do ye know this, and delay what ye shall decide against 
 the cruellest parricides 1 Is it forsooth that the lives of 
 these men are in their character repugnant to this guilt. 
 Oh ! spare the dignity of Leritulus, if behave ever spared his 
 own modesty, his own good report ; if he have ever spared 
 any man or any God ! Oh ! pardon the youth of Cethegus, 
 if this be not the second time that he has waged war on his 
 country. For wherefore should I speak of Gabinius, Stati- 
 lius orCaeparius ? who if they ever felt any care for the re 
 public, would never have taken these councils. To conclude, 
 Conscript Fathers, if there were any space for a mistake, I 
 would leave you right willingly, by Hercules, to be correct 
 ed by facts, since you will not be warned by words ! But 
 we are hemmed in on all sides. Catiline with his army is 
 at our very throats others of our foes are within our walls 
 
 34 
 
148 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 in the bosom of the state. Nothing can be prepared, nor 
 any counsel taken, so privately but they must know it. 
 Wherefore I shall vote thus, seeing that the republic is 
 plunged into most fearful peril by the guilty plot of atro 
 cious citizens, seeing that these men are convicted on the 
 evidence of Titus Volturcius, and of the ambassadors of 
 the Allobroges, and seeing that they have confessed the in 
 tent of murder, conflagration, and other foul and barbarous 
 crimes, against their fellow citizens and native country I 
 shall vote, I say, that execution, according to the custom of 
 our ancestors, be done upon them having thus confessed, 
 as upon men manifestly convicted of capital treason." 
 
 The stern voice ceased. The bitter irony, which had 
 stung so many souls to the quick, the cutting sarcasm, 
 which had demolished Caesar s sophistry, the clear reason 
 ing, which had so manifestly found the heart of the myste 
 ry, were silent. And, folding his narrow toga closely 
 about him, the severe patriot resumed his seat, he alone 
 unexcited and impassive. 
 
 But his words had done their work. The guilty were 
 smitten into silence ; even the daring eloquence and high 
 heart of the ambitious Caesar, were subdued and mute. 
 The friends of their country were encouraged to shake off 
 their apathy. 
 
 With one voice, unanimous, the consulars of Rome cried 
 out for the question, applauding loudly the energy and 
 fearlessness of Cato, and accusing one another of timidity 
 and weakness. 
 
 A great majority of the Senate, likewise, exclaimed 
 aloud that they required no more words, but were pre 
 pared to vote. 
 
 And convinced that the time had arrived for striking, 
 Cicero put it to the vote, according to the regular form, re 
 quiring those who thought with Marcus Porcius Cato, to 
 pass over to the right of the curule chair. 
 
 The question was not in doubt a moment ; for above 
 three-fourths of the whole body arose, as a single man, 
 and passed over to the right of the chair, and gathered 
 about the seat of Cato ; while very few joined themselves 
 openly to Julius Caesar, who sat, somewhat crest-fallen and 
 scarcely able to conceal his disappointment, immediately 
 on the left of the consul. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 149 
 
 Rallying, however, before the vote ot the Senate had 
 been taken, the factious noble sprang to his feet and loudly 
 called upon the tribunes in general, and upon Lucius Bes- 
 tia, in particular, a private friend of Catiline, and under 
 stood by all to be one of the conspirators, to interpose their 
 VETO. 
 
 That was too much, however, even for tribunician dar 
 ing. No answer was made from the benches of the popu 
 lar magistrates, for once awed into patriotic silence. 
 
 But a low sneering laugh ran through the crowded ranks 
 of the Patricians, and the vote was taken, now nearly unan 
 imous ; for many men disgusted by that last step, who had 
 believed the measure to be unconstitutional, passed across 
 openly from Caesar s side to that of Cato. 
 
 A decree of the Senate was framed forthwith, and com 
 mitted to writing by the persons appointed, in presence of 
 Marcus Porcius Cato and Decius Julius Silanus, as au 
 thorities or witnesses of the act, empowering the consul to 
 see execution done upon the guilty, where and when it 
 should to him seem fitting. 
 
 Thus was it that Cicero and Cato for a while saved the 
 commonwealth, and checked the future Dictator in his first 
 efforts to subvert the liberties of Rome, happy for him and 
 for his country if it had been his last. 
 
150 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE TULLIANUM. 
 
 To be, or not be, that is the question. 
 
 HAMLET. 
 
 NIGHT was at hand. 
 
 The Roman Seriate might not sit after the sun had set. 
 
 Although the Tribunes had failed, in the consternation 
 of the moment, to respond to the call of Caesar, there was 
 no doubt, that, if one night should intervene, those miscall 
 ed magistrates would check the course of justice. 
 
 Confined, apart one from the other, in free custody, th 
 traitors had not failed to learn all that was passing, almost 
 ere it passed. 
 
 Their hopes had been high, when the rabble were alert 
 and thundering at the prison gates nor when the charge 
 of the knights had beaten back the multitude, did they de 
 spair ; for simultaneously with those evil tidings, they 
 learned the effect of Cesar s speech ; and shortly after 
 ward the news reached them that Cicero s reply had found 
 few willing auditors. 
 
 Confined, apart one from the other, they had eaten and 
 drunken, and their hearts were ( " jocund and sublime"; 
 the eloquence of Caesar, the turbulence of the tribunes, 
 were their predominant ideas. Confined, apart one from 
 the other, one thought was common to them all, imme 
 diate liberation, speedy vengeance. 
 
 And, in truth, immediate was the liberation ; speedy the 
 vengeance. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 151 
 
 Night was at hand. 
 
 The Triumvirs, whose duty it was to superintend all 
 capital punishments a thing almost unknown in Rome 
 had been instructed to prepare whatever should be need 
 ful, m 
 
 Lentulus sat alone in an inner chamber of the house of 
 Publius Lentulus Spintherus, an ^Edile at that time. 
 There was, it is true, a guard at the door, and clients under 
 arms in the atrium ; but in his own apartment the proud 
 conspirator was still master of himself indeed, soon to be 
 master of Rome, in his own frantic fantasy. 
 
 Bright lights were ourning in bronze candelabra ; rich 
 wines were before him ; his own favorite freedman leaned 
 on the back of his ivory arm chair, and jested lighly on the 
 discomfiture of noble Cicero, on the sure triumph of demo 
 cratic Caesar. 
 
 " Fill up the glass again, my Phormio," cried the exhi 
 larated parricide; "this namesake of my own hath good 
 wine, at the least we may not taste it again shortly fill 
 up, I say ; and do not spare to brim your own. What if 
 our boys were beaten in the streets to-day. Brave Caesar 
 was not beaten in the Senate." 
 
 " By Hercules ! no !" cried the wily Greek, base inhe 
 ritor of a superb name " and if he had been checked, 
 there are the tribunes." 
 
 " But he was not checked, Phormio ]" asked the conspi 
 rator in evident anxiety. 
 
 " By your head, no ! You shall yet be the THIRD COR 
 NELIUS !" 
 
 " WHO SHALL RULE ROME !" 
 
 The door of the small room was suddenly thrown open, 
 and the tall form of Cicero stood in the shadow of the en 
 trance. The gleam of the lamps fell full on his white robes, 
 and glittered on his ivory sceptre ; but behind him it 
 showed the grim dark features of the Capital Triumvirs, 
 and nickered on the axe-heads of the lictors. 
 . The glass fell from the hand of Lentulus, the wine un- 
 tasted ; and so deep was the silence of that awful moment, 
 that the gurgling of the liquor as it trickled from the shat 
 tered fragments of the crystal goblet, was distinctly audi 
 ble. 
 
 There was a silent pause no word, no motion followed 
 
152 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 the entrance of the Consul. Face to face, he stood with 
 the deadliest of his foes, Catiline absent. Face to face, he 
 stood with his overthrown and subdued enemy. And yet 
 on his broad tranquil brow there was no frown of hatred ; 
 on his <%!rn lip there there was no curl of gratified resent 
 ment, of high triumph. 
 
 Raising his hand, with a slow but very solemn gesture, 
 he uttered in his deep harmonious accents, accents which 
 at lhat moment spoke in almost an unnatural cadence, this 
 one word 
 
 " Come." 
 
 And calm, and proud, as the Consul, the degraded Se 
 nator, the fallen Consul replied, with a question, 
 
 " To death, Consul 1" 
 
 "Come!" 
 
 " Give me my toga, Phormio." 
 
 And robing himself, with an air as quiet and an expres 
 sion as unconcerned as if he had been setting forth to a 
 banquet, the proud Epicurean gazed with a calmer eye 
 upon the Consul, than that good man could fix upon his 
 victim. 
 
 " This signet to Sempronia that sword to no ! no ! 
 this purse to thyself, Phormio ! Consul, precede. I fol 
 low." 
 
 And the step of the convicted Traitor, as he descended 
 from the portico, of that mansion, for the last time, was 
 firmer, statelier, prouder, than that of his conductor. 
 
 The streets were thronged the windows crowded the 
 housetops heaped with glaring mute spectators. 
 
 Some twenty knights, no more, unarmed, with the ex 
 ception of their swords, composed the Consul s escort. 
 Lentulus knew them, man by man, had drunk with them, 
 played with-them, lent money to them, borrowed of them. 
 
 He looked upon them. 
 
 They were the handful leading him to death ! What 
 made them break the ties which bound them to their bro-, 
 ther noble ] What made them forget mutual pleasures en 
 joyed, mutual perils incurred, mutual benefits accepted 1 
 
 They were the nobles, true to their order. 
 
 He looked upon the thronged streets upon the crowd 
 ed windows upon the heaped housetops, he saw myriads, 
 myriads who had fed on his bounty, encouraged his infa- 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 153 
 
 my, hoped from his atrocity, urged him to his crime, myri 
 ads who now frowned upon him cursed him howled at 
 him or more cowardly were silent. Myriads, who 
 might have saved him, and did not. 
 
 Wherefore ? 
 
 They were the people, false to their leader. 
 
 He looked from the handful to the myriad and shook 
 himself, as a lion in his wrath j and stamped the d,ust from 
 his sandals. 
 
 Cicero saw the movement, and read its meaning. He 
 met the glance, not humiliated, but prouder for the mob s 
 reprobation ; and said, what he would not have said had 
 the glance been conscious 
 
 " Thou seest ! Hearest !" 
 
 " The voice of the People !" answered the traitor with 
 a bitter sneer. 
 
 " The voice of God!" replied the Consul, looking up 
 ward. 
 
 " That voice of God shall shout for joy at thy head on 
 the rostrum ! Such is the fate of all who would serve 
 the people !" 
 
 The eloquent tongue, stabbed with the harlot s bodkin, 
 the head and the hand, nailed on the beaked column in 
 after days, showed which best knew the people, their sa 
 vior, or their parricide. 
 
 There is a place in Rome there is a place reader, 
 thou rnayest have seen it on the right hand as thou goest 
 up the steps of the Asylum ascending from the forum to 
 the capitol. 
 
 " There is a place," wrote Sallust, some nineteen hun 
 dred years ago " There is a place, within the prison, 
 which is called Tullianum, after you have ascended a little 
 way to the left, about twelve feet underground. It is built 
 strongly with walls on every side, and arche^above with 
 a stone vaulting. But its aspect is foul and tsrrible from 
 neglect, darkness, and stench." 
 
 It is there now thou mayest have seen it, reader. Men 
 call it the Mamertine Prison. It was then called Tullia 
 num, because it was so antique at that time, that vague tra 
 dition only told of its origin long centuries before, built by 
 the fabulous King Tullius. 
 
 The Tullianum The Mamertine Prison. 
 
154 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 The bath, which Jugurtha found very cold, when the 
 earrings had been torn from his bleeding ears, and, stript 
 of his last vestment, he was let down to die by the hang 
 man s noose. 
 
 The prison, in which, scarce one century later, Saint 
 Paul was held in durance, what time " Agrippa said unto 
 Festus, This man might have been set at liberty, had he 
 not appeled unto Ccesar." 
 
 Caesar the third Emperor, the third tyrant of the Roman 
 people. 
 
 Lentulus had appealed unto Caesar, and was cast like 
 wise into the Tullianum. 
 
 The voice of the people, is the voice of God. 
 
 Whether of the twain slew Lentulus 1 whether of the 
 twain set free Paul, from the Tullianum 1 
 
 In those days, there was a tall and massive structure 
 above that sordid and tremendous vault, on the right hand 
 as y u g U P towards the capitol. 
 
 The steps of the asylum were lined on either 1 side by le 
 gionaries in full armor ; and as the Consul walked up 
 with his victim, side by side, each soldier faced about, and, 
 by a simple movement, doubling their files, occupied the 
 whole space of the steep ascent with a solid column ; while 
 a,ll the heights above, and the great capitol itself, bristled 
 with spears, and flashed with tawny light from the dense 
 ranks of brazen corslets. 
 
 The Capital Triumvirs received the Consul at the door; 
 and with his prisoner he passed inward. 
 
 It was in perfect keeping with the Roman character, 
 that a man, hopeless of success, should die without an ef 
 fort ; and to the fullest, Lentulus acted out that character. 
 
 Impassive and unmoved, he went to his death. He dis 
 graced his ,vil life by no cowardice in death ; by no fruit 
 less call upon the people for assistance, by no vain cry to 
 the nobles for mercy. 
 
 But it was the impassibility of the Epicurean, not of the 
 Stoic, that sustained him. 
 
 He went to die, like his brother democrats of France, 
 with the madness of Atheism in his heart, the mirth of Per 
 dition on his tongue. 
 
 They two, the Convict and the Consul, ascended a little, 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 155 
 
 two or three steps, to the left, and entered p. large apart 
 ment, paved, walled, and roofed with stone ; but in the 
 centre of the floor there was a small round aperture. 
 
 There were a dozen persons in that guard-room, four 
 of whom were his fellow-traitors Gabinius, Statilius, Cae- 
 parius, and Cethegus two praetors, four legionaries, anxl 
 two Moorish slaves composed the group, until with the 
 Triumvirs, and his twelve lictors, Cicero entered. 
 
 " Ha ! my Caeparius !" exclaimed Lentulus, who had 
 not seen him since the morning of his arrest. We have 
 rnet again. But I slept my sleep out. Thou might st as 
 well have slept too ; for we are both met here" 
 
 " To die ! to die ! Great Gods ! to die !" cried Caepa- 
 rius utterly overcome, and almost fainting with despair. 
 
 " Great Gods indeed !" replied Lentulus with his accus 
 tomed half-sardonic, half-indolent sneer. " They must be 
 great, indeed, to let such a puppet as that," and he point 
 ed to Cicero, as he spoke, " do as he will with us. To 
 die ! to die ! Tush what is that but to sleep I to sleep 
 without the trouble of awaking, or the annoyance of to 
 morrow /? What sayest thou, my Cethegus 1" 
 
 " That thou art a sluggard, a fool, and a coward; cur 
 ses ! curses ! curses upon thee !" And he made an effort 
 to rush against his comrade, as if to strike him ; and, when 
 the guards seized him and dragged him back, he shook 
 his fist at Cicero, and gnashed his teeth, and howling out, 
 " Thou too ! thou too shalt die proscribed, and thy coun 
 try s foe !" by a sudden effort cast off the men who held 
 him, and crying, " Slaves and dastards, see how a Roman 
 noble dies," rushed, with his head down, at the solid wall, 
 as a buffalo rushes blindly against an elephant. 
 
 He fell as if he were dead, the blood gushing from eyes, 
 nose, and mouth, and lay senseless. 
 
 Lentulus thought he was killed, gazed on him for a mo 
 ment tranquilly, and then said with a quiet laugh 
 
 " He was a fool always a rash fool !" Then turning 
 to Cicero, he added " By Hercules ! this is slow work. 
 I am exceeding hungry, and somewhat dry ; and, as I 
 fancy 1 shall eat nothing more to-day, nor drink, I would 
 fain go to sleep." 
 
 " Would st thou drink, Lentulus 1" asked one of tho 
 Triumvirs. 
 
156 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " Would I not, had I wine ?" 
 
 " Bring wine," said the magistrate to one of the Moorish 
 slaves ; who went out and returned in an instant with a 
 large brazen platter supporting several goblets. 
 
 Lentulus seized one quickly, and swallowed it at a 
 mouthful there is a hot thirst in that last excitement but 
 as the flavor reached his palate, when thoroughness of the 
 harsh draught had passed away, he flung the cup down 
 scornfully and said, 
 
 " Finish it ! Take this filthy taste from my lips ! Let 
 me rest !" 
 
 And with the words, he advanced to the Moors who 
 stood beside the well-like aperture, and without a word 
 suffered them to place the rope under his arms, and lower 
 him into the pit. 
 
 Just as his head, however, was disappearing, he cast his 
 eyes upward, and met the earnest gaze of the Consul. 
 
 " The voice of the people ! the man of the people !" he 
 cried sarcastically. " Fool ! fool ! they shall avenge me ! 
 Think upon me near Formias !" 
 
 Was that spite, or a prophecy ] 
 
 The eyes of the dying sometimes look far into futurity. 
 
 The haughty traitor was beyond the sight, before his 
 words had ceased to ring in the ears of the spectators. 
 
 There was a small low sound heard from below not a 
 groan, not a struggle but a rustle, a sob, a flutter silence. 
 
 So did* that Patrician, of the most noble house of the 
 Cornelii, who once held consular dominion in Rome, meet 
 his end, merited by his course of life, and his overt ac 
 tions. 
 
 Cethegus perished senseless, half dead by his own deed. 
 
 Caeparius died sullen; Gabinius weak and almost faint 
 ing ; Statilius struggling and howling. All by a hard and 
 slavish death, strangled by the base noose of a foreign 
 hangman. 
 
 An hour afterward, their corpses were hurled down the 
 Cemonian Stairs, among the shouts and acclamations of the 
 drunken slavish rabble. 
 
 An hour afterward, Cicero stood on the rostrum, near 
 the Libonian well tha*t rostrum whereon, at a later day 
 
 * Sallust. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 157 
 
 Lentulus prophecy was fulfilled and called out, in a 
 voice as solemn and almost as deep as thunder, 
 
 " THEY WERE !" 
 
 And the voice of the people yelled out its joy, because 
 they were no longer ; and hailed their slayer the Savior 
 and Father of his country. 
 
 A few years afterward, how did they not hail Anthony ? 
 
158 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE CAMP IN THE APPENNINES. 
 
 With that ho gave h .- able liors-e the head. 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 
 THERE is a wild gorge in the very summit of the Appen- 
 nines, not quite midway between Florence and Pistoia, the 
 waters of which, shed in different directions, flow on the 
 one hand tributaries to the Po, and on the other to the Ar- 
 no, swelling the Adriatic, and the Mediterranean seas. 
 
 The mountains rise abruptly in bare crags, covered here 
 and there by a low growth of myrtle and wild olives, on 
 either hand this gorge, quite inaccessible to any large array 
 of armed men, though capable of being traversed by soli 
 tary foresters or shepherds. Below, the hills fall down 
 ward in a succession of vast broken ridges, in places rocky 
 and almost perpendicular, in places swelling into rounded 
 knolls, feathered with dark rich forests of holm oak and 
 chesnut. 
 
 In the highest part of this gorge, where it spreads out 
 into a little plain, perched like the eyry of some ravenous 
 bird of prey, the camp of Catiline was pitched, on the se 
 cond evening after the execution of his comrades. 
 
 Selected with rare judgment, commanding all the lower 
 country, and the descent on one hand into the Val d Arno 
 and thence to Rome, on the other into the plain of the Po 
 and thence into Cisalpine Gaul, the whole of which was 
 ripe for insurrection, that camp secured to him an advance 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 159 
 
 upon the city, should his friends prove successful, or a re 
 treat into regions where he could raise new levies in case 
 of their failure. 
 
 A Roman camp was little less than a regular fortifica 
 tion, being formed mostly in an oblong square, with a broad 
 ditch and earthen ramparts garnished by a stockade, with 
 wooden towers at the gates, one of which pierced each side 
 of the intrenchment. 
 
 And to such a degree of perfection and celerity had long 
 experience and the most rigid discipline brought the le 
 gions, that it required an incredibly short time to prepare 
 such a camp for any number of men ; a thing which never 
 was omitted to be done nightly even during the most ar 
 duous marches and in the face of an enemy. 
 
 Catiline was too able and too old a soldier to neglect such 
 precaution under any circumstances ; and assuredly he 
 would not have done so now, when the consul Antonius 
 lay with two veteran legions within twenty miles distance 
 in the low country east of Florence, while Quintus Metel- 
 lus Celer, at the head of a yet larger force, was in the Pi- 
 cene district on his rear, and not so far off but he might 
 have attempted to strike a blow at him. 
 
 His camp, capable of containing two full legions, the 
 number of which he had completed, all free-born men and 
 Roman citizens, for he had refused the slaves who flocked 
 at first to his standard in great force, was perfectly defend 
 ed, and provided with all the usual tents and divisions ; so 
 that every cohort, manipule, and century, nay every man, 
 knew his own station. 
 
 The sun had just sunk beneath the horizon and the night 
 watches had been set by sound of trumpets, the horsemen 
 had been appointed for the rounds, and an outpost of light- 
 armed soldiers pushed forward in front of all the gates. 
 
 There was a rosy tinge still lingering in the sky, and a 
 few slant rays were shot through the gaps in the mountain 
 ridge, gilding the evergreen foliage of the holm-oaks with 
 bright lustre, and warming the cold grey stones which 
 cumbered the sides and summits of the giant hills ; but all 
 the level country at their feet was covered with deep pur 
 ple shadow. 
 
 Catiline sat alone in his prcctorium, as the general s pa 
 vilion was entitled, situated on a little knoll nearly in tho 
 
 35 
 
1GO THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 centre of the camp between the tents of the tribunes, and 
 the quarters of the extraordinary horse. 
 
 He was completely armed, all but his head, and wore a 
 rich scarlet cloak above his panoply, his helmet and buckler 
 lying upon the ground beside him in easy reach of his 
 hand. A pen was in his fingers, and a sheet of parchment 
 was stretched on the board before him ; but he was not 
 writing, although there were several lines ecrawled on it 
 in a bold coarse hand. 
 
 His face was paler and more livid than usual, and his 
 frame thinner, almost indeed emaciated, yet every sinew 
 and muscle was hard as tempered steel. 
 
 But now there was a strange expression in his features ; 
 it was not doubt nor hesitation, much less fear ; and con 
 sisted perhaps rather in the absence of his wonted charac 
 teristics, the unquiet and quick clrmges, the passionate rest 
 lessness, the fell deadly sneer, and the blighting flash of 
 the dark eye, than in any token of peculiar meaning. 
 There was a cold and almost vacant expression in his gaze ; 
 and an impassive calmness in all his lineaments, that were 
 in singular contrast with the character of the man ; and he 
 sat, a thing most unusual for him, perfectly motionless, bu 
 ried in deep thought. 
 
 The night was very cold, and, without, a heavy hoar 
 frost was falling ; so that a fire of charcoal had keen kin 
 dled in a bronze brazier, and as the light of the sky died 
 away strange lurid gleams and fantastic shadows rose and 
 fell, upon the walls of the large tent, rendered more fickle 
 and grotesque by the wavering of the canvass in the gusty 
 night air. There was wine with several goblets upon the 
 board, at which he sat, with his eyes fixed straight before 
 him ; and at his elbow there stood a tall brazen tripod sup 
 porting a large lamp with several burners ; but none of 
 these were lighted, and, but for the fitful glare of the char 
 coal, the tent would have been completely dark. 
 
 Still he called not to any slave, nor appeared to observe 
 the growing obscurity, but sat gloomily pondering on 
 what? 
 
 Once or twice he drew his hand across his eyes, and 
 then glared still more fixedly upon the dark and waving 
 shavjrw*. as if he saw something more than common in 
 their uncertain outlines. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 161 
 
 Suddenly he spoke, in a hoarse altered voice " This is 
 strange," he said, " very strange ! Now, were I one of these 
 weak fools who believe in omens, I should shake. But 
 tush ! tush ! how should there be omens ? for who should 
 send them ] there must be Gods, to have omens ! and that 
 is too absurd for credence! Gods! Gods !" he repeated 
 half dubiously " Yet, if there should ha! ha ! art thou 
 turned dotard, Catiline ? There are no Gods, or why sleep 
 their thunders ? Aye ! there it is again," he added, gazing 
 on vacancy. " By my right hand ! it is very strange ! three 
 times last night, the first time when the watch was set, and 
 twice afterward I saw him ! And three times again to 
 night, since the trumpet was blown. Lentulus, with his 
 lips distorted, his face black and full of blood, his eyes 
 starting from their sockets, like a man strangled ! and he 
 beckoned me with his pale hand ! I saw him, yet so shad 
 owy and so transparent, that I might mark the waving of 
 the canvass through his figure ! But tush ! tush ! it is but 
 a trick of the fancy. I am worn out with this daily march 
 ing; and the body s fatigue hath made the mind weak and 
 weary. And it is dull here too, no dice, no women, and 
 no revelling. 1 will take some wine," he added, starting 
 up and quaffing two or three goblets full in quick succes 
 sion, " my blood is thin and cold, and wants warming. Ha ! 
 that is better It is right old Setinian too ; I marvel whence 
 Manlius had it." Then he rose from his seat, and began 
 to stride about the room impatiently. After a moment or 
 two he dashed his hand fiercely against his brow, and cried 
 in a voice full of anguish and perturbation, " Tidings ! ti 
 dings ! I would give half the world for tidings ! Curses ! 
 curses upon it ! that I began this game at all, or had not 
 brave colleagues ! It is time ! can it be that their hearts 
 have failed them % that they have feared or delayed to 
 strike, or have been overthrown, detected 1 Tidings, ti 
 dings ! By Hades ! I must have tidings ! What ho !" he ex 
 claimed, raising his voice to a higher pitch, "Ho, I say, ho! 
 Cluerea !" 
 
 And from an outer compartment of the tent the Greek 
 freedman entered, bearing a lighted lamp in his hand. 
 
 "Chaerea, summon Manlius hither, and leave the lamp, 
 have been long in the darkness !" 
 
 " Wert sleeping, Catiline I" 
 
162 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " Sleeping !" exclaimed the traitor, with a savage cry, 
 hoarse as the roar of a wounded lion " sleeping, thou 
 idiot ! Do men sleep on volcanoes 1 Do men sleep in the 
 crisis of their fortunes 1 I have not slept these six nights. 
 Get thee gone ! summon Manlius !" and then, as the freed- 
 man left the room, he added ; "perchance I shall sleep no 
 more until I sleep for ever ! I would I could sleep, and 
 not see those faces ; they never troubled me till now. I 
 would I knew if that sleep is dreamless. If it were so- 
 perhaps, perhaps ! but no! no! By all the Furies ! no! 
 until my foot hath trodden on the neck of Cicero." 
 
 As he spoke, Manlius entered the room, a tall dark sin 
 ister-looking scar-seamed veteran, equipped in splendid ar 
 mor, of which the helmet alone was visible, so closely was 
 he wrapped against the cold in a huge shaggy watch- 
 cloak. 
 
 As his subordinate appeared, every trace of the conflict 
 which had been in progress wirhin him vanished, and his 
 brow became as impassive, his eye as hard and keen as its 
 wont. 
 
 " Welcome, my Caius," he exclaimed. " Look you, we 
 have present need of council. The blow must be stricken 
 before this in Rome, or must have failed altogether. If it 
 have been stricken, we should be nearer Rome to profit by 
 it if it have failed, we must destroy Antonius army, be 
 fore Metellus join him. I doubt not he is marching hither- 
 ward even now. Besides, we must, we must have tidings 
 we must know all, and all truly !" 
 
 Then, seeing that Manlius doubted, " Look you," he 
 continued. " Let us march at daybreak to-morrow upon 
 Fsesulae, leaving Antonius in the plain on our right. March 
 ing along the crest of the hills, he cannot assail our flank. 
 We can outstrip him too, and reach Arretium ere the se 
 cond sunset. He, thinking we have surely tidings from 
 our friends in the city, will follow in disordered haste ; and 
 should we have bad news, doubling upon him on a sudden 
 we may overpower him at one blow. It is a sure scheme 
 either way think st thou not so, good friend ] nay more, 
 it is the only one." 
 
 " I think so, Sergius," he replied. " In very deed I think 
 so. Forage too is becoming scarce in the camp, and the 
 baggage horses are dying. The men are murmuring also 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATAL1NE. 163 
 
 for want of the pleasures, the carouses, and the women 
 of the cities. They will regain their spirits in an hour, 
 when they shall hear of the march upon Rome." 
 
 " I prithee, let them hear it, then, my Caius; and that 
 presently. Give orders to the tribunes and centurions to 
 have the tents struck, and the baggage loaded in the first 
 hour of the last night-watch. We will advance at ha!" 
 he exclaimed, interrupting himself suddenly, and listening 
 with eager attention. "There is a horse tramp crossing 
 from the gates. By the Gods ! news from Rome ! Tarry 
 with me, until we hear it." 
 
 Within five minutes, Chaerea re-entered the tent, intro 
 ducing a man dressed and armed as a light-horseman, cov 
 ered with mudstains, travelworn, bending with fatigue, 
 and shiveiing with cold, the hoar-frost hanging white upon 
 his eyebrows and beard. 
 
 " From Rome, good fellow ]" Catiline inquired quickly. 
 " From Rome, Catiline !" replied the other, " bearing a 
 letter from the noble Lentulus." 
 
 " Give give it quick !" and with the word he snatched 
 the scroll from the man s hand, tore it violently open, and 
 read aloud as follows. 
 
 " Who I may be, you will learn from the bearer. All 
 things go bravely. The ambassadors have lost their suit, 
 but we have won ours. They return home to-morrow, by 
 the Flaminian way, one Titus of Crotona guiding them, who 
 shall explain to you our thoughts and hopes but, of this 
 doubt not, thoughts shall be deeds, arid hopes success, be 
 fore this hour to-morrow." 
 
 "By all the Gods !" cried Catiline with a shout of joy. 
 Ere this time all is won! Cicero, Cicero, I have tri 
 umphed, and thou, mine enemy, art nothing;" then turn 
 ing to the messenger, he asked, " When didst leave Rome, 
 with these joyous tidings 1 when sawest the noble Len 
 tulus 1" 
 
 " On the fourth* day before the nones, at sunset." 
 
 " And we are now in the sixthf before the Ides. Thou 
 hast loitered on the way, Sirrah." 
 
 " I was compelled to quit my road, Catiline, and to lie 
 hid four days among the hills to avoid a troop of horse 
 
 * The second of December. t The eighth of December. 
 
 35* 
 
164 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 which pursued me, seeing that I was armed ; an advanced 
 guard, I think, of Antonius army." 
 
 " Thou didst well. Get thee gone, and bid them supply 
 thy wants. Eat, drink, and sleep we march upon Rome 
 at day-break to-morrow." 
 
 The man left the apartment, and looking to Manlius 
 with a flushed cheek and exulting aspect, Catiline ex 
 claimed, 
 
 " Murmuring for pleasure, and for women, are they ] 
 Tell them, good friend, they shall have all the gold of 
 Rome for their pleasure, and all its patrician dames for 
 their women. Stir up their souls, my Marilius, kindle their 
 blood with it matters not what fire ! See to it, my good 
 comrade, I am aweary, and will lay me down, I can sleep 
 after these good tidings." 
 
 But it was riot destined that he should sleep so soon. 
 
 He had thrown himself again into a chair, and filled 
 himself a brimming goblet of the rich wine, when he re 
 peated to himself in a half musing tone 
 
 " Murmuring for their women ] ha ! By Venus ! I can 
 not blame the knaves. It is dull work enough without the 
 darlings. By Hercules ! I would Aurelia were here ; or 
 that jade Lucia! Pestilent handsome was she, and then 
 so furious and so fiery ! By the Gods ! were she here, I 
 would bestow one caress on her at the least, before she died, 
 as die she shall, in torture by my hand ! Curses on her, she 
 has thwarted, defied, foiled me ! By every fiend and Fury ! 
 ill shall she perish, were she ten times my daughter!" 
 
 Again there was a bustle without the entrance of the 
 pavilion, and again Chaerea introduced a messenger. 
 
 It was Niger, one of the swordsmith s men. Catiline 
 recognized him in an instant. 
 
 " Ha ! Niger, my good lad, from Caius Crispus, ha V 
 
 " From Caius Crispus, praying succor, and that swift, 
 lest it be too late." 
 
 " Succor against whom ] succor where, and wherefore?" 
 
 " Against a century of Antonius foot. They came 
 upon us unawares, killed forty of our men, and drove the 
 stout smith for shelter into a ruined watch-tower, on the 
 hill above the cataract, near to Usella, which happily af 
 forded him a shelter. They have besieged us there these 
 two days j but cannot storm us until our arrows fail, or 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 165 
 
 they bring up engines. But our food is finished, and our 
 wine wakes low, and Julia " 
 
 "Who ? Julia ]" shouted Catiline, scarce able to believe 
 his ears, and springing from his chair in rapturous agita 
 tion " By your life ! speak! what Julia]" 
 
 " Hortensia s daughter, whom" 
 
 " Enough ! enough ! Cheerea" he scrawled a few words 
 on a strip of parchment " this to Terentius the captain 
 of my guard. Three hundred select horsemen to be in 
 arms and mounted within half an hour. Let them take 
 torches, and a guide for Usella. Saddle the black horse 
 Erebus. Get me some food and a watch-cloak. Get thee 
 away. Now tell me all, good fellow." 
 
 The man stated rapidly, but circumstantially, all that 
 he knew of the occurrences of Julia s seizure, of the cap 
 ture of Aulus, and of their journey ; and then, his eyes 
 gleaming with the fierce blaze of excited passion and tri 
 umphant hatred, Catiline cross-questioned him concerning 
 the unhappy girl. Had she been brought thus far safely 
 and with unblemished honor 1 ? Had she suffered from 
 hunger or fatigue ] Had her beauty been impaired by 
 privation 1 
 
 Arid, having received satisfactory replies to all his 
 queries, he gave himself up to transports of exultation, 
 such as his own most confidential freedman never before 
 had witnessed. 
 
 Dismissing the messenger, he strode to and fro the hut, 
 tossing his arms aloft and bursting into paroxysms of fierce 
 laughter. 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! too much ! it is too much for one night ! 
 Ha ! ha ! ha ! ha ! Love, hatred, passion, triumph, rage, 
 revenge, ambition, all, all gratified ! Ha" ! ha ! Soft, gentle 
 Julia proud, virtuous one that did despise me, thou shalt 
 writhe for it from thy soul shalt thou bleed for it ! Ha ! 
 ha! Arvina liar! fool! perjurer! but this will wring 
 thee worse than Ixion s wheel, or whips of scorpions ! 
 Ha ! ha ! Cicero ! Cicero ! No ! no ! Cheerea. There are 
 no Gods ! no Gods who guard the innocent ! no Gods 
 who smile on virtue ! no gods ! 1 say, no Gods ! no Gods, 
 Cheerea!" 
 
 But, as he spoke, there burst close over head an appal- 
 
166 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ing crash of thunder, accompanied by a flash of lightning so 
 vivid and pervading that the whole tent seemed to be on 
 fire. The terrified Greek fell to the earth, stunned and 
 dazzled ; but the audacious and insane blasphemer, toss 
 ing his arms and lifting his front proudly, exclaimed with 
 his cynical sneer, " If ye be Gods ! strike ! strike ! I defy 
 your vain noise ! your harmless thunder !" 
 
 For ten minutes or more, blaze succeeded blaze, and 
 crash followed crash, with such tremendous rapidity, that 
 the whole heavens, nay, the whole atmosphere, appeared 
 incandescent with white, sulphureous, omnipresent fire ; 
 and that the roar of the volleyed thunder was continuous 
 and incessant. 
 
 Still the fierce traitor blenched not. Crime and success 
 had maddened him. His heart was hardened, his head 
 frenzied, to his own destruction. 
 
 But the winter storm in the mountains was as brief as 
 it was sudden, and tremendous ; and it ceased as abruptly 
 as it broke out unexpectedly. A tempest of hail came 
 pelting down, the grape-shot as it were of that heavenly 
 artillery, scourging the earth with furious force during ten 
 minutes more ; and then the night was as serene and tran 
 quil as it had been before that elemental uproar. 
 
 As the last flash of lightning flickered faintly away, and 
 the last thunder roll died out in the sky, Catiline stirred the 
 freedman with his foot. 
 
 " Get up, thou coward fool. Did I not tell thee that 
 there are no Gods 1 lo! you now! for what should they 
 have roused this trumpery pother, if not to strike me 1 
 Tush, man, I say, get up !" 
 
 " Is it thou, Sergius Catiline V asked the Greek, scarce 
 daring to raise his. head from the ground. " Did not the 
 bolt annihilate thee 1 art thou not indeed dead 1" 
 
 " Judge if I be dead, fool, by this, and this, and this !" 
 
 And, with each word, he kicked and trampled on the 
 grovelling wretch with such savage violence and fury, that 
 he bellowed and howled for mercy, and was scarce able 
 to creep out of the apartment, when he ceased stamping 
 upon him, and ordered him to begone speedily and bring 
 his charger. 
 
 Ere many minutes had elapsed, the traitor was on horse 
 back. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 167 
 
 And issuing from the gates of his camp into the calm 
 and starry night, he drove, with his escort at his heels, 
 with the impetuosity and din of a whirlwind, waking the 
 mountain echoes by the clang of the thundering hoofs, and 
 the clash of the brazen armor and steel scabbards, down 
 the steep defile toward Usella. 
 
168 
 
 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE WATCHTOWER OF U8ELLA. 
 
 Our castle s strength 
 Will laugh a siege to scorn. 
 
 MACBETH. 
 
 THE watchtower in which Caius Crispus and his gang 
 had taken refuge from the legionaries, was one of those 
 small isolated structures, many of which had been perched 
 in the olden time on the summits of the jutting crags, or in 
 the passes of the Appennines, but most of which had fallen 
 long before into utter ruin. 
 
 Some had been destroyed in the border wars of the in 
 numerable petty tribes, which, ere the Romans became 
 masters of the peninsula, divided among themselves that 
 portion of Italy, and held it in continual turmoil with their 
 incessant wars and forays. 
 
 Some had mouldered away, by the slow hand of ruthless 
 time ; and yet more had been pulled down for the sake of 
 their materials, which now filled a more useful if less glo 
 rious station, in the enclosures of tilled fields, and the walls 
 of rustic dwellings. 
 
 From such a fate the watchtower of Usella had been 
 saved by several accidents. Its natural and artificial 
 strength had prevented its sack or storm during the earlier 
 period of its existence the difficulty of approaching it had 
 saved its solid masonry from the cupidity of the rural pro 
 prietors and, yet more, its formidable situation, com 
 manding one of the great Tiill passes into Cisalpine Gaul, 
 had induced the Roman government to retain it in use, as 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 169 
 
 a fortified post, so long as their Gallic neighbors were half 
 subdued only, and capable of giving them trouble by their 
 tumultuous incursions. 
 
 Although it had consisted, therefore, in the first instance, 
 of little more than a rude circular tower of that architec 
 ture called Cyclopean, additions had been made to it by 
 the Romans of a strong brick wall with a parapet, enclos 
 ing a space of about a hundred feet in diameter, accessible 
 only by a single gateway, with a steep and narrow path 
 leading to it, and thoroughly commanded by the tower it 
 self. 
 
 In front, this wall was founded on a rough craggy bank 
 of some thirty feet in height, rising from the main road 
 traversing the defile, by which alone it could be approach 
 ed ; for, on the right arid left, the rocks had been scarped 
 artificially ; and, in the rear, there was a natural gorge 
 through which a narrow but impetuous torrent raved, be 
 tween precipices a hundred feet in depth, although an 
 arch of twenty foot span would have crossed the ravine with 
 ease. . 
 
 Against the wall at this point, on the inner side, the Ro 
 mans had constructed a small barrack with three apart 
 ments, each of which had a narrow window overlooking 
 the bed of the torrent, no danger being apprehended from 
 that quarter. 
 
 Such was the place into which Crispus had retreated, 
 under the guidance of one of the Etruscan conspirators, 
 after the attack of the Roman infantry ; and, having suc 
 ceeded in reaching it by aid of their horses half an hour 
 before their pursuers came up, they had contrived to bar 
 ricade the gateway solidly with some felled pine trees ; 
 and had even managed to bring in with them a yoke of 
 oxen and a mule laden with wine, which they had seized 
 from the peasants in the street of the little village of Usel- 
 la, as they gallopped through it, goading their blown and 
 weary animals to the top of their speed. 
 
 It was singularly characteristic of the brutal pertinacity, 
 and perhaps of the sagacity also, of Caius Crispus, that 
 nothing could induce him to release the miserable Julia, 
 who was but an incumbrance to their flight, and a hin 
 drance to their defence. 
 
 To all her entreaties, and promises of safety from his 
 
170 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 captors, and reward from her friends, if he would release 
 her, he had replied only with a sneer; saying that he would 
 ensure his own safety at an obolus fee, and that, for his 
 reward, he would trust noble Catiline. 
 
 " For the rest," he added, " imagine not that you shall 
 escape, to rejoice the heart of that slave Arvina. No ! mi 
 nion, no ! We will fight till our flesh be hacked from our 
 bones, ere they shall make their way in hither ; and if they 
 do so, they shall find thee dead and dishonored ! Pray, 
 therefore, if thou be wise, for our success." 
 
 Such might in part indeed have been his reasoning; for 
 he was cruel and licentious, as well as reckless and auda 
 cious ; but it is probable that, knowing himself to be in 
 the vicinity of Catiline s army, he calculated on finding 
 some method of conveying to him information of the prize 
 that lay within his grasp, and so of securing both rescue 
 and reward. 
 
 If he had not, however, in the first instance thought of 
 this, it was not long ere it occurred to him ; when he at 
 once proceeded to put it into execution. 
 
 Within half an hour of the entrance of the little party 
 into this semi-ruinous strong-hold, the legionary foot came 
 up, about a hundred and fifty men in number, but without 
 scaling ladders, artillery, or engines. 
 
 Elated by their success, however, they immediately 
 formed what was called the tortoise, by raising their shields 
 and overlapping the edges of them above their heads, in 
 such a manner as to make a complete penthouse, which 
 might defend them from the missiles of the besieged ; and, 
 under cover of this, they rushed forward dauntlessly, to 
 cut down the palisade with their hooks and axes. 
 
 In this they would have probably succeeded, for the ar 
 rows and ordinary missiles of the defenders rebounded and 
 rolled down innocuous from the tough brass-bound bull- 
 hides ; and the rebels were already well nigh in despair, 
 when Caius Crispus, who had been playing his part gal 
 lantly at the barricade, and had stabbed two or three of 
 the legionaries with his pilum, in hand to hand encounter, 
 through the apertures of the grating, rushed up to the bat 
 tlements, covered with blood and dust, and shouting 
 
 " Ho ! by Hercules ! this will never do, friends. Give 
 me yon crow-bar So ! take levers, all of you, and axes! 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 171 
 
 We must roll down the coping on their heads," applied 
 his own skill and vast personal strength to the task. In an 
 instant the levers were fixed, and grasping his crow-bar 
 with gigantic energy, he set up his favorite chaunt, as 
 cheerily as he had done of old in his smithy on the Sacred 
 Way 
 
 " Ply, ply, my boys, now ply the lever! 
 
 Heave at it, heave at it, all ! Together ! 
 Great Mars, the war God, watches ye laboring 
 
 Joyously. Joyous watches" 
 
 But his words were cut short by a thundering crash ; for, 
 animated by his untamed spirit, his fellows had heaved 
 with such a will at the long line of freestone coping, that, 
 after tottering for a few seconds, and reeling to and fro, it 
 all rushed down with the speed and havoc of an avalanche, 
 drowning all human sounds with the exception of one 
 piorcing yell of anguish, which rose clear above the con 
 fused roar and clatter. 
 
 " Ho ! by the Thunderer ! we have smashed them be 
 neath their tortoise, like an egg in its shell ! Now ply 
 your bows, brave boys ! now hurl your javelins ! Well 
 shot ! well shot indeed, my Niger ! You hit that high- 
 crested centurion full in the mouth, as he called on them 
 to rally, and nailed his tongue to his jaws. Give me ano 
 ther pilum, Rufus ! This," he continued, as he poised and 
 launched it hurtling through the air, " This to the ensign- 
 bearer!" And, scarce was the word said, ere the ponde 
 rous missile alighted on his extended shield, pierced its 
 tough fourfold bull-hide, as if it had been a sheet of parch 
 ment ; drove through his bronze cuirass, and hurled him 
 to the gi ound, slain outright in an instant. " Ha ! they 
 have got enough of it ! Shout, boys ! Victoria ! Victo 
 ria !" 
 
 And the wild cheering of the rebels pealed high above 
 the roar of the torrent, striking dismay into the soul of the 
 wretched Julia. 
 
 But, although the rebels had thus far succeeded, and 
 the legionaries had fallen back, bearing their dead and 
 wounded with them, the success was by no means absolute 
 or final ; and this no man knew better than the sword- 
 smith. 
 
 He watched the soldiers eagerly, as they drew off in or- 
 30 
 
172 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 clerly aiTay into the hollow way, and after a short consul 
 tation, posting themselves directly in front of the gate with 
 sentinels thrown out in all directions, lighted a large watch 
 fire in the road, with the intention, evidently, of converting 
 the storm into a blockade. 
 
 A few moments afterward, he saw a soldier mount the 
 horse of the slain centurion, and gallop down the hill in 
 the direction of Antonius army, which was well known to 
 be lying to the south-eastward. Still a few minutes later 
 a small party was sent down into the village, and returned 
 bringing provisions, which the men almost immediately 
 began to cook, after having posted a chain of videttes from 
 one bank to the other of the precipitous ravine, so as to 
 assure themselves that no possibility of escape was left to 
 the besieged in any direction, by which they conceived 
 escape to be practicable. 
 
 " Ha!" exclaimed Crispus, as lie watched their move 
 ments, " they will give us no more trouble to-night, but we 
 will make sure of them by posting one sentinel above the 
 gate, and another on the head of the watch-tower. Then 
 we will light us a good fire in the yard below, and feast 
 there on the beef and wine of those brute peasants. The 
 legionaries fancy that they can starve us out ; but they know 
 not how well we are provided. Hark you, my Niger. Go 
 down and butcher those two beeves, and when they are 
 flayed and decapitated, blow me a good loud trumpet blast 
 and roll down the heads over the battlements. Long ere 
 we have consumed our provender, Catiline will be down 
 on them in force ! I go to look around the place, and make 
 all certain." 
 
 And, with the words, he ascended to the summit of the 
 old watch-tower and stood there for many minutes, sur 
 veying the whole conformation of the country, and all the 
 defences of the place, with a calm and skilful eye. 
 
 The man was by no means destitute of certain natural 
 talents, and an aptitude for war, which, had it been cultiva 
 ted or improved, might possibly have made him a captain. 
 He speedily perceived, therefore, that the defences were 
 tenable so long only as no ladders or engines should be 
 brought against them ; which he was well assured would 
 be done, within twenty-four hours at the latest. He knew 
 also that want of provisions must compel him to surrender 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 173 
 
 at discretion before many days; and he felt it to be very 
 doubtful whether, without some strong effort on their part 
 Catiline would hear at all of their situation, until it should 
 be entirely too late. 
 
 He began, therefore, at once, to look about him for 
 means of despatching an envoy, nothing doubtingthat suc 
 cor would be sent to him instantly, could the arch traitor 
 be informed, that the lovely Julia was a prisoner awaiting 
 his licentious pleasure. 
 
 Descending from the battlements, he proceeded at once 
 to the barrack rooms in the rear, hoping to find some pos 
 sibility of lowering a messenger into the bed of the stream, 
 or transporting him across the ravine, unseen by the senti 
 nels of the enemy. 
 
 Then, casting open a door of fast decaying wood-work, 
 he entered the first of the low mouldering unfurnished 
 rooms ; and. stepping across the paved floor with a noise 
 less foot, thrust his head out of the window and gazed 
 anxiously up and down the course of the ravine. 
 
 He became satisfied at once that his idea was feasiblfc ; 
 for the old wall was built, at this place, in salient anglesX 
 following the natural line of the cliffs ; and the window V 
 of the central room was situated in the bottom of the re 
 cess, between two jutting curtains, in each of which was 
 another embrasure. It was evident, therefore, that a per 
 son lowered by the middle window, into the gorge beneath, 
 would be screened from the view of any watchers, by the 
 projection of the walls ; and Crispus nothing doubted but 
 that, once in the bottom of the ravine, a path might be 
 found more or less difficult by which to reach the upper 
 country. 
 
 Beyond the ravine rose many broken knolls covered 
 with a thick undergrowth of young chesnut hollies, wild 
 laurels, and the like ; and through these, a winding road 
 might be discovered, penetrating the passes of the hills, 
 and crossing the glen at a half mile s distance below on a 
 single-arched brick bridge, by which it joined the cause 
 way occupied by the legionaries. 
 
 Having observed so much, Caius Crispus was on the 
 point of withdrawing his head, forgetting all about his 
 prisoner, who, on their entrance into this dismantled hold, 
 had been thrust in hither, as into the place where she 
 
THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 would be most out of harm s way, and least likely to es 
 cape. 
 
 But just as he was satisfied with gazing, the lovely face 
 of Julia, pale as an image of statuary marble, with all her 
 splendid auburn hair unbound, was advanced out of the 
 middle window ; evidently looking out like himself for 
 means of escape. But to her the prospect was not, as to 
 him, satisfactory; and uttering a deep sigh she shook her 
 head sadly, and wrung her hands with an expression of ut 
 ter despair. 
 
 "Ha! ha ! my pretty one, it is too deep, I trow !" cried 
 Crispus, whom she had not yet observed, with a cruel 
 laugh, " Nothing, I swear, without wings can descend that 
 abyss ; unless like Sappho, whom the poets tell us of, it 
 would put an end to both love and life together. No ! no ! 
 you cannot escape thus, my pretty one; and, on the outside, 
 I will make sure of you. For the rest I will send you some 
 watch cloaks for a bed, some supper, and some wine. We 
 will not starve you, my fair Julia, and no one shall harm 
 you here, for I will sleep across your door, myself, this 
 night, and ere to-morrow s sunset we ehall be in the camp 
 with Catiline." 
 
 He was as good as his word, for he returned almost im 
 mediately, bringing a pile of watch-cloaks, which he arrang 
 ed into a rude semblance of a bed, with a pack saddle for 
 the pillow, in the innermost recess of the inner room, with 
 some bread, and beef broiled hastily on the embers, and 
 some wine mixed with water, which last she drank eager 
 ly ; for fear and anxiety had parched her, and she was faint 
 with thirst. 
 
 Before he went out, again he looked earnestly from the 
 unlatticed window, in order to assure himself that she had 
 no means of escape. Scarce was he gone, before she 
 heard the shrill blast of the Roman trumpets blown clearly 
 and scientifically, for the watch-setting; and, soon after 
 ward, all the din and bustle, which had been rife through 
 the livelong day, sank into silence, and she could hear the 
 brawling of the brook below chafing and raving against the 
 rocks which barred its bed, and the wind murmuring 
 Against the leafless treetops. 
 
 Shortly after this, it became quite dark ; and after sitting 
 musing awhile with a sad and despairing heart, and putting 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 175 
 
 up a wild prayer to the Gods for mercy and protection, 
 she went once more and leaned out of the window, gazing 
 wistfully on the black stones and foamy water. 
 
 " Nothing," she said to herself sadly, repeating Caius 
 Crispus words, " could descend hence, without wings, 
 and live. It is too true ! alas ! too true ! " she paused for 
 a moment, and then, while a flash of singular enthusiastic 
 ioy irradiated all her pallid lineaments, she exclaimed, "but 
 the Great Gods be praised ] one can leap down, and die ! 
 Let life go ! what is life 1 since I can thus preserve my 
 honor !" She paused again and considered ; then clasped 
 her hands together, and seemed to be on the point of cast 
 ing herself into that awful gulf; but she resisted the temp 
 tation, and said, "Not yet! not yet! There is hope yet, on 
 earth ! and I will live awhile, for hope and for Paullus. 
 I can do this at any time of this refuge, at least, they can 
 not rob me. I will live yet awhile!" And with the words 
 she turned away quietly, went to the pile of watch-cloaks, 
 and lying down forgot ere long her sorrows and her dread, 
 in calm and innocent slumber. 
 
 She had not been very long asleep, however, when a 
 sound from without the door aroused her ; arid, as she 
 started to her feet, Caius Crispus looked into the cell with 
 a flambeau of pine-wood blazing in his right hand, to ascer 
 tain if she was still within, arid safe under his keepina-. 
 
 " You have been sleeping, ha !" he exclaimed. " That 
 is well, you must be weary. Will you have more wine V 
 
 " Some water, if you will, but no wine. I am athirst 
 and feverish." 
 
 "You shall have water." 
 
 And thrusting the flambeau into the earth, between the 
 crevices in the pavement, he left the room abruptly. 
 
 Scarce was he gone, leaving the whole apartment blaz 
 ing with a bright light which rendered every object within 
 clearly visible to any spectator from the farther side of the 
 ravine, before a shrill voice with something of a feminine 
 tone, was heard on the other brink, exclaiming in suppressed 
 tones 
 
 "Hist! hist! Julia]" 
 
 " Great Gods ! who calls on Julia V 
 
 "Julia Serena, is it thou 7" 
 3G* 
 
176 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 "Most miserable I!" she made answer. "But who 
 calls me V * 
 
 " A friend be wary, and silent, and you shall not lack 
 aid." 
 
 But Julia heard the heavy step of the swordsmith ap 
 proaching, and laying her finger on her lips, she sprang 
 back hastily from the window, and when her gaoler en 
 tered, was busy, apparently, in arranging her miserable 
 bed. 
 
 It was not long that he tarried; for after casting one keen 
 glance around him, to see that all was right ; he freed her 
 of his hated presence, taking the torch along with him, and 
 leaving her in utter darkness. 
 
 As soon as his footstep had died away into silence, she 
 hurried back to the embrasure, and gazed forth earnestly; 
 but the moon had not yet risen, and all the gulf of the ra 
 vine and the banks on both sides were black as night, and 
 she could discern nothing. 
 
 She coughed gently, hoping to attract the attention of 
 her unknown friend, and to learn more of her chances of 
 escape ; but no farther sound or signal was made to her ; 
 and, after watching long in hope deferred, and anxiety un 
 speakable, she returned to her sad pallet and bathed her 
 pillow with hot tears, until she wept herself at length into 
 unconsciousness of suffering, the last refuge of the wretch 
 ed, when they have not the Christian s hope to sustain them. 
 
 She was almost worn out with anxiety and toil, and she 
 slept soundly, until the blowing of the Roman trumpets in 
 the pass again aroused her ; and before she had well col 
 lected her thoughts so as to satisfy herself where she was 
 and wherefore, the shouts and groans of a sudden conflict, 
 the rattling of stones and javelins on the tiled roof, the clang 
 of arms, and all the dread accompaniments of a mortal 
 conflict, awoke her to a full sense of her situation. 
 
 The day lagged tediously and slow. No one came near 
 her, and, although she watched the farther side of the 
 gorge, with all the frantic hope which is so near akin to 
 despair, she saw nothing, heard nothing, but a few wood- 
 pigeons among the leafless tree-tops, but the sob of the 
 torrent and the sigh of the wintry wind. 
 
 At times indeed the long stern swell of the legionary 
 trumpets would again sound for the assault, arid the din of 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 177 
 
 warfare would follow it ; but the skirmishes were of short 
 er and shorter duration, and the tumultuous cheering of the 
 rebels at the -close of every onslaught, proved that their 
 defence had been maintained at least, and that the besieg 
 ers had gained no advantage. 
 
 It was, perhaps, four o clock in the afternoon; and the 
 sun was beginning to verge to the westward, when, just 
 after the cessation of one of the brief attacks by which it 
 would appear that the besiegers intended rather to harass 
 the garrison and keep them constantly on the alert, than to 
 effect anything decided the sound of armed footsteps 
 again reached the ears of Julia. 
 
 A moment afterward, Caius Crispus entered the room 
 hastily, accompanied by Niger and Rufus, the latter bear 
 ing in his hand a coil of twisted rope, manufactured from 
 the raw hide of the slaughtered cattle, cut into narrow 
 stripes, and ingeniously interwoven. 
 
 " Ha !" he exclaimed, starting for a moment, as he saw 
 Julia. "I had forgotten you. We have been hardly pressed 
 all day, and I have had no time to think of you; but we 
 shall have more leisure now. Are you hungry, Julia?" 
 
 For her only reply she pointed to the food yet untouched, 
 which he had brought to her on the previous evening, and 
 shook her head sadly ; but uttered not a word. 
 
 " Well ! well !" he exclaimed, " we have no time to talk 
 about such matters now ; but eat you shall, or I will have 
 you crammed, as they stuff fat-livered geese! Come, Ni 
 ger, we must lose no minute. If they attack again, and 
 miss me from the battlements, they will be suspecting 
 something, and will perhaps come prying to the rear. 
 Have you seen any soldiers, girl, on this side 1 I trow you 
 have been gazing from the window all day long in the 
 hope of escaping, but I suppose you will not tell me 
 truly." 
 
 " If I tell you not truly, I shall hold my peace. But I 
 will tell you, that I have seen no human being, no living 
 thing, indeed ; unless it be a thrush, and three wood pig 
 eons, fluttering in the treetops yonder." 
 
 " That is a lie, I dare be sworn !" cried Niger. " If it 
 had been the truth she would not have breathed a word of 
 it to us. Beside which, it is too cool altogether !" 
 
 " By Mulciber my patron ! if I believed so, it should go 
 
178 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 hardly with her ; but it matters not. Come, we must lose 
 no time." 
 
 And passing into the central room of the three, they made 
 one end of the rope fast about the waist of Niger, and the 
 other to an upright mullion in the embrasure, which, al 
 though broken half way up, afforded ample purchase 
 whereby to lower him into the chasm. 
 
 This done, the man clambered out of the window very 
 coolly, going backward, as if he were about to descend a 
 ladder ; but, when his face was on the point of disappear 
 ing below the sill, as he hung by his hands alone, having 
 no foothold whatever, he said quietly, " If I shout, Caius 
 Crispus, haul me up instantly. I shall not do so, if there 
 be any path below. But if I whistle, be sure that all is 
 right. Lower away. Farewell." 
 
 "Hold on! hold on, man!" replied Crispus quickly, 
 " turn yourself round so as to bring your back to the crag s 
 face, else shall the angles of the rock maim, and the dust 
 blind you. That s it ; most bravely done ! you are a right 
 good cragsman." 
 
 " I was born among the crags, at all events," answered 
 the other, " and I think now that 1 am going to die among 
 them. But what of that 1 One must die some day ! Fewer 
 words ! lower away, I say, I am tired of hanging here be 
 tween Heaven and Tartarus !" 
 
 No words were spoken farther, by any of the party ; but 
 the smith with the aid of Rufus paid out the line rapidly 
 although steadily, hand under hand, until the whole length 
 was run out with the exception of some three or four feet. 
 
 Just at this moment, when Crispus was beginning to 
 despair of success, and was half afraid that he had miscal 
 culated the length of the rope, the strain on it was slack 
 ened for a moment, and then ceased altogether. 
 
 The next instant a low and guarded whistle rose from 
 the gorge, above the gurgling of the waters, but not so 
 loud as to reach any ears save those for which it was in 
 tended. 
 
 A grim smile curled the swordsmith s lip, and his fierce 
 eye glittered with cruel triumph. " We are safe now. 
 Catiline will be here long before daybreak. Your prayers 
 have availed us, Julia ; for I doubt not," he added, with 
 malicious irony, " that you have prayed for us." 
 
DAYS OP CICERO ; CATO AND CATALINE. 179 
 
 Before she had time to reply to his cruel sarcasm, afresh 
 swell of the besiegers trumpets, and a loud burst of shouts 
 and warcriesfrom the battlement announced a fresh attack. 
 The smith rushed from the room instantly with Rufus at 
 his heels, and Julia had already made one step toward the 
 window, intending to attempt the perilous descent, alone 
 and unaided, when Crispus turned back suddenly, crying, 
 
 " The Rope ! the Rope ! By the G ods ! do not leave the 
 rope ! She hath enough of the Amazon s blood in her to 
 atttempt it " 
 
 " Of the Roman s blood, say rather !" she exclaimed, 
 springing toward the casement, half maddened in perceiv 
 ing her last hope frustrated. 
 
 Had she reached it, she surely would have perished ; 
 for no female head and hands, how strong and resolute so 
 ever, could have descended that frail rope, and even if 
 they could, the ruffian, rather than see her so escape, would 
 have cut it asunder, and so precipitated her to the bottom 
 of the rocky chasm. 
 
 But she did not attain her object ; for Caius Crispus 
 caught her with both arms around the waist and threw 
 her so violently to the after end of the room, that, her head 
 striking the angle of the wall, she was stunned for the 
 moment, and lay almost senseless on the floor, while the 
 savage, with a rude brutal laugh at her disappointment, 
 rushed out of the room, bearing the rope along with him. 
 
 Scarce had he gone, however, when, audible distinctly 
 amid the dissonant danger of the fray, the same feminine 
 voice, which she had heard on the previous night, again 
 aroused her, crying "Hist! hist! hist! Julia." 
 
 She sprang to her feet, arid gained the window in a 
 moment, and there, on the other verge of the chasm, near 
 twenty feet distant from the window at which she stood, 
 she discovered the figure of a slender dark-eyed and dark- 
 complexioned boy, clad in a hunter s tunic, and bearing a 
 bow in his hand, and a quiver full of arrows on his shoul 
 der. 
 
 She had never seen that boy before ; yet was there 
 something in his features and expression that seemed fami 
 liar to her ; that sort of vague resemblance to something 
 well known and accustomed, which leads men to suppose 
 that they must have dreamed of things which mysteri- 
 
180 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ously enough they seem to remember on their first occur 
 rence. 
 
 The boy raised his hand joyously, and cried aloud, 
 without any fear of being heard, well knowing that all 
 eyes and ears of the defenders of the place were turned 
 to the side when the fight was raging, " Be of good cheer ; 
 you are saved, Julia. Paullus is nigh at hand, but ere he 
 come, I will savte you ! Be of good courage, watch well 
 these windows, but seem to be observing nothing." 
 
 And with the words, he turned away, and was lost to 
 her sight in an instant, among the thickly-set underwood. 
 Ere long, however, she caught a glimpse of him again, 
 mounted upon a beautiful white horse, and gallopping like 
 the wind down the sandy road, which wound through the 
 wooded knolls toward the bridge below. 
 
 Again she lost him ; and again he glanced upon her 
 sight, for a single second, as he spurred his fleet horse 
 across the single arch of brick, and dashed into the woods 
 on the hither side of the torrent. 
 
 Two weary hours passed ; and the sun was nigh to his 
 setting, and she had seen, heard nothing more. Her heart, 
 sickening with hope deferred, and all her frame trembling 
 with terrible excitement, she had almost begun to doubt, 
 whether the whole appearance of the boy might not have 
 ,t>een a mere illusion of her feverish senses, a vain crea 
 tion of her distempered fancy. 
 
 Still, fiercer than before, the battle raged without, and 
 now there was no intermission of the uproar ; to which 
 was added the crashing of the roofs beneath heavy stones, 
 betokening that engines of some kind had been brought 
 up from the host, or constructed on the spot. 
 
 At length, however, her close watch was rewarded. A 
 slight stir among the evergreen bushes on the brink of the 
 opposite cliff caught her quick eye, and in another moment 
 the head of a man, not of the boy whom she had seen 
 before, nor yet, as her hope suggested, of her own Paullus, 
 but of an aquiline-nosed clean-shorn Roman soldier, with 
 an intelligent expression and quick eye, was thrust for 
 ward. 
 
 Perceiving Julia at the window, he drew back for a 
 second ; and the boy appeared in his place, and then both 
 
DAYS OF CTCERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 181 
 
 showed themselves together, the soldier holding in his hand 
 the bow and arrows of the hunter youth. 
 
 " He is a friend," said the boy, " do all that he com 
 mands you." 
 
 But so fiercely was the battle raging now, that it was 
 his signs, rather than his words, which she comprehended. 
 
 The next moment, a gesture of his hand warned her to 
 withdraw from the embrasure ; and scarcely had she done 
 so before an arrow whistled from the bow and dropped 
 into the room, having a piece of very slender twine attach 
 ed to the end of it. 
 
 Perceiving the intention at a glance, the quick witted 
 girl detached the string from the shaft without delay, and, 
 throwing the latter out of the window lest it should betray 
 the plan, drew in the twine, until she had some forty 
 yards within the room, when it was checked from the 
 other side, neither the soldier nor the youth showing 
 themselves at all during the operation. 
 
 This done, however, the boy again stood forth, and 
 pitched a leaden bullet, such as was used by the slingers 
 of the day, into the window. 
 
 Perceiving that the ball was perforated, she secured it 
 in an instant to the end of the clue, which she held in her 
 hand, and, judging that the object of her friends was to 
 establish a communication from their side, cast it back to 
 them with a great effort, having first passed the twine 
 around the mullion, by aid of which Crispus had lowered 
 down his messenger. 
 
 The soldier caught the bullet, and nodded his approba 
 tion with a smile, but again receded into the bushes, suf 
 fering the slack of the twine to fall down in an easy curve 
 into the ravine : so that the double communication would 
 scarce have been perceived, even by one looking for it, in 
 the gathering twilight. 
 
 The boy s voice once more reached her ears, though his 
 form was concealed among the shrubbery. " Fear nothing, 
 you are safe," he said. " But we can do no more until 
 after midnight, when the moon shall give us light to 
 rescue you. Be tranquil, and farewell." 
 
 Be tranquil ! tranquil, when life or death honor or 
 infamy bliss or despair, hung on that feeble twine, scarce 
 thicker than the spider s web! hung on the chance of 
 
182 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 every flymg second, each one of which was bringing nigher 
 and more nigh, the hoofs of Catiline s atrocious band. 
 
 When voice of man can bid the waves be tranquil, while 
 the north-wester is" tossing their ruffian tops, and when the 
 billows slumber at his bidding, then may the comforter 
 assay, with some chance of success, to still the throbbings 
 of the human heart, convulsed by such hopes, such terrors, 
 as then were all but maddening the innocent and tranquil 
 heart of Julia. 
 
 Tranquil she could not be ; but she was calm and self- 
 possessed, and patient. 
 
 Hour after hour lagged away ; and the night fell black 
 as the pit of Acheron, and still by the glare of pale fires and 
 torches, the lurid light of which she could perceive from 
 her windows, reflected on the heavens, the savage combat 
 ants fought on, unwearied, and unsparing. 
 
 Once only she went ngain to that window, wherefrom 
 hung all her hopes ; so fearful was she, that Crispus might 
 iind her there, and suspect what was in process. 
 
 With trembling fingers she felt for the twine, fatal as 
 the thread of destiny should any fell chance sever it ; and 
 in its place she found a stout cord, which had been quietly 
 drawn around the mullion, still hanging in a deep double 
 bight, invisible amid the gloom, from side to side of the 
 chasm. 
 
 And now, for the first time, she comprehended clearly 
 the means by which her unknown friends proposed to reach 
 her. By hauling on one end of the rope, any light plank 
 or ladder might be drawn over to the hither from the far 
 ther bank, and the gorge might so be securely bridged, and 
 safely traversed. 
 
 Perceiving this, and fancying that she could distinguish 
 the faint clink of a hammer among the trees beyond the 
 forest knoll, she did indeed become almost tranquil. 
 
 She even lay down on her couch, and closed her eyes, 
 and exerted all the power of her mind to be composed 
 and self-possessed, when the moment of her destiny should 
 arrive. 
 
 But oh! how day-long did the minutes seem; how 
 more than year-long the hours. 
 
 She opened her curtained lids, and lo ! what was that 
 faint pale lustre, glimmering through the tree-tops on the 
 
4 
 
 DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 183 
 
 far mountain s brow 1 all glory to Diana, chaste guardian 
 of the r.Haste and pure! it was the signal of her safety ! it 
 .rots ! it was the ever- blessed rnoon ! 
 
 Breathless with joy, she darted to the opening, and 
 slowly, warily creeping athwart the gloomy void, she saw 
 the cords drawn taught, and running stiffly, it is true, and 
 reluctantly, but surely, around the mouldering stone mul- 
 lion ; while from the other side, ghost-like and pale, the 
 skeleton of a light ladder, was advancing to meet her hand 
 as if by magic. 
 
 Ten minutes more and she would be free ! oh ! the 
 strange bliss, the inconceivable rapture of that thought ! 
 free from pollution, infamy ! free to live happy and un 
 blemished ! free to be the beloved, the honored bride of 
 her own Arvina. 
 
 Why did she shudder suddenly 1 why grew she rigid 
 with dilated eyes, arid lips apart, like a carved effigy of 
 agonized surprise ? 
 
 Hark to that rising sound, more rapid than the rush of 
 the stream, and louder than the wailing of the wind ! thick 
 pattering down the rocky gorge ! nearer and nearer, till 
 it thunders high above all the tumult of the battle ! the 
 furious gallop of approaching horse, the sharp and angry 
 clang of harness ! 
 
 Lo ! the hot glare, outfacing the pale moonbeam, the 
 fierce crimson blaze of torches gleaming far down tha 
 mountain side, a torrent of rushing fire ! 
 
 Hark ! the wild cheer, " Catiline ! Catiline !" to the 
 skies ! mixed with the wailing blast of the Roman trum 
 pets, unwillingly retreating from the half-won watch- 
 tower ! 
 
 " Pull for your lives !" she cried, in accents full of horror 
 and appalling anguish " Pull ! pull ! if ye would not see 
 rne perish !" 
 
 But it was all too late. Amid a storm of tumultuous 
 acclamation, Catiline drew his panting charger up before 
 the barricaded gateway, which had so long resisted the 
 dread onset of the legionaries, and which now instantly 
 flew open to admit him. Waving his hand to his men to 
 pursue the retreating infantry, he sprang down from his 
 horse, uttering but one word in the deep voice of smother 
 ed passion "Julia!" 
 
 37 
 

 184 THE ROMAN TRAITOR J OR, THE 
 
 His armed foot clanged on the pavement, ere the bridge 
 was entirely withdrawn ; for they, who manned the ropes, 
 now dragged it back, as vehemently as they had urged 
 forward a moment since. 
 
 " Back from the window, Julia !" cried the voice " If 
 he perceive the ropes, all is lost ! Trust me, we never 
 will forsake you ! Meet him ! be bold ! be daring ! but 
 defy him not!" 
 
 Scarce had she time to catch the friendly admonition 
 and act on it, as she did instantly, before the door of the 
 outer room was thrown violently open ; and, with his sal 
 low face inflamed and fiery, and his black eye blazing with 
 hellish light, Catiline exclaimed, as he strode in hot haste 
 across the threshold, 
 
 " At last ! at la<t, I have thee, Julia I" 
 
CATO AND CAT ALINE. 185 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 TIDINGS FROM ROME. 
 
 Time and the tide wear through the longest day. 
 
 SHAKSFEARE. 
 
 " AT last, I have thee, Julia !" 
 
 Mighty indeed was the effort of the mind, which enabled 
 that fair slight girl to bear up with an undaunted lip and 
 serene eye against the presence of that atrocious villain ; 
 and hope, never-dying hope, was the spirit which nerved 
 her to that effort. 
 
 It was strange, knowing as she did the character of that 
 atrocious and bloodthirsty tyrant, that she should not have 
 given way entirely to feminine despair and terror, or 
 sought by tears and prayers to disarm his purpose. 
 
 But her high blood cried out from every vein and artery 
 of her body ; and she stood calm and sustained by con 
 scious virtue, even in that extremity of peril ; neither 
 tempting assault by any display of coward weakness, nor 
 provoking it by any show of defiance. 
 
 There is nothing, perhaps, so difficult to any one who is 
 not a butcher or an executioner by trade, with sensibilities 
 blunted by the force of habit, as to attack or injure any 
 thing, which neither flies, nor resists, neither braves, nor 
 trembles. 
 
 And Catiline himself, savage and brutal as he was, full 
 of ungoverned impulse and unbridled passion, felt, though 
 be knew not wherefore, this difficulty at this moment* 
 
 Had she fallen at his feet, trembling, and tearful, a.vd 
 
186 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 implored his mercy, he would have gloated on her terrors, 
 laughed tears and prayers to scorn, yea ! torn her from an 
 altar s foot, to pour out upon her the vials of agony and 
 foul pollution. 
 
 Had she defied, or braved his violence, his fury would 
 have trampled her to the earth in an instant, and murder 
 would have followed in the footsteps of worse violence. 
 
 But as she stood there, firm, cold, erect, and motionless 
 as a statue of rare marble, with scarcely a pulse throbbing 
 in her veins, and her clear azure eyes fixed on him with a 
 cold and steady gaze, as if she would have fascinated him 
 by their serene chaste influence, he likewise stood and 
 gazed upon her with a strange mixture of impressions, 
 wherein something akin to love and admiration were blent 
 with what, in minds of better mould, should have been 
 reverence and awe. 
 
 He felt, in short, that he lacked a spur to prick the 
 sides of his intent, a provocation to insult and aggression 
 yet stronger than the passion and hot thirst of vengeance, 
 which had been well nigh chilled by her severe and icy 
 fortitude. 
 
 Tis said that a lion will turn and flee, 
 From a maid in the pride of her purity ; 
 
 and here a fiercer and more dangerous savage stood pow 
 erless and daunted for the moment, by the same holy in 
 fluence of virtue, which, it is said, has potency to tame the 
 pinched king of the desert. 
 
 It was not, however, in the nature of that man to yield 
 himself up long to any influence, save that of his own pas 
 sions, and after standing m ?if e for perhaps a minute, during 
 which the flush on his sallow cheek, and the glare of his 
 fiery eye, were blanched and dimmed somewhat, he ad 
 vanced a step or two toward her, repeating the words, 
 
 " I have thee ; thou art mine, Julia." 
 
 " Thy prisoner, Catiline," she replied quietly " if you 
 make women prisoners." 
 
 " My slave, minion." 
 
 "I am free-born, and noble. A patrician of a house as 
 ancient as thine own. My ancestors, I have heard say, 
 fought side by side with Sergius Silo." 
 
 " The more cause, that their daughter should sleep side 
 
CATO AND CATALINE. 187 
 
 y side with Sergius Catiline!" he replied with bitter iro 
 ny ; but there was less of actual passion in his tones, than 
 of a desire to lash himself into fury. 
 
 " The less cause that a free-born lady should be disgraced 
 by the grandson of his comrade in arms, who gave her fa 
 ther being." 
 
 Thus far her replies had been conducted in the spirit 
 most likely to control, if any thing could control, the de 
 mon that possessed him ; but seeing that her words had 
 produced more effect on him than she had deemed possi 
 ble, she made an effort to improve her advantage, and add 
 ed, looking him firmly in the eye, 
 
 " I have heard tell that thou art proud, Catiline, as th^v 
 art nobly born. Let, then, thine own pride" 
 
 " Proud ! Proud ! Ha ! minion ! What have your no 
 bles left>me that I should glory in what of which I iray 
 still be proud l \ A name of the grandest, blasted by their 
 base lies, and infamous ! Service converted into shame 
 valor warped into crime ! At home poverty, degradation 
 ruin ! Abroad, debt, mockery, disgrace ! Proud ! proua 1 
 By Nemesis ! fond girl. I am proud to be the thing that 
 they have made me, a terror, and a curse to all who call 
 themselves patrician. For daring, remorseless ! for brave, 
 cruel ! for voluptuous, sensual ! for fearless, ruthless ! for 
 enterprising, reckless ! for ambitious, desperate ! for a 
 man, a monster ! for a philosopher, an atheist ! Ha ! ha ! 
 ha ! ha ! I am proud, minion, proud to be that I am 
 that which thou, Julia, shalt soon find me!" 
 
 She perceived, when it was too late, the error which 
 she had made, and fearful of incensing him farther, answer 
 ed nothing. But he was not so to be set at naught, for he 
 had succeeded now in lashing himself into a fit of fury, 
 and advancing upon her, with a face full of all hideous 
 passions, a face that denoted his fell purpose, as plainly as 
 any words could declare them. 
 
 " Dost hear me, girl, I say ] Thou art mine, Julia." 
 
 " Thy prisoner, Catiline," she again repeated in the 
 same steady tone as at first; but the charm had now failed 
 of its effect, and it was fortunate for the sweet girl, that 
 the fell wretch before whom she stood defenceless, had so 
 much of the cat-like, tiger-like spirit in his nature, so much 
 that prompted him to tantalize and torment before striking, 
 37* 
 
188 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 to teaze and harass and break down the mind, before do- 
 ino- violence to the body of his subject enemies, or of those 
 whom he chose to deem such. 
 
 Had he suspected at this moment that any chance of 
 succor was at hand, however remote, he lacked neither 
 the will nor the occasion to destroy her. He fancied that 
 she was completely at his mercy ; and perceiving that, in 
 despite of her assumed coolness, she writhed beneath the 
 terrors of his tongue, he revelled in the fiendish pleasure 
 of triumphing in words over her spirit, before wreaking 
 his vengeance on her person. 
 
 " My slave ! Julia. My slave, soul and body ! my 
 slave, here and for ever ! Slave to my passions, and my 
 pleasures ! Wilt yield, or resist, fair girl 1 Resist, I do 
 beseech thee ! Let some fi o animate those lovely eyes, 
 even if it be the fire of fury some light kindle those pal 
 lid cheeks, even if it be the light of hatred ! I am aweary 
 of tame conquests." 
 
 "Then wherefore conquer; or conquering, wherefore 
 not spare V she answered. 
 
 " I conquer, to slake my thirst of vengeance. I spare 
 not, for the wise man s word to the fallen, is still, VJE VICTIS. 
 Wilt yield, or resist, Julia 1 wilt be the sharer, or the vic 
 tim of my pleasures ? speak, I say, speak!" he shouted 
 savagely, perceiving that she sought to evade a direct 
 answer. " Speak and replv r directly, or I will do to thee 
 forthwith what most thou dreadest ! and then wipe out 
 thy shame by agonies of death, to which the tortures of 
 old Regulus were luxury." 
 
 " If I must choose, the victim !" she replied steadily. 
 " But I believe you will not so disgrace your manhood." 
 
 " Ha ! you believe so, you shall feel soon and know. 
 One question more, wilt thou yield or resist ]"-!- 
 
 " Resist," she answered, " to the last, and when dis 
 honored, die, and by death, like Lucretia, win back greater 
 honor ! Lucretia s death had witnesses, and her tale 
 found men s ears." 
 
 " Thy death shall be silent, thy shame loud. I will 
 proclaim the first my deed, the last thy voluntary ." 
 
 " Proclaim it !" she interrupted him, with her eyes 
 flashing bright indignation, and her lip curling with ineffa 
 ble disdain ; as she forgot all prudence in the scorn called 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 189 
 
 forth by his injurious words " Proclaim it to the world ! 
 who will believe it ]" 
 
 " The world. Frailty s name is woman !" 
 
 " And Falsehood s Catiline !" 
 
 " By Hades !" and he sprang upon her with a bound 
 like that of a tiger, and twined his arms about her waist, 
 clasping her to his breast with brutal violence, and striving 
 to press his foul lips on her innocent mouth ; but she, en 
 dowed with momentary strength, infinitely unwonted and 
 unnatural, the strength of despair and frenzy, caught his 
 bare throat with both her hands, and writhing herself back 
 to the full length of her arms, uttered a volume of shrieks, 
 BO awfully shrill and piercing, that they struck terror into 
 the souls of the brutal rebels without, and harrowed up 
 the spirits of her friends, who lay concealed within earshot, 
 waiting, now almost in despair, an opportunity to aid her. 
 
 So strong was the clutch which her small hands had 
 fixed upon his throat, that ere he could release himself, 
 sufficiently to draw a full breath, he was compelled to let 
 her go ; and ere he fully recovered himself, she had made 
 a spring back toward the window, with the evident pur 
 pose of throwing herself out into the yawning gulf below it. 
 
 But something caught her eye which apparently deter 
 red her, and turning her back upon it quickly, she faced 
 her persecutor once again. 
 
 At this moment, there was a loud and angry bustle in 
 the outer court, immediately followed by a violent knock 
 ing at the door ; but so terrible was the excitement of 
 both these human beings, her s the excitement of inno 
 cence in trial, his of atrocity triumphant, that neither 
 heard it, though it was sudden and strong enough to have 
 startled any sleepers, save those of the grave. 
 
 " Ha ! but this charms me ! I knew not that you had so 
 much of the Tigress to fit you for the Tiger s mate. But 
 what a fool you are to waste your breath in yells and your 
 strength in struggles, like to those, when there are none 
 to hear, or to witness them." 
 
 " Witnesses are found to all crimes right early and aven 
 gers !" she exclaimed with the high mien of a prophetess ; 
 and still that vehement knocking continued, unheeded as 
 the earthquake which reeled unnoticed beneath the feet 
 of the combatants at Thrasymene. 
 
190 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 " To this at least there are no witnesses ! there shall be 
 no avengers !" 
 
 " The Gods are my witnesses ! shall be my avengers !" 
 
 " Tush ! there are no Gods, Julia !" 
 
 And again he rushed on her and caught her in his arm? 
 
 But as he spoke those impious words, sprang to do that 
 atrocious deed, a witness was found, and it might be an 
 avenger. 
 
 L noticed by the traitor in the fierce whirlwind of nis 
 passion, that hunter boy stood forth on the further brink; 
 revea 1, a loy no longer ; for the Phrygian bonnet had fall 
 en off, and th redundant raven tresses of a girl flowed 
 back on the wind. Her attitude and air were those of 
 Diana as she bent her good bow against the ravisher 
 Orion. Her right foot dvanced firmly, her right hand 
 drawn back to the ear, her fine eye glaring upon the arrow 
 which bore with unerring aim full o the breast of her own 
 corrupter, her own father, Catiline. 
 
 Who had more wrongs to avenge than Lucia 1 
 
 Another second, and the shaft would have quivered in 
 the heart of the arch villain, sped by the hand from which 
 he deserved it the most dearly. The room within was 
 brighter than day from the red torch light which filled it, 
 falling full on the gaunt form and grim visage of the mon 
 ster. Her hand was firm, her eye steady, her heart piti 
 less. But in the better course of her changed life, heaven 
 spared her the dread crime of parricide. 
 
 Just as the chord was at the tightest, just as the feathers 
 quivered, and the barb thrilled, about to leap from the tense 
 string, the tall form of the soldier sprang up into the clear 
 moonlight from the underwood, and crying "Hold ! hold!" 
 mastered herbovvhand, with the speed of light, and dragged 
 her down into the covert. 
 
 Well was it that he did so. For just as Catiline seized 
 Julia the second time in his resistless grasp, and ere his lips 
 had contaminated her sweet mouth, the giant Crispus, who 
 had so long been knocking unheeded, rushed into the room, 
 and seized his leader by the shoulder unseen, until he lite 
 rally touched him. 
 
 " Another time for this ;" he said, " Catiline. There are 
 tidings from Rome ; which " 
 
 " To Tartarus with thy tidings ! Let them tarry !" 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALTNE. 191 
 
 " They will not tarry, Catiline," replied the smith, who 
 was as pale as a ghost and almost trembling " least of all 
 for such painted woman s flesh as this is!" 
 
 " Get thee away! It were better, wiser, safer to stand 
 between the Lion and his prey, than between Catiline and 
 Julia." 
 
 " Then have it !" shouted the smith. "All is discovered ! 
 all undone ! Lentulus and Cethegus, Gabinius and Stati- 
 lius, and Caeparius all dead by the hangman s noose in the 
 Tullianum !" 
 
 " The idiots ! is that all? thy precious tidings! See! 
 how I will avenge them." And he struggled to shake 
 himself free from the grasp of Crispus. 
 
 But the smith held him firmly, and replied, "ft is not all, 
 Catiline. Metellus Celer is within ten leagues of the camp, 
 at the foot of the mountains. We have no retreat left into 
 Gaul. Come! come ! speak to the soldiers ! You can deal 
 with this harlotry hereafter." 
 
 Catiline glared upon him, as if he would have stabbed 
 him to the heart ; but seeing the absolute necessity of en 
 quiring into the truth of this report, he turned to leave the 
 room. 
 
 "The Gods be praised! the Gods have spoken loud ! 
 The Gods have saved me !" cried Julia falling on her knees. 
 " Are there no Gods now, O Catiline ?" 
 
 " To Hades ! with thy Gods !" and, striking the unhappy 
 girl a coward blow, which felled her to the ground sense 
 less, he rushed from the room with his confederate in 
 crime, barring the outer door behind him. 
 
102 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 CHATTER XVIII. 
 
 THE RESCUE. 
 
 Speed, Malise, speed, the dim door g hide 
 On fleeter foot was never tied^ 
 
 LADY OF THE LAKE. 
 
 SCARCELY had the door closed behind Catiline, who rush 
 ed forth torch in hand, as if goaded by the furies of Orestes, 
 when half a dozen stout men, sheathed in the full armor of 
 Roman legionaries, sprang out of the brushwood on the 
 gorge s brink, and seizing the ropes which had hung idle 
 during that critical hour, hauled on them with such ener 
 getical and zealous power, that the ladder was drawn 
 across the chasm with almost lightning speed. 
 
 The hooks, with which its outer end was garnished, 
 caught in the crevices of the ruined wall, and a slender 
 communication was established, although the slight struc 
 ture which bridged the abyss was scarcely capable of sup 
 porting the weight of a human I uiMg. 
 
 The soldiers, accustomed, as all Roman soldiers were, 
 to all the expediences and resources of warfare. ]*^ "c- 
 pared planks which were to be run forward on the ladder, 
 in order to construct a firm bridge. For the plan of the 
 besiegers, until interrupted by Catiline s arrival, had been 
 to take the stronghold in reverse, while a false attack in 
 front should be in progress, and throwing ten or twelve 
 stout soldiers into the heart of the place, to make them 
 selves masters of it by a coup-de-main. 
 
 This well-devised scheme being rendered unfeasible by 
 the sudden charge of Catiline s horse, and the rout of the 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 193 
 
 legionaries, the small subaltern s detachment which had 
 been sent round under Lucia s guidance foi* it was she 
 who had discerned the means of passing the r-hasm, while 
 lying in wait to assist Julia, and disclosed it lo the centu 
 rion commanding had been left alone, and isolated, its 
 line of retreat cut off, and itself without a leader. 
 
 The singular scenes, however, which they had witness 
 ed, the interest which almost involuntarily they had been 
 led to take in the fate of the fair girl, her calm and daunt 
 less fortitude, and above all the atrocious villainy of Cati 
 line, had inspired every individual of that little band with 
 an heroic resolution to set their lives upon a cast, in order 
 to rescue one who to all of them was personally unknown. 
 
 In addition to this, the discovery of Lucia s sex for 
 they had believed her to be what she appeared, a boy 
 which followed immediately on the Jos* of her Phrygian 
 bonnet, and the story of her bitter wrongs, which had 
 taken wind, acted as a powerful incentive to men naturally 
 bold arid enterprising. 
 
 For it is needless to add, that with the revelation of her 
 sex, that of her character as the arch-traitor s child and 
 victim went, as it were, hand in hand. 
 
 They had resolved, therefore, on rescuing the one, and 
 revenging the other of these women, at any risk to them 
 selves whatsoever ; and now having waited their opportu 
 nity with the accustomed patience of Roman veterans, 
 they acted upon it with their habitual skill and celerity. 
 
 But rapid as were their movements, they were outstrip 
 ped by the almost superhuman agility of Lucia, who, 
 knowing well the character of the human fiend with whom 
 they had to contend, his wondrous promptitude in counsel, 
 his lightning speed in execution, was well assured that 
 there was not one moment to be lost, if they would save 
 Arvina s betrothed bride from a fate worse than many 
 deaths. 
 
 As soon therefore as she saw the hooks of the scaling 
 ladder catch firm hold of the broken wall, before a single 
 plank had been laid over its frail and distant rungs, she 
 bounded over it with the light and airy foot of a practised 
 dancer finding account at that perilous moment in one of 
 those indelicate accomplishments in which she had been 
 instructed for purposes the basest and most horrible. 
 
194 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 Accustomed as they were to deeds of energy and rapid 
 daring, the stout soldiers stood aghast ; for, measuring the 
 action by their own weight and ponderous armature, they 
 naturally overrated its peril to one so slightly made as 
 Lucia. 
 
 And yet the hazard was extreme, for not taking it into 
 "account that a single slip or false step must precipitate her 
 into the abyss, the slender woodwork of the ladder actu 
 ally bent as she alighted on it, from each of her long airy 
 bounds. 
 
 It was but a second, however, in which she glanced 
 across it, darted through the small embrasure, and was 
 lost to the eyes of the men within the darkness of the old 
 barrack. 
 
 Astonished though they were at the girl s successful 
 daring, the soldiers were not paralyzed at all, nor did they 
 cease from their work. 
 
 In less than a minute after she had entered the window, 
 a board was thrust forward, running upon the framework 
 of the ladder, and upon that a stout plank, two feet in 
 breadth, capable of supporting, if necessary, the weight of 
 several armed men. 
 
 Nor had this. bridge been established many seconds 
 before the soldier in command ran forward upon it, and 
 met Lucia at the embrasure, bearing with strength far 
 greater than her slight form and unmuscular limbs ap 
 peared to promise, the still senseless form of Julia. 
 
 Catching her from the arms of Lucia, the robust legion 
 ary cast the fainting girl across his shoulder as though she 
 had been a feather; arid rushed back with her toward his 
 comrades, crying aloud in haste alarm 
 
 " Quick ! quick ! follow me quick, Lucia. I hear foot 
 steps, they are coming !" 
 
 The caution was needless, for almost outstripping the 
 heavy soldier, the fleet-footed girl stood with him on the 
 farther bank. 
 
 Yet had it come a moment later, it would have come all 
 too late. 
 
 For having with his wonted celerity ascertained the 
 truth of these fatal tidings, and ordered the body of horse 
 whom he had brought up with him, and who had returned 
 from pursuing the infantry, on seeing a larger body com 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 195 
 
 ing up fi\)m ArtoniuB* army, to return with all speed to 
 the camp of Manilas, retaining only a dozen troopers as a 
 rf?rsonal escort, Catiline had come back to bear off his 
 nvely captive. 
 
 The clang of his haughty step had reached the ears of 
 *ne legionary just as he drew poor Julia, unconscious of 
 .er rescue, thiough the barrack window ; and as they 
 Mood on the brink of the ravine, thus far in safety, the red 
 piare of the torches streaming through the embrasures, 
 announced the arrival of their enemies, within almost arm s 
 length of them. 
 
 The awful burst of imprecations which thundered from 
 .ne lips of Catiline, as he perceived that his victim had 
 .->een snatched from him, struck awe even into the hearts of 
 ,-nose brave veterans. 
 
 A tiger robbed of its young is but a weak and poor 
 example of the frantic, ungovernable, beast-like rage 
 which appeared to prevail entirely above all senses, a!) 
 consideration, and all reason, 
 
 " May I perish ill ! may I die crucified ! may the fowls 
 of the air, the beasts of the field devour me, if she so es 
 cape !" he shouted; and perceiving the means by which 
 she had been carried off, he called loudly for his men to 
 follow, and was in the very act of leaping out from the 
 embrasure upon the bridge, which they had not time to 
 withdraw, when one of the legionaries spurned away the 
 frail fabric with his foot, and drawing his short falchion 
 severed the cords which secured it, at a single blow. 
 
 Swinging off instantly in mid air, it was dashed heavily 
 against the rocky wall of the precipice, and, dislodged by 
 the shock, the planks went thundering down into the tor 
 rent, at the bottom of the gorge ; while upheld by the 
 hooks to the stone window sill, the ladder hung useless on 
 Catiline s side of the chasm, all communication thus com 
 pletely interrupted. ~ 
 
 At the same moment three of the heavy pila, which 
 were the peculiar missiles of the legion, were hurled by as 
 many stout arms at the furious desperado ; but it was not 
 his fate so to perish. One of the pondrous weapons hurt 
 led so close to his temple that the keen head razed the skin, 
 the others, blunted or shivered against the sides or lintel 
 of the window, fell harmless into the abys&., 
 
196 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 "Thou fool!" cried the man who had rescued jifia, 
 addressing him who had cut away the bridge, " Inou 
 shouldst have let him reach the middle, ere thou dvist 
 strike that blow. Then would he have lain there now," and 
 he pointed downward with his finger into the yawrrfng gulf. 
 
 " I do not know," replied the other. "By the Gous ! 
 Catiline is near enough to me, when he is twenty paces 
 distant." 
 
 " Thou art right, soldier, and didst well and wisely," 
 said Lucia, hastily. " Hadst thou tarried to strike until 
 he reached the middle, thou never wouldst have stricken 
 at all. One foot without that window, he would have 
 cleared that chasm, as easily as I would leap a furrow. 
 But come ! come ! come ! we must not loiter, nor lose one 
 instant. He will not so submit to be thwarted. I have 
 two horses by the roadside yonder. Their speed alone 
 shall save us." 
 
 "Right! right!" replied the soldier, "lead to them 
 quickly. It is for life or death ! Hark ! he is calling his 
 men now to horse. We shall have a close run for it, by 
 Hercules !." 
 
 " And we V 1 asked one of the veterans 
 
 " Disperse yourselves among the hills, and make your 
 way singly to the camp. He will not think of you, with us 
 before him !" 
 
 " Farewell ! The Gods guide and guard thee !" 
 
 "We shall much need, I fear, their guidance !" answer 
 ed the legionary, setting off at a swift pace, still bearing 
 Julia, who was now beginning to revive in the fresh air, 
 following hard on Lucia, who ran, literally like the wind, 
 to the spot where she had tied her own beautiful white 
 Ister, and another horse, a powerful and well-bred Thra- 
 cian charger, to the stems of two chesnut trees, in readi 
 ness for any fortunes. 
 
 Rapidly as -the soldier ran, still the light-footed girl 
 outstripped him, and when he reached the sandy road, she 
 had already loosened the reins from the trees to which 
 they had been attached, and held them in readiness. 
 
 " Mount, mouti," cried Lucia, " for your life ! I will 
 help you to lift her." 
 
 " I am better now," exclaimed Julia " Oh ye Gods ! 
 and safe too ! I can help myself now ! and in an instant 
 
DATS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 197 
 
 ane was seated behind the stout man-at-arms, and clinging 
 with both hands to his sword belt. 
 
 " If you see me no more, as I think you will not, Julia, 
 tell Paullus, Lucia saved you, and died, for love of him ! 
 Now ride ! ride ! ride ! for your life ride !" 
 
 And giving their good horses head they sprang forth, 
 plying the rein and scourge, at headlong speed. 
 
 As they ascended the first little hillock, they saw the 
 troopers of Catiline pouring out of the watch-tower gate, 
 and thundering down the slope toward the bridge, with 
 furious shouts, at a rate scarcely inferior to their own. 
 
 They had but one hope of safety. To reach the little 
 bridge and pass it before their pursuers should gain it, 
 and cut off their retreat toward their friends, whom they 
 knew to be nigh at hand ; but to do so appeared well 
 nigh impossible. * 
 
 It was a little in their favor that the steeds of Catiline s 
 troopers had been harassed by a long and unusually rapid 
 night march, while their, own were fresh and full of spirit ; 
 but this advantage was neutralized at least by the double 
 weight which impeded the progress and bore down the 
 energies of the noble Thracian courser, bearing Julia 
 and the soldier. 
 
 Again it was in their favor that the road on their side 
 the chasm was somewhat shorter and much more level 
 than that by which Catiline and his riders were strain 
 ing every nerve, gallopping on a parallel line with the 
 tremulous and excited fugitives; but this advantage also 
 was diminished by the fact that they must turn twice at 
 right angles once to gain the bridge, and once more into 
 the high road beyond it while the rebels had a straight 
 course, though down a hill side so steep that it might well 
 be called precipitous. 
 
 The day had by this time broken, and either party could 
 see the other clearly, even to the dresses of the men and 
 the colors of the horses, not above the sixth part of a mile 
 being occupied by the valley of the stream dividing the 
 two roads. 
 
 For life ! fire flashed from the flinty road at every bound 
 of fhe brave coursers, and blood flew from every whirl of 
 the knotted thong ; but gallantly the high-blooded beasts 
 answered it At every bound they gained a little on th*r 
 
198 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 pursuers, whose horses foamed and labored down the ab 
 rupt descent, one or two of them falling and rolling over 
 their riders, so steep was the declivity. 
 
 For life! Catiline had gained the head of his party, and 
 his black horse had outstripped them by several lengths. * 
 
 If the course had been longer the safety of the fugitives 
 would have been now certain; but so brief was the space 
 and so little did they gain in that awful race, that the 
 nicest eye hardly could have calculated which first would 
 reach the bridge. 
 
 So secure of his prize was Catiline, that his keen blade 
 was already out, and as he bowed over his charger s neck, 
 goring his flanks with his bloody spurs, he shouted in his 
 hoarse demoniacal accents, " Victory and vengeance !" 
 
 Still, hopeful and dauntless, the stout legionary gallop- 
 ped on "Courage!" he exclaimed, "courage, lady, we 
 shall first cross the bridge !" 
 
 Had Lucia chosen it, with her light weight and splendid 
 horsemanship, she might easily have left Julia and the sol 
 dier, easily have crossed the defile in advance of Catiline, 
 easily have escaped his vengeance. But site reined in 
 white Ister, and held him well in hand behind the others, 
 muttering to herself in low determined accents, " She shall 
 be saved, but my time is come !" 
 
 Suddenly there was a hasty shout of alarm from the 
 troopers on the other side, "Hold, Catiline! Rein up ! 
 Rein up !" and several of the foremost riders drew in their 
 horses. Within a minute all except Catiline had halted. 
 
 " They see our friends ! they are close at hand ! We are 
 saved ! by the Immortal Gods ! we are saved !" cried the 
 legionary, with a cry of triumph. 
 
 But in reply, across the narrow gorge, came the hoarse 
 roar of Catiline, above the din of his thundering gallop. 
 " By Hades ! Death! or vengeance !" 
 
 " Ride ! ride !" shrieked Lucia from behind, " Ride, I 
 spy, fool ! you are not saved ! He will not halt for a 
 whea lovenge spuis hin ! For your life ! ride !" 
 
 It was u fearful crisis. 
 
 The Thracian charger reached the bnage. The 
 arch resounded but once under his clanging hoofs the se 
 cond stride cleared it. He wheeled down the road, and 
 Julia, pale as death, whose eyes had been closed in the ago- 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINB. 199 
 
 ny of that fearful expectation, unclosed them at the legion 
 ary s joyous shout, but closed them again in terror and 
 despair with a faint shriek, as they met the grim counte 
 nance of Catiline, distorted with every hellish passion, and 
 splashed with blood gouts from his reeking courser s side, 
 thrust forward parallel nearly to the black courser s foamy 
 jaws both nearly within arm s length of her, as it ap 
 peared to her excited fancy. 
 
 " We are lost ! we are lost !" she screamed. 
 
 " We are saved ! we are saved !" shouted the soldier as 
 he saw coming up the road at a gallop to meet them, the 
 bronze casques and floating horse-hair crests, and scarlet 
 cloaks, of a whole squadron of legionary cavalry, arrayed 
 beneath a golden eagle the head of their column scarcely 
 distant three hundred yards. 
 
 But they were not saved yet, nor would have been for 
 Catiline s horse was close upon their croupe and his up 
 lifted blade almost flashed over them when, with a wild 
 cry, Lucia dashed her white Ister at full speed, as she 
 crossed the bridge, athwart the counter of black Erebus. 
 
 The thundering speed at which the black horse came 
 down the hill, and the superior weight of himself and his 
 rider, hurled the white palfrey and the brave girl headlong ; 
 but his stride was checked, and, blown as he was, he stum 
 bled, and rolled over, horse and man. 
 
 A minute was enough to save them, and before Lucia had 
 regained her feet, the ranks of the new comers had opened 
 to receive the fugitives, and had halted around them, in 
 some slight confusion. 
 
 " The Gods be blessed for ever !" she exclaimed, clasp 
 ing her hands, and raising her eyes to heaven. " I have 
 saved her !" 
 
 "And lost thyself, thrice miserable fool !" hissed a hoarse 
 well known voice in her ear, as a heavy hand seized her 
 by the shoulder, and twisted her violently round. 
 
 She stood face to face with Catiline, and met his horrid 
 glaie of hate with a glance prouder than his own and 
 brighter. She smiled triumphantly, as she said in a clear 
 high voice, 
 
 "I have saved her!" 
 
 " For which, take thy reward, in this, and this, and this!" 
 
 And with the words he dealt her three stabs, the least of 
 38* 
 
200 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 which was mortal ; but, even in that moment of dread pas 
 sion, with fiendish ingenuity he endeavored to avoid giving 
 her a wound that should be directly fatal. 
 
 There writhe, and howl, till slow death relieve you !" 
 
 Meet end to such beginning !" cried the unhappy girl. 
 " Adulterous parent! incestuous seducer! kindred slayer! 
 ha! ha! ha! ha!" and with a wild laugh she fell to the 
 ground and lay with her eyes closed, motionless and for 
 the moment senseless. 
 
 But he, with his child s blood smoking on his hand, shook 
 his sword aloft fiercely against the legionaries, and leaping 
 on his black horse which had arisen from the ground un 
 hurt by its fall, gallopped across the bridge ; and plunging 
 through the underwood into the deep chesnut forest was 
 lost to the view of the soldiers, who had spurred up in 
 pursuit of him, that they abandoned it ere long as hope 
 less. 
 
 It was not long that Lucia lay oblivious of her sufferings. 
 A sense of fresh coolness on her brow, and the checked 
 flow of the blood, which gushed from those cruel wounds, 
 were the first sensations of which she became aware. 
 
 But, as she opened her eyes, they met well known and 
 loving faces ; and soft hands were busy about her bleeding 
 gashes ; and hot tears were falling on her poor pallid face 
 from eyes that seldom wept. 
 
 Julia was kneeling at her side, Paullus Arvina was bend 
 ing over her in speechless gratitude, and sorrow ; and the 
 stern cavaliers of the legion, unused to any soft emotions, 
 stood round holding their chargers bridles with frowning 
 brows, and lips quivering with sentiments, which few of 
 them had experienced since the far days of their gentler 
 boyhood. 
 
 " Oh ! happy," she exclaimed, in a soft low tone, " how 
 happy it is so to die ! and in dying to see thee, Paullus." 
 
 " Oh ! no ! no ! no !" cried Julia, " you must not, shall 
 not die ! my friend, my sister! O, tell her, Paullus, that she 
 will not die, that she will yet be spared to our prayers, our 
 love, our gratitude, our veneration." 
 
 But Paullus spoke not ; a soldier, and a man used to see 
 death in all shapes in the arena, he knew that there was 
 no hope, and, had his life depended on it, he could not, at 
 that moment have deceived her. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 201 
 
 Little, however, cared the dying girl for that ; even if she 
 had heard or comprehended the appeal. Her ears, her 
 mind, were full of other thoughts, and a bright beautiful 
 irradiation played over her wan lips and ashy features, as 
 she cried joyously, although her voice was very tremulous 
 and weak, 
 
 " Paullus, do you hear that 1 ? her friend! her sister! 
 Paullus, Paullus, do you hear that 1 Julia calls me her 
 friend me, me her sister ! me the disgraced " 
 
 " Peace ! peace! Dear Lucia! you must not speak such 
 words !" said Paullus. Be your past errors what they may 
 and who am J, that I should talk of errors ] this pure 
 high love this delicate devotion this death most heroical 
 and glorious no ! no ! I cannot " and the strong man 
 bowed his head upon his hands, and burst into an agony of 
 tears and passion. 
 
 No revelation from on high had taught those poor Ro 
 mans, that joy shall be in heaven, over the sinner that re- 
 penteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons that 
 need no repentance. 
 
 Yet groping darkly on their way by the dim lights of 
 nature and philosophy, they had perceived, at least, that 
 it is harder far for one corrupted from her very childhood, 
 corrupted by the very parents who should have guided, 
 with all her highest qualities of mind and body perverted 
 studiously till they had hardened into vices, to raise herself 
 erect at once from the slough of sensuality and sin, and 
 spring aloft, as the butterfly transmuted from the grub, 
 into the purity and loveliness of virtue than for one, who 
 hath known no trial, suffered no temptation, to hold the 
 path of rectitude unswerving. 
 
 And Julia, whose high soul and native delicacy were all 
 incapable of comprehending the nature, much less the se 
 ductions, of such degradation, as that poor victim of pa 
 rental villainy had undergone, saw clearly and understood 
 at a glance, the difficulty, the gloriousness, the wonder of 
 that beautiful regeneration. 
 
 "No, no. Dear Lucia, dear sister, if you love that 
 name," she said in soothing tones, holding her cold hands 
 clasped in her own quivering fingers, " indeed, indeed yoU 
 must not think or speak of yourself thus. Your sins, if 
 you have sinned, are the sins of others, your virtues uud 
 
202 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 your excellence, all, all your own. I have heard many 
 times of women, who have fallen from high virtue, in spite 
 of noble teachings, in spite of high examples, and whom 
 neither love nor shame could rescue from pollution but 
 never, never, did I hear of one who so raised herself, alone, 
 unaided, in spite of evil teaching, in spite the atrocity of 
 others, in spite of infamous examples, to purity, devotion 
 such as thine! But, fear not, Lucia. Fear not, dearest 
 girl, you shall not die, believe " 
 
 " I do not fear, 1 desire it," said the dying girl, who was 
 growing weaker and fainter every moment. " To a life, 
 and a love like mine, both guilty, both unhappy, death is a 
 refuge, not a terror; and if there be, as you believe, who are 
 so wise and virtuous, a place beyond the grave, where 
 souls parted here on earth, may meet and dwell in serene 
 and tranquil bliss, perhaps, I say, perhaps, Julia, this death 
 may compensate that life this blood may wash away the 
 sin, the shame, the pollution." 
 
 " Believe it, O believe it !" exclaimed Julia earnestly. 
 " How else should the Gods be all-great and all- wise ; since 
 vice triumphs often here, and virtue pines in sorrow. Be 
 sure, I say, be sure of it, there is a place hereafter, where 
 all sorrows shall be turned to joy, all sufferings compensa 
 ted, all inequalities made even. Be sure of that, dear 
 Lucia." 
 
 " I am sure of it," she replied, a brighter gleam of plea 
 sure crossing her features, on which the hues of death were 
 fast darkening. " I am sure of it now. I think my mind 
 grows clearer, as my body dies away. I see I see there 
 is God ! Julia there is an hereafter an eternity rest for 
 the weary, joy for the woful ! yes ! yes ! I see I feel it. 
 We shall meet, Julia. We shall meet, Paullus, Paullus !" 
 And she sank back fainting and overpowered upon Julia s 
 bosom. 
 
 In a moment or two, however, she opened her eyes 
 again, but it was clear that the spirit was on the point of 
 taking its departure. 
 
 "I am going !" she said in a very low voice. "I am 
 going. His sword was more merciful than its master. 
 Bury me in a nameless grave. Let no stone tell the tale 
 of unhappy, guilty Lucia. But come sometimes, Julia, 
 Paullus, and look where I lie ; and sometimes will you 
 not sometimes remember Lucia V 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 203 
 
 " You shall live in our souls forever !" replied Julia, 
 stooping down to kiss her. 
 
 " In your arms, Paullus, in your arms ! will you not let 
 me, Julia ? Twere sweet to die in your arms, Paullus." 
 
 * How can you ask 1" cried Julia, who scarce could 
 speak for the tears and sobs, which almost choked her. 
 
 " Here, Paullus, take her, gently, gently." 
 
 " Oh ! sweet oh ! happy !" she murmured, as she 
 leaned her head against his heart, and fixed her glazing 
 eyes upon his features, and clasped his band with her poor 
 dying fingers. " She told you, Paullus, that for your love 
 I died to save her !" 
 
 " She did she did dear, dearest Lucia!" 
 
 " Kiss me," she whispered ; " I am going very fast. 
 Kiss me on the brow, Paullus, where years ago you kissed 
 me, when I was yet an innocent child." Then, fancying that 
 he hesitated, she cried, " you will let him kiss me, now, 
 will you not, Julia 1 He is yours" 
 
 Oh ! kiss her, kiss her, Paullus," exclaimed Julia 
 eagerly, " how could you fancy, Lucia, that I should wish 
 otherwise ? kiss her lips, not her brow, Paullus Arvina." 
 
 " Kiss me first thou, dear Julia. I may call you dear." 
 
 " Dear Lucia, dearest sister !" 
 
 And the pure girl leaned over and pressed a long kiss 
 on the cold lips of the unhappy, guilty, regenerated being, 
 whose death had won for her honor, and life, and hap 
 piness. 
 
 " Now, Paullus, now," cried Lucia, raising herself 
 from his bosom by a last feeble effort, and stretching out 
 her arms, " now, ere it be too late !" 
 
 He bowed down to her and kissed her lips, and she 
 clasped her arms close about his neck, and returned that 
 last chaste caress, murmuring " Paullus, mine own in 
 death, mine own, own Paullus !" 
 
 There was a sudden rigor, a passing tremulous spasm, 
 which ran through her whole frame for a moment her 
 arms clasped his neck more tightly than before, and then 
 released their hold, all listless and unconscious her head 
 fell back, with the eyes glazed and visionless, and the 
 white lips half open. 
 
 " She is dead, Julia !" exclaimed Paullus, who \*a3 not 
 
204 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ashamed to weep at that sad close of so young and sorrow 
 ful a life, " dead for our happiness !" 
 
 "Hush! hush!" cried Julia, who was still gazing on 
 the face of the dead " There is a change see ! see ! how 
 beautiful, how tranquil !" 
 
 And in truth a sweet placid smile had settled about the 
 pallid mouth, and nothing can be conceived more lovely 
 than the calm, holy, pure expression which breathed from 
 every lineament of the lifeless countenance. 
 
 " She is gone, peace to her manes." 
 
 " She is at rest, now, Paullus, she is happy !" murmur 
 ed Julia. " How excellent she was, how true, how brave, 
 how devoted ! Oh ! yes ! I doubt not, she is happy." 
 
 "The Gods grant it !" he replied fervently. "But I 
 have yet a duty," and drawing his short straight sword he 
 severed one long dark curl from the lifeless head, and 
 raising it aloft in his left hand, while with the right he 
 pointed heavenward the gleaming steel, " Ye Gods !" he 
 cried, " supernal and infernal ! and ye spirits and powers, 
 shades of the mighty dead ! Hear earth, and heaven, and 
 thou Tartarus ! by this good steel, by this right hand, in 
 presence of this sacred dead, I swear, I devote Catiline 
 and his hated head to vengeance ! By this sword may he 
 perish ; may this hair be steeped in his lifeblood ; may he 
 know himself, when dying, the victim of my vengeance 
 may dogs eat his body and his unburied spirit know 
 neither Tartarus nor Elysium !" 
 
 It was strange, but as he ceased from that wild impre 
 cation, a faint flash of lightning veined the remote horizon, 
 and a low clap of thunder rumbled afar off, echoing among 
 the hills perchance the last of a storm, unheard before 
 and unnoticed by the distracted minds of the spectators of 
 that, scene. 
 
 But the superstitious Romans accepted it as an omen. 
 
 " Thunder !" cried one. 
 
 "he r J-oda have spoken !" 
 
 " 1 hail the omen !" exclaimed Paullus, sheathing his 
 sword, and thrusting the tress of hair into his bosom. " By 
 my hand shall he perish !" 
 
 And thenceforth, it was believed generally by the sol 
 diers, that in the coming struggle Catiline was destined to 
 fall, and by the hand of Paul Arviua. 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 205 
 
 C HAP TE R XIX. 
 
 THE EVE OF BATTLE. 
 
 Canst tbou not minister to a mind diseased. 
 
 MACBETH. 
 
 NEARLY a fortnight had elapsed since the rescue of Julia, 
 and the sad death of Catiline s unhappy daughter, and yet 
 the battle which was daily and hourly expected, had not 
 been fought. 
 
 With rare ability and generalship, Catiline had avoided 
 an action with the troops of Antonius, marching and coun 
 termarching among the rugged passes of the Appennines, 
 now toward Rome, now toward Gaul, keeping the enemy 
 constantly on the alert, harassing the consul s outposts, 
 threatening the city itself with an assault, and maintaining 
 with studious skill that appearance of mystery, which is so 
 potent an instrument whether to terrify or to fascinate the 
 vulgar mind. 
 
 During this period the celerity of his movements had 
 been such that his little host appeared to be almost ubi 
 quitous, and men knew not where to look for his descent, or 
 how to anticipate the blow, which he evidently had it in 
 contemplation to deliver. 
 
 In the meantime, he had given such of his adherents as 
 fled from Rome immediately on the execution of the con 
 spirators, an opportunity to join him, and many had in fact 
 done so with their clients, and bands of gladiators. 
 
 The disaffected of the open country had all united them 
 selves to him ; and having commenced operations with a 
 
206 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 force not exceeding two thousand men, he was now at the 
 head of six times that number, whom he had formed into 
 two complete legions, arid disciplined them with equal 
 assiduity and success. 
 
 Now, however, the time had arrived when it was for 
 his advantage no longer to avoid an encounter with the 
 troops of the commonwealth; for having gained all that he 
 proposed to himself by his dilatory movements and Fabian 
 policy, time namely for the concentration of his adherents, 
 and opportunity to discipline his men, he now began to 
 suffer from the inconveniences of the system. 
 
 Unsupplied with magazines, or any regular supply of 
 provisions, his army like a flight of locusts had stripped the 
 country bare at every halting place, and that wild hill 
 country had few resources,, even when shorn by the licen 
 tious band of his desperadoes, upon which to support an 
 army. The consequence, therefore, of his incessant hurry 
 ing to and fro, was that the valleys of the mountain chain 
 which he had made the theatre of his campaign, were now 
 utterly exhausted ; that his beasts of burthen were broken 
 down and foundered ; and that the line of his march might 
 be traced by the carcasses of mules and horses which had 
 given out by the wayside, and by the flights of can-ion 
 birds which hovered in clouds about his rear, prescient of 
 the coming carnage. 
 
 His first attempt was to elude Metellus Celer, who had 
 marched down from the Picene district on the Adriatic sea, 
 with great rapidity, and taken post at the foot of the moun 
 tains, on the head waters of the streams which flow down 
 into the great plain of the Po. 
 
 In this attempt he had been frustrated by the ability of 
 the officer who was opposed to him, who had raised no less 
 than three legions fully equipped for war. 
 
 By him every movement of the conspirator was antici 
 pated, and met by some corresponding measure, which 
 rendered it abortive. Nor was it, any longer, difficult for 
 him to penetrate the designs of Catiline, since the peasant 
 ry and mountaineers, who had throughout that district been 
 favorable to the conspiracy in the first instance, and -who 
 were prepared to favor any design which promised to de 
 liver them from inexorable taxation, had been by this time 
 so unmercifully plundered and harassed by that banditti, 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 207 
 
 that they were now as willing to betray Catiline to the 
 Romans, as they had been desirous before of giving the 
 Romans into his hands at disadvantage. 
 
 Fully aware of all these facts, and knowing farther that 
 Antonius had now come up so close to his rear, with a large 
 army, that he was in imminent danger of being surrounded 
 arid taken between two fires, the desperate traitor sudden 
 ly took the boldest and perhaps the wisest measure. 
 
 Wheeling directly round he turned his back toward Gaul, 
 whither he had been marching, and set his face toward the 
 city. Then making three great forced marches he came 
 upon the army of Antonius, as it was in column of march, 
 among the heights above Pistoria, and had there been day 
 light for the attack when the heads of the consul s cohorts 
 were discovered, it is possible that he might have forced 
 him to fight at disadvantage, and even defeated him. 
 
 In that case there would have been no force capable of 
 opposing him on that side Rome, and every probability 
 would have been in favor of his making himself master of 
 the city, a success which would have gone far to insure his 
 triumph. 
 
 It was late in the evening, however, when the hostile 
 armies came into presence, each of the other, and on that 
 account, and, porhaps, for another and stronger reason, 
 Catiline determined on foregoing the advantages of a 
 surprise. 
 
 Caius Antonius, the consul in command, it must be re 
 membered, had been one of the original confederates in 
 Catiline s first scheme of massacre arid conflagration, 
 which had been defeated by the unexpected death of 
 Curius Piso. 
 
 Detached from the conspiracy only by Cicero s rare 
 skill, and disinterested cession to him of the rich province 
 of Macedonia, Antonius might therefore justly be supposed 
 unlikely to urge matters to extremities against his quon 
 dam comrades; and it was probably in no small degree 
 on this account that Catiline had resolved on trying the 
 chances of battle rather against an old friend, than against 
 an enemy so ^xed, and of so resolute patrician principles 
 as Metellus Celer. 
 
 He thought, moreover, that it was just within the calcu 
 lation of chances that Antonius might either purposely 
 
 39 
 
208 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 mismanoeuvre, so as to allow him to descend upon Rome 
 without a battle, or adopt such tactics as should give him 
 a, victory. 
 
 He halted his army, therefore, in a little gorge of the 
 hills opening out upon a level plain, flanked on the left by 
 the steep acclivities of the mountain, which towered in 
 that direction, ridge above ridge, inaccessible, and on the 
 right by a rugged and rocky spur, jutting out from the 
 same ridge, by which his line of battle would be rendered 
 entirely unassailable on the flanks and rear. 
 
 In this wild spot, amid huge gray rocks, and hanging 
 woods of ancient chesnuts and wild olive, as gray and 
 hoary as the stones among which they grew, he had pitch 
 ed his camp, and now lay awaiting in grim anticipation 
 what the morrow should bring forth ; while, opposite to 
 his front, on a lower plateau of the same eminence, the 
 great army of the consul might be descried, with its regu 
 lar entrenchments and superb array of tents, its forests of 
 gleaming spears, and its innumerable ensigns, glancing 
 and waving in the cold wintry moonshine. 
 
 The mind of the traitor was darker and more gloomy 
 than its wont. He had supped with his Officers, Manlius 
 and a nobleman of Feesulae, whose name the historian has 
 not recorded, who held the third rank in the rebel army, 
 but their fare had been meagre and insipid, their wines 
 the thin vintage of that hill country ; a little attempt at 
 festivity had been made, but it had failed altogether ; the 
 spirits of the men, although undaunted and prepared to 
 dare the utmost, lacked all that fiery and enthusiastic ardor, 
 which kindles patriot breasts with a flame so pure and 
 pervading, on the eve of the most desperate encounters. 
 
 Enemies of their country, enemies almost of mankind, 
 these desperadoes were prepared to fight desperately, to 
 fight unto the death, because to win was their only salva- 
 t : on, an/J, if defeated, death their only refuge. 
 
 But for them there was no grand heart-elevating spur 
 to action, no fame to be won, no deathless name to be pur 
 chased their names deathless already, as they knew too 
 well, through black infamy ! no grateful country s prai 
 ses, to be gained cheaply by a soldier s death ! -no ! there 
 were none of these things. 
 
 All their excitements were temporal, sensual, eartljy. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATAL1NE. 209 
 
 The hope to conquer, the lust to bask in the sunshine of 
 power, the desire to revel at ease in boundless luxury ana 
 riot. 
 
 Arid against these, the rewards dfr victory, what were 
 the penalties of defeat death, infamy, the hatred and the 
 scorn of ages. 
 
 The wicked have no friends. Never, perhaps, was this 
 fict exemplified more clearly than on that battle eve. 
 Community of guilt, indeed, bound those vicious souls to 
 gether community of interests, of fears, of perils, held 
 them in league yet, feeling as they did feel that their sole 
 chance of safety lay in the maintenance of that confedera 
 tion, each looked with evil eyes upon his neighbor, each 
 almost hated the others, accusing them internally of hav 
 ing drawn them into their present perilous peril, of having 
 failed at need, or of being swayed by selfish motives only. 
 
 So little truth there is in the principle* which Catiline 
 had set forth in his first address to his banded parricides, 
 " that the community of desires and dislikes constitutes, in 
 one word, true friendship !" 
 
 And now so darkly did their destiny lower on those de 
 praved and ruined spirits, that even their recklessness, 
 that last light which emanates from crime in despair, had 
 burned out, and the furies of conscience, that conscience 
 which they had so often stifled, so often laughed to scorn, 
 so often drowned with riot and debauch, so often silenced 
 by fierce sophistry now hunted them, harpies of the soul, 
 worse than the fabulous Eumenides of parricide Orestes. 
 
 The gloomy meal was ended ; the parties separated, all 
 of them, as it would seem, relieved by the termination of 
 those mock festivities which, while they brought no gay- 
 ity to the heart, imposed a necessity of seeming mirthful 
 and at ease, when they were in truth disturbed by dark 
 thoughts of the past, and terrible forebodings of the future. 
 
 As soon as his guests had departed and the traitor was 
 left alone, he arose from his seat, according to his custom, 
 and began to pace the room with vehement and rapid 
 strides, gesticulating wildly, and muttering sentences, the 
 terrible oaths and blasphemies of which were alone audv 
 ble. 
 
 Just at tlus time a prolonged flourish of trumpets from 
 without, announced the "hanging of the watch. L 
 
210 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 nine o clock. "Ha! the third hour!" already, he ex 
 claimed, starting as he heard the wild blast, " and Chaerea 
 not yet returned from Antonius. Can it be that the dog 
 freed man has playe^jme false, or can Antonius have seiz 
 ed him as a hostage ? I will go forth," he added, after a 
 short pause, " I will gf> forth, and observe the night." 
 
 And throwing a large cloak over his armor, and putting 
 a broad-brimmed felt hat upon his head, in lieu of the 
 high crested helmet, he sallied out into the camp, carrying 
 in addition to his sword a short massive javelin in his 
 right hand. 
 
 The night was extremely dark and murky. The moon 
 had not yet risen, and but for the camp-fires of the two ar 
 mies, it would have been impossible to walk any distance 
 without the aid of a torch or lantern. A faint lurid light 
 was dispersed from these, however, over the whole sky, 
 and thence was reflected weakly on the rugged and bro 
 ken ground which lay between the entrenched lines of 
 the two hosts. 
 
 For a while, concealed entirely by his disguise, Catiline 
 wandered through the long streets of tents, listening to the 
 conversation of the soldiers about the watch-fires, their 
 strange superstitious legends, and old traditionary songs ; 
 and, to say truth, the heart of that desperate man was 
 somewhat lightened by his discovery that the spirits of the 
 men were alert and eager for the battle, their temper keen 
 and courageous, their confidence in the prowess and abil 
 ity of their chief unbounded. 
 
 " He is the best soldier, since the days of Sylla," said 
 one gray-headed veteran, whose face was scarred by the 
 Pontic scymetars of Mithridates. 
 
 " He is a better soldier in the field, than ever Sylla was, 
 by Hercules !" replied another. 
 
 " Aye! in the field ! Sylla, I have heard say, rarely un 
 sheathed his sword, and never led his men to hand and 
 hand encounter," interposed a younger man, than the old 
 colonists to whom he spoke. 
 
 " It is the head to plan, not the hand to execute, that 
 \akes the great captain. Cains, or Marcus, Titus or Tul- 
 lus, can any one of them strike home as far, perhaps far 
 ther, than your Syllas or your Catilines." 
 
 " By Mars ! I much doubt it !" cried another. " I would 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 211 
 
 back Catiline "with sword and buckler against the stoutest 
 and the deftest gladiator that ever wielded blade. He. i 
 as active and as strong as a Libyan tiger." 
 
 " Aye ! and as merciless." t*. 
 
 ** May the foe find him so to-morrow!" 
 
 " To-morrow, by the Gods ! I wish it were to-morrow 
 It is cold work this, whereas, to-morrow night, I promise 
 you, we shall be ransacking Antonius camp, with store of 
 choice wines, and rare viands." 
 
 " But who shall live to share them is another question." 
 
 " One which concerns not those who win." 
 
 " And by the God of Battles ! we will do that to-mor 
 row, let who may fall asleep, and who may keep awake to 
 tell of it." 
 
 " A sound sleep to the slumberers, a merry rouse to the 
 quick boys, who shall keep waking!" shouted anothe.* 
 and the cups were brimmed, and quaffed amid a storm ol 
 loud tumultuous cheering. 
 
 Under cover of this tumult, Catiline withdrew from the 
 neighborhood, into which he had intruded with the stealthy 
 pace of the beast to which the soldiers had compared him ; 
 and as he retired, he muttered to himself " They are in 
 the right frame of mind of the right stuff to win and yet 
 and yet " he paused, and shook his head gloomily, as 
 if he dared not trust his own lips to complete the sentence 
 he had thus begun. 
 
 A moment afterward he exclaimed "But Chaerea! but 
 Cheerea ! how long the villain tarries ! By heaven ! I will 
 go forth and meet him." 
 
 And suiting the action to the word, he walked rapidly 
 down the Quintana or central way to the Praetorian gate , 
 there giving the word to the night-watch in a whisper, and 
 showing his grim face to the half-astonished sentinel on 
 duty, he passed out of the lines, alone and unguarded. 
 
 After advancing a few paces, he was challenged again 
 by the pickets of the velites, who were thrust out in ad 
 vance of the gates, and again giving the word was suffered 
 to pass on, and now stood beyond the farthest outpost of 
 his army. 
 
 Cautiously and silently, but with a swift step and deter 
 mined air, he now advanced directly toward the front of 
 the Roman entrenchments, which lay at a little more than 
 
 39* 
 
212 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 a mile s distance from his own lines, and ere long reached 
 a knoll or hillock which would by daylight have com 
 manded a complete view of the whole area of the consul s 
 camp, not being much out of a sling s cast from the ram 
 parts. 
 
 The camp of the consul lay on the slope of a hill, so that 
 the rear was considerably higher than the front ; Catiline s 
 eye, as he stood on that little eminence, could therefore 
 clearly discern all the different streets and divisions of the 
 camp, by the long lines of lamps and torches which blazed 
 along the several avenues, and he gazed anxiously and long, 
 at that strange silent picture. 
 
 With the exception of a slight clash and clang heard at 
 times on the walls, where the skirmishers were going on 
 their rounds, and the neigh of some restless charger, there 
 was nothing that should have indicated to the ear that 
 nearly twenty thousand men were sleeping among those 
 tented lines of light sleeping how many of them their 
 last natural slumber. 
 
 No thoughts of that kind, however, intruded on the 
 mind of the desperado. 
 
 Careless of human life, reckless of human suffering, he 
 gazed only with his enquiring glance of profound penetra 
 tion, hoping to espy something, whereby he might learn 
 the fate not of his messenger, that was to him a matter 
 of supreme indifference but of his message to Anto- 
 nius. 
 
 Nor was he very long in doubt on this head ; for while 
 he was yet gazing, there was a bustle clearly perceptible 
 about the praetorium, lights were seen flitting to and fro, 
 voices were heard calling and answering to one another, 
 and then the din of hammers and sounds of busy prepara 
 tion. 
 
 This might have lasted perchance half an hour, to the 
 great amazement of the traitor, who could not conceive 
 the meaning of that nocturnal hubbub, when the clang of 
 harness succeeded by the heavy regular tramp of men 
 marching followed the turmoil, and, with many torches 
 borne before them, the spears and eagle of a cohort were 
 seen coming rapidly toward the Praetorian Gate. 
 
 " By Hecate !" cried Catiline " what may this mean, I 
 wonder. They are too few for an assault, nay ! even for 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 213 
 
 a false alarm. They have halted at the gate ! By the 
 Gods ! they are filing out ! they march hitherward ! and 
 lo ! Manlius is aware of them. I will risk something to 
 tarry here and watch them." 
 
 As he spoke, the cohort marched forward, straight on 
 the hillock where he stood ; and so far was it from seeking 
 to conceal its whereabout, that its trumpets were blown 
 frequently and loudly, as if to attract observation. 
 
 Meantime the camp of Catiline was on the alert also, 
 the ramparts were lined with torches, by the red glare of 
 which the legionaries might be seen mustering in dense 
 array with shields in serried order, and spear heads twink 
 ling in the torch-light. 
 
 As the cohorts approached the hill, Catiline fell back 
 toward his own camp a little, and soon found shelter in 
 a small thicket of holleys and wild myrtle which would ef 
 fectually conceal him from the enemy, while he could ob 
 serve their every motion from its safe covert. 
 
 On the hillock, the cohort halted one manipule stood to 
 its arms in front, while the rest formed a hollow square, 
 all facing outward around its summit. The torches were 
 lowered, so that with all his endeavors, Catiline could by 
 no means discover what was in process within that guard 
 ed space. 
 
 Again the din of hammers rose on his ear, mixed now 
 with groans and agonizing supplications, which waxed at 
 length into a fearful howl, the utterance of one, past doubt, 
 in more than mortal agony. 
 
 A strange and terrible suspicion broke upon Catiline, 
 and the sweat started in beadlike drops from his sallow 
 brow. It was riot long ere that suspicion became certainty. 
 
 The clang of the hammers ceased ; the wild howls sank 
 into a continuous weak pitiful wailing. The creak of pul- 
 lies and cordage, the shouts of men plying levers, and 
 hauling ropes, succeeded, and slowly sullenly uprose, hard 
 ly seen in the black night air, a huge black cross. It 
 reached its elevation, arid was made fast in almost less 
 time than it has taken to relate it, and instantly a pile of 
 faggots which had been raised a short distance in front ->f 
 it, and steeped in oil or some other unctuous matter, was 
 set on fire, 
 
 A tall wavering snowwhite glare shot upward, ana ixj- 
 
214 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 vealed, writhing in agony, and wailing wofully, the naked 
 form of Chaerea, bleeding at every pore from the effects of 
 the merciless Roman scourging, nailed on the fatal cross. 
 
 So near was the little thicket in which Catiline lay, that 
 he could mark every sinew of that gory frame working in 
 agony, could read every twitch of those convulsed fea 
 tures. 
 
 Again the Roman trumpets were blown shrill and pierc 
 ing, and a centurion stepping forward a little way in front 
 of the advanced manipule, shouted at the pitch of his voice, 
 
 " THUS PERISH ALL THE MESSENGERS OF PARRICIDES 
 
 AND TRAITORS 
 
 I" 
 
 Excited, almost beyond his powers of endurance, by 
 what he beheld and heard, the fierce traitor writhed in his 
 hiding place, not sixty paces distant from the speaker, ami 
 gnashed his teeth in impotent malignity. His fingers 
 griped the tough shaft of his massive pilum, as if they 
 would have left their prints in the close-grained ash. 
 
 While that ferocious spirit was yet strong within him, 
 the wretched freedman, half frenzied doubtless by his tor- 
 lures, lifted his voice m a wild cry on his master 
 
 "Catiline ! Catiline !" he shrieked so thrillingly that ev 
 ery man in both camps heard every syllable distinct and 
 clear. " Chaerea calls on Catiline. Help ! save ! Avenge ! 
 Catiline ! Catiline !" 
 
 A loud hoarse laugh burst from the Roman legionaries, 
 and the centurion shouted in derision. 
 
 But at that instant the desperate spectator of that horrid 
 scene sprang to his feet reckless, and shouting, as he leap 
 ed into the circle of bright -radiance, 
 
 " Catiline hears Cheerea, and delivers," hurled his 
 massive javelin with deadly aim at his tortured servant. 
 
 It was the first blow Catiline ever dealt in mercy, and 
 mercifully did it perform its errand. 
 
 The broad head was buried in the naked breast of the 
 victim, and with one sob, one shudder, the spirit was re 
 leased from the tortured clay. 
 
 Had a thunderbolt fallen among the cohort, the men 
 could "on have been more stunned more astounded. Be 
 fore they had sufficiently recovered from their shock to cast 
 a missile at him, much less to start forth in pursuit, he was 
 ha f way toward his own camp in safety ; and ere long a 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 215 
 
 ] rolonged burst, again and again reiterated, of joyous ac- 
 ( lamations, told to the consular camp that the traitors knevr 
 and appreciated the strange and dauntless daring of tbM 
 almost ubiquitous lea.jjl . 
 
 An hour afterward that leader was alone, in his tent, 
 stretched on his couch, sleeping. But oh ! that sleep not 
 gentle slumber, not nature s soft nurse but nature s hor 
 rible convulsion ! The eyes wide open, glaring, dilated in 
 their sockets as of a strangled man the brow beaded 
 with black sweat drops the teeth grinded together the 
 white lips muttering words too horrible to be recorded 
 the talon-like fingers clutching at vacancy. 
 
 It was too honible to last. With a wild cry, " Lucia ! 
 Ha ! Lucia ! -Fury ! Avenger ! Fiend !" he started to his 
 feet, and glared around him with a bewildered eye, as if 
 expecting to behold some ghastly supernatural visitant. 
 
 At length, he said, with a shudder which he could net 
 repress, " It was a d/eam ! A dream but ye Gods ! what 
 a dream ! I will sleep no more till to-morrow. To 
 morrow," he repeated in a doubtful and enquiring tone, 
 "to-morrow. If I should fall to-morrow, and such dreams 
 come in that sleep which hath no waking, those dreams 
 should be reality that reality should be HELL ! I know 
 not I begin to doubt some things, which of yore I held 
 certain ! What if there should be Gods ! avenging, ever 
 lasting torturers ! If there should be a HELL ! Ha ! ha!" 
 he laughed wildly and almost frantically. " Ha ! ha ! wua. 
 matters it ] Methinks this is a hell already !" and with 
 the words he struck his hand heavily on his broad breast, 
 and relapsed into gloomy and sullen meditation. 
 
 That night he slept no more, but strode backward and 
 forward hour after hour, gnawing his nether lip till the 
 ilood streamed from the wounds inflicted by his uncon 
 scious teeth. 
 
 What awful and mysterious retribution might await him 
 in the land of spirits, it is riot for mortals to premise ; but 
 in this at least did he speak truth that night conscience 
 and crime may kindle in the human heart a Hell, which 
 nothing can extinguish, so long as the soul live identical 
 self-knowing, self- tormenting. 
 
216 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE FIELD OF PISTORIA. 
 
 M;ikc all our trumpets speak; pive tliem all breath, 
 Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. 
 
 MACBETH. 
 
 IHE first faint streaks of day were scarcely visible in 
 the east, when Catiline, glad to escape the horrors which 
 he had endured through the dark solitude of the night 
 watches, issued from his tent, armed at all points, and 
 every inch a captain. 
 
 All irresolution, all doubt, all nervousness had passed 
 away. Energy and the strong excitement of the moment 
 had overpowered conscience ; and looking on his high, 
 haughty port, his cold hard eye, his resolute impassive 
 face, one would have said that man, at least, never trem 
 bled at realities, far less at shadows. 
 
 But who shall say in truth, which are the shadows of this 
 world, which the realities ] Many a one, it may be, will 
 find to his sorrow, when the great day shall come, that the 
 hard, selfish, narrow fact, the reality after which his whole 
 life was a chase, a struggle, is but the shadow of a shade ; 
 the unsubstantial good, the scholar s or the poet s dream, 
 which he scorned as an empty nothing, is an immortal 
 truth, an everlasting and immutable reality. 
 
 Catiline shook at shadows, whom not the substance of 
 ten thousand soldiers armed in proof/ could move, unless 
 it were to emulation and defiance. 
 
 Which were in truth more real, more substantial causes 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 217 
 
 of dismay, those shadows which appalled him, or those 
 realities which he de pr ie<1. 
 
 Ere that sun set, upon whose rising he gazed with <m 
 eye so calm and steadfast, that question, to him at least, 
 was solved for ever to us it is, perhaps, still a question. 
 
 But, at that moment, he thought nothing of the past, no 
 thing of the future. The present claimed his whole undi 
 vided mind, and to the present he surrendered it, abstract 
 ed from all speculations, clear and unclouded, and per 
 vading as an eagle s vision. 
 
 All his arrangements for the day had been made on the 
 previous night so perfectly, that the troops were already 
 filing out from the Praetorian gate in orderly array, arid 
 taking their ground on the little plain at the mouth of the 
 gorge, in the order of battle which had been determined 
 by the chiefs beforehand. 
 
 The space which he had selected whereon to receive 
 the attack of Antonius army, was indeed admirably cho 
 sen. It front it was so narrow, that eight cohorts, drawn 
 up in a line ten deep, according to the Roman usage, filled 
 it completely; behind these, the twelve remaining cohorts, 
 which completed the force of his two legions, were arrayed 
 in reserve in denser and more solid order, the interval 
 between the mountains on the left, and the craggy hill on 
 the right, which protected his flanks, being much narrower 
 as it ascended toward the gorge in which the rebel camp 
 was pitched. 
 
 In front of the army, there was a small plain, perfectly 
 level, lying in an amphitheatre, as it were, of rocks and 
 mountains, with neither thicket, brake, nor hillock to mar 
 its smooth expanse or hinder the shock of armies, and ex 
 tending perhaps half a mile toward the consular army. 
 Below this, the ground fell off in a long abrupt and rugged 
 declivity, somewhat exceeding a second half mile in length, 
 with many thickets and clumps of trees on its slope, and 
 the hillock at its foot, whereon still frowned Chaerea s cross 
 with the gory and hideous carcase, already blackened by 
 the frosty night wind, hanging from its rough timbers, an 
 awful omen to that army of desperate traitors. 
 
 Beyond that hillock, the ground swelled again into a 
 lofty ridge, facing the mouth of the gorge in which Cati- 
 
218 THE ROMAN TRAITOR ] OR, THE 
 
 line had arrayed his army, with all advantages of position, 
 sun and wind in his favor. 
 
 The sun rose splendid and unclouded, and as his long 
 rays streamed through the hollows in the mountain top, 
 nothing can be conceived more wildly romantic than tho 
 mountain scene, more gorgeous and exciting than the li 
 ving picture, which they illuminated. 
 
 The hoary pinnacles of the huge mountains with their 
 erowns of thunder-splintered rocks, the eyries of innumer 
 able birds of prey, gleaming all golden in the splendors of 
 the dawn their long abrupt declivities, broken with crags, 
 feathered with gray and leafless forests, and dotted hero 
 and there with masses of rich evergreens, all bathed in 
 soft and misty light and at the base of them the mouth 
 of the deep gorge, a gulf of massive purple shadow, 
 through which could be descried indistinctly the lines of 
 the deserted palisades and ramparts, whence had marched 
 out that mass of living valor, which now was arrayed in 
 splendid order, just where the broad rays, sweeping down 
 the hills, dwelt in their morning glory. 
 
 Motionless they stood in their solid formation, as living 
 statues, one mass, as it appeared, of gold and scarlet ; for 
 all their casques and shields and corslets were of bright bur 
 nished bronze, and all the cassocks of the men, and cloaks 
 of the officers of the vivid hue, named from the flower of 
 the pomegranate ; so that, to borrow a splendid image of 
 Xenophon describing the array of the ten thousand, tho 
 whole army lightened with brass, and bloomed with crim 
 son. 
 
 And now, from the camp in the rear a splendid train 
 came sweeping at full speed, with waving crests of crim 
 son horse hair dancing above their gleaming helmets, and 
 a broad banner fluttering in the air, under the well-known 
 silver eagle, the tutelar bird of Marius, the God of the 
 arch-traitor s sacrilegious worship. 
 
 Armed in bright steel, these were the body guard of 
 Catiline, three hundred chosen veterans, the clients of his 
 own and the Cornelian houses, men steeped to the lips in 
 infamy and crime, soldiers of fifty victories, Sylla s atro 
 cious colonists. 
 
 Mounted on splendid Thracian chargers, with Catiline 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 219 
 
 at their head, enthroned like a conquering king on his su 
 perb black Erebus, they came sweeping at full gallop 
 through the intervals of the foot, and, as they reached the 
 front of the array, wheeled up at once into a long single 
 line, facing their infantry, and at a single wafture of their 
 leader s hand, halted all like a single man. 
 
 Then riding forward at a foot s pace into the interval 
 between the horse and foot, Catiline passed along the 
 whole line from end to end, surveying every man, and 
 taking in with his rapid arid instinctive glance, every min 
 ute detail in silence. 
 
 At the right wing, which Manlius commanded, he paused 
 a moment or two, and spoke eagerly but shortly to his 
 subordinate ; but when he reached the extreme left he 
 merely nodded his approbation to the Florentine, crying 
 aloud in his deep tones the one word, " Remember !" 
 
 Then gallopping back at the top of his horse s speed to 
 the eagle which stood in front of the centre, he checked 
 black Erebus so suddenly that he reared bolt-upright and 
 stood for a second s space pawing the vacant air, uncer 
 tain if he could recover that rude impulse. But the rare 
 horsemanship of Catiline prevailed, and horse and man 
 stood statue-like and immoveable. 
 
 Then, pitching his voice so. high arid clear that every 
 man of that dense host could hear and follow him, he 
 burst abruptly into the spirited and stirring speech which 
 has been preserved complete by the most elegant* of Ro 
 man writers. 
 
 " Soldiers, I hold it an established fact, that words can 
 not give valor that a weak army cannot be made strong, 
 nor a coward army brave, by any speech of their com 
 mander. How much audacity is given to each man s spi 
 rit, by nature, or by habit, so much will be displayed in 
 battle. Whom neither glory nor peril can excite, you 
 shall exhort in vain. Terror deafens the ears of his intel 
 lect. I have convoked you, therefore, not to exhort, but 
 to admonish you in brief, and to inform you of the causes 
 of my counsel. Soldiers, you all well know how terrible 
 a disaster the cowardice and sloth of Lentulus brought on 
 himself and us ; and how, expecting reinforcements from 
 
 * Sallust. 
 4) 
 
220 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 the city, I was hindered from marching into Gaul, Now 
 I would have you understand, all equally with me, in what 
 condition we are placed. The armies of our enemy, two 
 in number, one from the city, the other from the side of 
 Gaul, are pressing hard upon us. In this place, were it 
 our interest to do so, we can hold out no longer, the scar 
 city of corn and forage forbid that. Whithersoever we 
 desire to go, our path must be opened by the sword. 
 Wherefore I warn you that you be of a bold arid ready 
 spirit ; and, when the battle have commenced, that ye re 
 member this, that in your own right hand ye carry wealth, 
 honor, glory, moreover liberty and your country. Victo 
 rious, all things are safe to us, supplies in abundance shall 
 be ours, the colonies and free boroughs will open their 
 gates to us. Failing, through cowardice, these self-same 
 things will become hostile to us. Not any place nor any 
 friend shall protect him, whom his own arms have not pro 
 tected. However, soldiers, the same necessity doth pot 
 actuate us and our enemies. We fight for our country, 
 our liberty, our life! To them it is supererogatory to do 
 battle for the power of a few nobles. Wherefore, fall on 
 with the greater boldness, mindful of your own valor. We 
 might all of us, have passed our lives in utter infamy as 
 exiles ; a few of you, stripped of your property, might still 
 have dwelt in Rome, coveting that of your neighbors. Be 
 cause these things appeared too base and foul for men s 
 endurance, you resolved upon this career. If you would 
 quit it, you must perforce be bold. No one, except victori 
 ous, hath ever exchanged war for peace. Since to expect 
 safety from flight, when you have turned away from the 
 foe, that armor which defends the body, is indeed mad 
 ness. Always in battle to who most fears, there is most 
 peril. Valor stands as a wall to shield its possessor. Sol 
 diers, when I consider you, and recall to mind your deeds, 
 great hopes of victory possess me. Your spirit, age, and 
 valor, give me confidence ; moreover that necessity of 
 conquest, which renders even cowards brave. As for the 
 numbers of the enemy, the defiles will not permit them to 
 surround you. And yet, should Fortune prove jealous 
 of your valor, beware that ye lose not your lives unaven 
 ged ; beware that, being captured, ye be not rather butch- 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 221 
 
 ered like sheep, than slain fighting like men, and leaving 
 to your foes a victory of blood and lamentation." 
 
 He ceased, and what a shout went up, seeming to shake 
 the earth-fast hill, scaring the eagles from their high nests, 
 and rolling in long echoes, like reverberated thunder 
 among the resounding hills. Twice, thrice, that soul 
 fraught acclamation pealed -up to heaven, sure token of 
 resolution unto death, in the hardened hearts of that des 
 perate banditti. 
 
 Catiline drank delighted inspiration from the sound, and 
 cried in triumphant tones : 
 
 " Enough ! your shout is prophetic ! Soldiers, already 
 we have conquered !" 
 
 Then leaping from his charger to the ground, he turned 
 to his body-guard, exclaiming, 
 
 " To fight, my friends, we have no need of horses ; to 
 fly we desire them not ! On foot we must conquer, or on 
 foot die ! In all events, our peril as our hope must be equal. 
 Dismount then, all of ye, and leading your chargers to the 
 rear slay them ; so shall we all run equal in this race of 
 death or glory !" 
 
 And, with the word, leading his superb horse through 
 the intervals between the cohorts of the foot, he drew his 
 heavy sword, and smote him one tremendous blow which 
 clove through spine and muscle, through artery and vein 
 and gullet, severing the beauteous head from the graceful 
 and swanlike neck, and hurling the noble animal to the 
 earth a motionless and quivering mass. 
 
 It was most characteristic of the ruthless and brutal tem 
 per of that parricidal monster, that he cut down the noble 
 animal which had so long and so gallantly borne him, 
 which had saved his life more than once by its speed and 
 courage, which followed him, fed from his hand, obeyed 
 his voice, like a dog, almost like a child, without the slight 
 est show of pity or compunction. 
 
 Many bad, cruel, savage-hearted men, ruthless to their 
 own fellows, have proved themselves not devoid altogether 
 of humanity by their love to some faithful animal, but it 
 would seem that this most atrocious of mankind lacked 
 even the "one touch of nature which makes the whole world 
 kin." 
 
 He killed his favorite horse, the only friend, perhaps, 
 
222 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 that he possessed on earth, not only unreluctant, but with 
 a sort of savage glee, and a sneering jest 
 
 " If things go ill with us to day, I shall be fitly horsed 
 on Erebus, by Hades !" 
 
 Then, hurrying to the van, he took post with his three 
 hundred, and all the picked centurions and veterans of the 
 reserve, mustered beneath the famous Cimbric Eagle, in 
 the centre of the first rank, prepared to play out to the 
 last his desperate and deadly game, the ablest chief, and 
 the most daring soldier, that ever buckled blade for parri 
 cide and treason. 
 
DAYS Of CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 223 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE BATTLE. 
 
 At least we ll die with harness on our back. 
 
 MACBETH. 
 
 IT was indeed time that the last arrangements of the 
 traitor were completed ; for, long since, from the gates of 
 the Consular camp the great army of the enemy had been 
 filing out, and falling into order, not a mile distant. 
 
 One third, at least, superior to the rebel host in numbers, 
 the loyal soldiers were as high in spirit, as firm in resolu 
 tion ; were better armed, better officered, and, above all, 
 strong in a better cause. 
 
 Nor if those had the incentive of despair to spur them to 
 great deeds, did these lack a yet stronger stimulus to ac 
 tion. There were bright eyes, and fair forms in their 
 camp, dependent on their victory for life, and, yet dearer, 
 honor. So great was the terror spread through those re 
 gions by the name of Catiline, and by the outrages com 
 mitted already by his barbarous banditti, that all the female 
 nobility of the provinces, wherein the war was waging, 
 had fled to the Roman camp, as to their only place of 
 safety. 
 
 For all that district was ripe for insurrection ; the bo 
 rough towns awaited only the first sunshine of success, to 
 join the rebellion ; the rural slaves were, to a man, false 
 at heart ; and it was evident to all that the slightest check 
 of the Consular forces would be the signal for tumult, mas 
 sacre, and conflagration in the provincial towns, for all the 
 horrois of a servile rising in the champaign. 
 
224 THE ROMAN TRAITOR J OR, THE 
 
 Flight to Rome was impossible, since all the villainy 
 and desperate crime of the land was afloat, and every 
 where, beyond the outposts of Antonius head quarters, the 
 roads were infested with banditti, runaway slaves, and rus 
 tic robbers. 
 
 To the camp, therefore, had all the patricians of the 
 district flocked, the men as volunteers, with such of their 
 clients as they could trust, and such of their wealth as was 
 portable ; the women as suppliants, tearful and terrified, 
 for Rome s powerful protection. 
 
 Meanwhile, for leagues around, by day the open country 
 was seen blackened by numberless columns of smoke, by 
 night flashing with numberless pyres of flame, the blaze of 
 country seats and villas ; and terror was on all sides, mur 
 der and rape, havoc and desolation. 
 
 The minds of the Roman soldiery were inflamed, there 
 fore, to the utmost ; the sight of the ravaged country, the 
 charms, the tears, the terrors of the suppliant ladies, had 
 kindled all that was patriotic, all that was generous, all that 
 was manly in their nature ; and it was with deep-recorded 
 vows of vengeance that they had buckled on their armor, 
 and grinded their thirsty swords for the conflict. 
 
 But throughout all that ardent host there was not one 
 so determined, so calm in his resolved ire, so deadly bent 
 on vengeance, as Paullus Arvina. 
 
 Julia was in the camp ; for no means had occurred of 
 sending her to Rome in safety, and her high counsels, her 
 noble feminine courage, would have given birth alone to 
 contagious valor in her lover s spirit, had he been weak and 
 faltering as of old between his principles and his passions. 
 
 But it was not so. The "stern trials to which his con 
 stancy had been subjected, the fearful strife of the hottest 
 passions which had raged so long in his bosom, had har 
 dened him like steel thrice tempered in the furnace, and 
 he was now no longer the impulsive, enthusiastic, change 
 ful stripling, in whom to-day s imagination swept away 
 yesterday s resolve, but a cool, resolute, thoughtful man. 
 
 It is events, not years, which make men old or young. 
 It is adversity and trial, not ease and prosperity, which 
 make men, from dwarfs, giants. 
 
 And events had so crowded on the boy in the last few 
 months, that those months had matured his wisdom more 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 2-3 
 
 than all the years of his previous life. Adversity and trial 
 had so swelled his mental stature, that aged men might 
 have been proud to cope with him in counsel, strong men 
 to rival him in execution. 
 
 The sun was already high in heaven, when the cavalry 
 of the seventh legion, which had been selected to act as the 
 general s escort, in addition to the Praetorian cohort of in 
 fantry, swept forth from the gates, following Petreius, who, 
 although holding the second rank only in the army, was 
 actually in command ; Antonius, on the pretext of a fit of 
 the gout, having declined to lead that day. 
 
 The men were already marshalled at the base of the as* 
 cent, leading to the narrow plain on which, as in the am 
 phitheatre, the fight was to be fought out hand to hand, 
 with little room for generalship, or intricate manoeuvring, 
 but every opportunity for the display of mortal strength 
 and desperate gallantry. 
 
 Here they had halted, on the verge of the broken 
 ground, awaiting the arrival of their general in chief to re 
 form their array, and complete their preparations, before 
 advancing to the attack. 
 
 The lines of the enemy were concealed from them by 
 the abrupt acclivity, and the level space on the top of the 
 plateau, which intervened between the hosts ; and it seem 
 ed probable that an officer of Catiline s intuitive eye and 
 rap id -resource, would not fail to profit by the difficulties of 
 the ground, in order to assail the consular troops while 
 struggling among the rocks and thickets which encumber 
 ed the ascent. It behoved, therefore, to hold the men well 
 in hand, to fortify the heads of the advancing columns with 
 the best soldiers, and to be ready with reinforcements at 
 all points ; and to this end Petreius had ordered a brief 
 halt, before attacking. 
 
 So eager were the spirits of the men, however, and so 
 hot for the encounter, that they were murmuring already 
 almost angrily, and calling on their centurions and tribunes 
 to lead them at once to the shock. 
 
 The fierce acclamations of the rebels, consequent on the 
 address of Catiline, had kindled not daunted the brave in 
 dignation which possessed them ; and stung, as it were, by 
 some personal insult, each soldier of the array burned to 
 be at it. 
 
226 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 So stood the * case, when, escorted by the magnificent 
 array of the legionary horse, Petreius gallopped through 
 the ranks. A military man, by habit as by nature, who 
 had served for more than thirty years as tribune, prefect 
 of allies, commander of a legion, and lastly praetor, all with 
 exceeding great distinction, he knew nearly all the men in 
 his ranks by sight, was acquainted with their services and 
 honors, had led them oftentimes to glory, and was their 
 especial favorite. 
 
 He made no set speech, therefore, to his legions, but as 
 he gallopped through the lines called to this man or that 
 by name, bidding him recollect this skirmish, or think 
 upon that storm, fight as he did in this pitched battle, or 
 win a civic crown as in that sally, and finally shouted to 
 them all in a high voice, entreating them to remember that 
 they were Roman soldiers, fighting against a rabble of 
 unarmed banditti, for their country, their wives, their chil 
 dren, their hearths and their altars. 
 
 One full-mouthed shout replied to his brief address. 
 
 " Lead on ! Petreius, we will conquer !" 
 
 He waved his hand toward the trumpeters, and nodded 
 his high crested helmet ; and instant there pealed forth that 
 thrilling brazen clangor, " that bids the Romans close." 
 
 Nor less sonorously did the war music of the rebels 
 make reply, ringing among the hills their bold defiance. 
 
 Then onward rolled that bright array, with a long steady 
 sweep, like that of an unbroken line of billows rushing in 
 grand and majestical upon some sandy cape. 
 
 In vain did the sinuosities of the broken ground, in vain 
 did crag and thicket, ravine and torrents bed impede their 
 passage ; closing their files or serrying them, as the nature 
 of the ascent required, now wheeling into solid column, 
 deploying now into extended line, still they rolled onward, 
 unchecked, irresistible 
 
 A long array of helmets bright, 
 A long array of spears. 
 
 The glorious eagles glittered above them in the un 
 clouded sunshine, the proud initials, which had gleamed 
 from their crimson banners over one half the world, shone 
 out conspicuous, SPQR, as the broad folds streamed to 
 their length upon the frosty air. 
 
 A solitary trumpet spoke at times, to order their slow 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 227 
 
 terrible advance ; there was no hum of voices, no shout, 
 no confusion ; only the solemn and continuous tramp of 
 their majestic march, shaking the earth like an incessant 
 roll of thunder only the clang of their brazen harness, as 
 buckler clashed with buckler. 
 
 All the stern discipline, all the composed and orderly 
 manoeuvres, all the cold steadiness of modern war was 
 there, combined with all the gorgeousness and glitter of 
 the chivalric ages. 
 
 Contrary to all expectation, no opposition met them as 
 they scaled that abrupt hill side. Fearful of exposing his 
 ilanks, Catiline wisely held his men back, collecting all 
 their energies for the dread onset. 
 
 In superb order, regular and even, Petreius infantry 
 advanced upon the plateau, their solid front filling the 
 whole space with a mass of brazen bucklers, ten deep, and 
 thrice ten hundred wide, without an interval, or break, or 
 bend in that vast line. 
 
 Behind these came the cavalry, about a thousand strong, 
 and the Praetorian cohort, with the general in person, form 
 ing a powerful reserve, whereby he proposed to decide 
 the day, so soon as the traitors should be shaken by his 
 first onset. 
 
 Once more the line was halted ; once more Petreius gal- 
 lopped to the van ; and passed from left to right across the 
 front, reconnoitering the dispositions of the enemy. Then 
 taking post, at the right, he unsheathed his broadsword, 
 and waved it slowly in the air, pointing to the impassive 
 ranks of Catiline. 
 
 Then the shrill trumpets flourished once again, and the 
 dense mass bore onward, steady and slow, the enemy still 
 motionless and silent, until scarce sixty yards intervened 
 between the steadfast ranks, and every man might distin 
 guish the features and expression of his personal antag 
 onist. 
 
 There was a pause. No" word was given. No halt or 
 dered. But intuitively, as if by instinct, every man stopped, 
 and drew a deep breath, unconscious that he did so, col 
 lecting himself for the dread struggle. 
 
 The point was reached, from which it was customary to 
 hurl the tremendous volley of ponderous steel-headed pila, 
 which invariably preceded the sword charge of the legions, 
 
228 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 and for the most part threw the first rank of the enemy 
 into confusion, and left them an easy conquest to the short 
 stabbing sword, and sturdy buckler. 
 
 But now not a javelin was raised on either side the 
 long stern swell of the trumpets, ordering the charge, was 
 drowned by a deep solemn shout, which pealed wilder and 
 higher yet into a terrible soul-stirring cheer ; and casting 
 down their heavy missiles, both fronts rushed forward sim 
 ultaneously, with their stout shields advanced, and .their 
 short broadswords levelled to the charge. 
 
 From flank to flank, they met simultaneous, with a roar 
 louder than that of the most deafening thunder, a shock that 
 made the earth tremble, the banners flap upon their staves, 
 the streams stand still, as if an earthquake had reeled under 
 them. 
 
 Then rose the clang of blades on helm arid buckler, 
 clear, keen, incessant; and charging shouts and dying cries, 
 and patriotic acclamations, and mad blasphemies ; and ever 
 and anon the piercing clangor of the screaming brass, lend 
 ing fresh frenzy to the frantic tumult. 
 
 From right to left, the plain was one vast arena full of 
 single combats the whole first ranks on both sides had 
 gone down at the first shock ; the second and the third had 
 come successively to hand to hand encounter ; and still, as 
 each man fell, stabbed to death by the pitiless sword, an 
 other leaped into his place ; and still the lines, though bent 
 on each side and waving like a bow, were steadfast and 
 unbroken ; and still the clang of brazen bucklers and steel 
 blades rang to the skies, rendering all commands, all words, 
 inaudible. 
 
 Officers fought like privates ; skirmishers, hand to hand, 
 like legionaries. Blood flowed like water; and so fierce 
 was the hatred of the combatants, so deadly the nature of 
 the tremendous stabbing broadswords of the Romans, that 
 few wounds were inflicted, and few men went down till 
 they were slain outright. 
 
 The dust stood in a solid mass over the reeling lines ; 
 nor could the wind, though it blew freshly, disperse the 
 dense wreaths, so constantly did they surge upward from 
 the trampling feet of those inveterate gladiators. At times, 
 the waving of a banner would be seen, at times a gleamy 
 brazen radiance, as some rank wheeled forward, or was 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 229 
 
 forced back in some desperate charge; but, for the most 
 part, all was dim and dark, and the battle still hung bal 
 anced. 
 
 Wherever the fight was the fiercest, there rang the 
 warshout "Catiline! Catiline!" to the darkened skies; 
 and there ever would the Roman array waver, so furiously 
 did he set on with his best soldiers, still bringing up re 
 serves to the weakest points of his army, still stabbing 
 down the fiercest of the consular host, fearless, unwearied, 
 and unwounded. 
 
 But his reserves were now all engaged, and not one 
 point of the Roman line was broken ; Manlius had fallen 
 in the front rank, playing a captain s and a soldier s part. 
 The Florentine had fallen in the front rank, battling with 
 gallantry worthy a better cause. All the most valiant of 
 ficers, all the best veterans had fallen, in the first rank, all 
 with their faces to the foe, all with their wounds in front, 
 all lying on the spot which they had held living, grim-vis- 
 aged, and still terrible in death. 
 
 "Paullus Arvina !" exclaimed Petreius, at this juncture, 
 after having observed the equal strife long and intently, 
 and having discerned with the eagle eye of a general s in 
 stinct what had escaped all those around him, that Cati 
 line s last reserves were engaged. " The time is come ; 
 ride to the tribune of the horse, arid bid him dismount his 
 men. Horse cannot charge here ! command the tribune of 
 the Praetorian cohort to advance ! We will strike full at 
 the centre!" 
 
 " I. go, Petreius !" and bowing his head, till his crimson 
 crest mingled with his charger s mane, he spurred furious 
 ly to the rear, and had delivered his message and returned, 
 while the shouts, with which the reserve had greeted the 
 command to charge, were yet ringing in the air. 
 
 When he returned, the general had dismounted, and 
 one of his freedmen was unbuckling the spurs from his 
 steel greaves. His sword was out, and it was evident that 
 he was about to lead the last onset in person. 
 
 " A boon, noble Petreius !" cried the youth, leaping from 
 his horse " By all the Gods ! By all your hopes of glory ! 
 grant me one boon, Petreius." 
 
 "Ha! what]" returned the general quickly "Speak 
 out, be brief what boon ?" 
 
230 THE ROMAN TRAITOR J OR, THE 
 
 " Be it mine to head the charge !" 
 
 " Art thou so greedy of fame, boy ; or so athirst to die " 
 
 " So greedy of Revenge, Petreius. I have a vow in 
 Heaven, and in Hell, to slay that parricide. If he should 
 die by any hand but mine, I am forsworn and infamous !" 
 
 " Thou, boy, and to slay Catiline !" 
 
 " Even I, Petreius. 
 
 " Thou art mad to say it." 
 
 " Not mad, not mad, indeed, Petreius ." 
 
 " He will slay him, Petreius," cried an old veteran of 
 Arvina s troop. " The Gods thundered when he swore it. 
 We all heard it. Grant his prayer, General; we will 
 back him to the death. But be sure, he will slay him." 
 
 " Be it so," said Petreius, struck despite himself by the 
 confidence of the youth, and the conviction of the veter 
 ans. " Be it so, if ye will. But, remember, when we 
 have broken through the centre, wheel to the right with 
 the dismounted horse the Praetorians must charge to the 
 left. Ho! we are all in line. Forward! Ho! Victory, 
 and Rome !" 
 
 And with the word, he rushed forward, himself a spear s 
 length in front of his best men, who, with a long triumph 
 ant shout, dashed after him. 
 
 Passing right through the weaned troops, who had sus 
 tained the shock and brunt of the whole day, and who 
 now opened their ranks gladly to admit the reinforcement, 
 these fresh and splendid soldiers fell like a thunderbolt 
 upon the centre of Catiline s army, weakened already by 
 the loss of its best men ; and clove their way clean through 
 it, solid and unbroken, trampling the dead and dying un 
 der foot, and hurling a small body of the rebels, still com 
 bating in desperation, into the trenches of their camp, 
 wherein they perished to a man refusing to surrender, and 
 undaunted. 
 
 Then, wheeling to the left and right, they fell on the 
 naked flanks of the reeling and disordered mass, while the 
 troops whom they had relieved, re-forming themselves ra 
 pidly, pressed forward with tremendous shouts of victory, 
 eager to share the triumph which their invincible steadi 
 ness had done so much to win. 
 
 It was a battle no longer; but a route; but a carnage. 
 
DATS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 231 
 
 Yet still not one of the rebels turned to fly ; not one laid 
 down his arms, or cried for quarter. 
 
 Broken, pierced through, surrounded, overwhelmed by 
 numbers, they fought in single lines, in scattered groups, 
 in twos or threes, back to back, intrepid to the last, and 
 giving mortal wounds in their extreme agony. 
 
 More of the consular troops fell, after the field was won, 
 than during all the previous combat. No lances, no long 
 weapons, no missiles were at hand, wherewith to over 
 whelm the desperadoes ; no horse wherewith to tread 
 them under foot; hand to hand, man to man, it was fought 
 out, with those short stabbing blades, against which the 
 stoutest corslet was but as parchment, the hardest shield 
 of brass -bound bull s hide, but as a stripling s wicker 
 target. ^ 
 
 Still in the front, abreast still with the bravest veterans 
 shouting himself hoarse with cries of " To me! to me, Ca 
 tiline, to me, Paul Arvina !" The young man had gone 
 through the whole of that dreadful melee; striking down 
 a man at every blow, and filling the soldiers mouths with 
 wonder at the boy s exploits he had gone through it all, 
 without a scratch, unwounded. 
 
 More than once had his mortal enemy been almost with 
 in arm s length of him ; their eyes had glared mutual ha 
 tred on each other, their blades had crossed once, but still 
 the throng arid rush of combatants and flyers had forced 
 them asunder; and now the strife was almost ended, the 
 tide of slaughter had receded toward the rebel camp, the 
 ramparts of which the legionaries were already storm 
 ing. 
 
 Weary and out of breath and disappointed, Paullua 
 Arvina halted alone, among piles of the dying and the 
 dead, with groans and imprecations in his ears, and bitter 
 ness and vexation at his heart. 
 
 His comrades had rushed away on the track of the re 
 treating rebels ; and their shouts, as they stormed the pa 
 lisades, reached him, but failed to awake any respondent 
 note of triumph in his spirit. 
 
 He had no share in the vulgar victory, he cared not to 
 strike down and slaughter the commoners of the rebel 
 lion. Catiline was the quarry at which he flew, and 
 with no game less noble could he rest contented. Ca- 
 41 
 
232 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 tiline, it would seem, had escaped him for the moment; 
 and he stood leaning on his red sword, doubtful. 
 
 Instinctively he felt assured that his enemy had not re 
 treated. Almost he feared that his death had crowned 
 Borne other hand with glory. 
 
 When suddenly, a mighty clatter arose in the rear, to 
 ward the Roman camp, and turning swiftly toward the 
 sound, he perceived a desperate knot of rebels still char 
 ging frantically onward, although surrounded by thrice 
 their numbers of inveterate and ruthless victors. 
 
 "By the Gods! he is there !" and with the speed of 
 the hunted deer, he rushed toward the spot, bounding in 
 desperate haste over the dying and the dead, blaspheming 
 or unconscious. 
 
 He reached the melee,^ He dashed headlong into the 
 thick of it. The Romans were giving way before the fury 
 of a gory madman, as he seemed, who bore down all that 
 met him at the sword s point. 
 
 " Catiline ! Catiline ! and at the cry, the boldest of the 
 consular army recoiled. " Ho ! Romans ! Ho ! who will 
 slay Sergius Catiline ] Ho ! Romans ! Ho ! His head ia 
 worth the winning ! Who will slay Sergius Catiline 1" 
 
 And, still at every shout, he struck down, and stabbed, 
 and maimed, and trampled, even amid defeat and ruin victo 
 rious, unsubdued, a terror to his victors. 
 
 " Who will slay Sergius Catiline ?" 
 
 And, as Arvina rushed upon the scene, the veteran who 
 had so confidently announced his coming triumph, crossed 
 swords with the traitor, and went down in a moment, 
 stabbed a full span deep in his thigh. 
 
 " Ho ! Romans ! Ho ! who will slay Sergius Cati 
 line r 
 
 "Paullus Arvina !" cried the youth, springing forward, 
 and dealing him with the word a downright blow upon 
 the head, which cleft his massive casque asunder. 
 
 " I will ! I, even I, Paullus Arvina !" 
 
 But he shouted too soon; and soon rued the imprudence 
 of raising his arm to strike, when at sword s point with 
 such a soldier. 
 
 As his own blow fell on the casque of the traitor, his 
 shortened blade, aimed with a deadly thrust tore through 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 233 
 
 the sturdy shield, tore through the strong cuirass, and 
 pierced his side with a ghastly wound. 
 
 Arvina staggered he thought he had received his death 
 blow ; and had not the blade of Catiline, bent by the vio 
 lence of his own effort, stuck in the cloven shield, resisting 
 every attempt to withdraw it, the next blow must have 
 found him unprepared, must have destroyed him. 
 
 But ere the desperado could recover his weapon, Arvi 
 na rallied and closed with him, grasping him by the throat, 
 and shouting "Lucia! Vengeance !" 
 
 Brave as he was and strong, not for a single moment 
 could Arvina have maintained that death-grapple, had his 
 foe been unwounded. 
 
 But the arch traitor was bleeding at every pore ; gashed 
 in* every limb of his body ; he had received three mortal 
 wounds already ; he was fast failing when Arvina grap 
 pled him, and at the name of his injured child, his con 
 science conquered. His sword at length came away, extri 
 cated when too late from the tough bull-hide ; but, ere he 
 could nerve his arm to strike again, Arvina s point had 
 torn his thigh, had gored his breast, had pierced his naked 
 throat, with three wounds, the least of them mortal. 
 
 But even in that agony he struck home ! He could not 
 even curse, but he struck home, and a fierce joyous smile 
 illuminated his wan face, as he saw his slayer stumble for 
 ward, and fall beside him on the bloody greensward. 
 
 In a moment, however, Paullus rallied, recovered his 
 feet, drew from his bosom the long black ringlet of poor 
 Lucia, and bathed it in the life blood of her slayer. 
 
 "Lucia! Ho! Lucia! Rejoice! my vow, my vow is 
 kept! Thou art avenged, avenged 1 Ah! Lucia! 
 Julia!" 
 
 And he fell sick and swooning upon the yet living bleed 
 ing body of his mortal foeman. 
 
234 THE ROMAN TRAITOR } OR, THE 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 
 
 A NIGHT OF HORROR. 
 
 Rider and horse, friend, foe, in one red burial blent. 
 
 CHILDK HAHOLD. 
 
 THE battle was at an end ; the sun had set ; the calm and 
 silvery moon was sailing through the azure skies ; as 
 peaceful as though her pure light shone upon sights of 
 happiness alone, and quiet. The army of the common 
 wealth had returned to their camp victorious, but in sad 
 ness, not triumph. 
 
 Of the magnificent array, which had marched out that 
 morning from the Praetorian gate, scarce two-thirds had 
 returned at sun-set. 
 
 And the missing were the best, the bravest, the most 
 noble of the host ; for all the most gallant had fallen dead 
 in that desperate struggle, or had sunk down faint, with 
 wounds and bloodshed, beside the bodies of their conquer 
 ed foemen. 
 
 Of the rebels there was not a remnant left ; some had es 
 caped from that dread route ; and of that mighty power, 
 which at the close of day was utterly exterminated, it is on 
 record that neither in the combat, while it lasted, nor in the 
 slaughter which followed it, was any free born citizen taken 
 a living captive. 
 
 For the numbers engaged on both sides it is probable 
 that never in the annals of the world was there the like 
 carnage; nor is this wonderful, when the nature of the 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 235 
 
 ground, which rendered flight almost impossible to the 
 vanquished, the nature of the weapons, which rendered 
 almost every wound surely mortal, and the nature of the 
 strife, which rendered the men of either party pitiless and 
 desperate, are all taken into consideration. 
 
 In long ranks, like grass in the mower s swathes, the 
 rebel warriors lay, with their grim faces, and glazed eyes, 
 set in that terrible expression of ferocity which is always 
 observed on the lineaments of those who have died from 
 wounds inflicted by a stabbing weapon ; and under them, 
 or near them, in ghastly piles were heaped, scarce less in 
 number, the corpses of their slaughtered conquerors. So 
 equal was the havoc ; so equal the value which the men 
 had set on their own lives, and on those of their enemies. 
 
 Never perhaps had there been such, or so signal, a retri 
 bution. They who had taken to the sword had perished by 
 the sword, not figuratively but in the literal meaning of 
 the words. Slabbers by trade, they had fallen stabbed, by 
 the hands of those whom they had destined to like mas 
 sacre. 
 
 With the exception of the five chiefs who had already 
 wrestled out their dark spirits, in the Tullianum, slavishly 
 strangled, there was no traitor slain save by the steel 
 blade s edge. 
 
 The field of Pistoria was the tribunal, the ruthless sword 
 the judge and executioner, by which to a man the conspi 
 rators expiated their atrocious crimes. 
 
 No chains, no scaffolds followed that tremendous field. 
 None had survived on whom to wreak, the vengeance of 
 the state. Never was victory so complete or final. 
 
 But in that victory there was no triumph, no joy, no 
 glory to the victors. 
 
 So long, and so desperate had been the battle, so furi 
 ously contested the series of single combats into which it 
 was resolved, after the final and decisive charge of the 
 Praetorian cohort, that the shades of the early winter night 
 were already falling over the crimson field, when, weak 
 and shattered, sorrowful and gloomy, the Roman host was 
 recalled by the wailing notes of the brazen trumpets from 
 that tremendous butchery. 
 
 The watches were set, as usual, and the watch fires kin 
 dled : but no shouts of the exulting soldiers were to be 
 
236 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 heard hailing their general " Imperator ;" no songs of tri 
 umph pealed to the skies in honor of the great deeds done, 
 the deathless glory won ; no prizes of valor were distribu 
 ted; no triumph not an oration even was to be hoped 
 for by the victorious leader of that victorious host, which 
 had conquered indeed for the liberties of Rome, but had 
 conquered, not on foreign earth, in no legitimate warfare, 
 against no natural foe, but on the very soil of the republic, 
 at the very gates of Rome, in an unnatural quarrel, against 
 Romans, citizens, and brothers. 
 
 The groans of the wounded, the lamentations of friends, 
 the shrieks of women, went up the livelong night from that 
 woful camp. To hear that grievous discord, one would 
 have judged it rather the consequences of defeat than of 
 victory, however sad and bloody. 
 
 No words can express the anguish of the ladies, with 
 whom the camp was crowded, as rushing forth to meet the 
 returning legions, they missed the known faces altogether, 
 or met them gashed and pallid, borne home, perhaps to die 
 after long suffering, upon the shields under which they had 
 BO boldly striven. 
 
 Enquiries were fruitless. None knew the fate of his 
 next neighbor, save in so much as this, that few of those 
 who went down in such a melee, could be expected ever 
 again to greet the sunrise, or hail the balmy breath of 
 morning. 
 
 Averted heads and downcast eyes, were the sole replies 
 that met the wives, the mothers, the betrothed maidens, 
 widowed ere wedded, as with rent garments, and dis 
 hevelled hair, and streaming eyes, they rushed into the sor 
 rowful ranks, shrieking, " Where are they," and were an- 
 ewered only by the short echo, " Where." 
 
 Such was the fate of Julia. No one could tell her aught 
 of her Arvina ; until at a late hour of the night, remember 
 ing her solitary situation and high birth, and taking a deep 
 interest in her sorrows, Petreius himself visited her, not to 
 instil false hope, but to console if possible her wounded 
 Bpirit by praises of her lost lover s conduct. 
 
 " He fought beside my right hand, Julia, through the 
 whole of that deadly struggle ; and none with more valor, 
 or more glory. He led the last bloody onset, and was the 
 first who cut his way through the rebel centre. Julia, you 
 
DAYS OP CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 237 
 
 must not weep for him, you must not envy him such glory. 
 Julia, he was a hero." 
 
 " Was /" replied the poor girl, with clasped hands and 
 streaming eyes " then he is no longer]" 
 
 " I do not know, but fear it," said the stout soldier ; 
 " He had vowed himself to slay Catiline with his own 
 hands. Such vows are not easy, Julia, nor safe of perform 
 ance." 
 
 " And Catiline V asked Julia, " the parricide the 
 monster 1 ?" 
 
 " Has not survived the strife. None of the traitors have 
 survived it," replied Petreius. "But how he fell, or where, 
 as yet we know not." 
 
 " Paullus hath slain him ! my own, my noble Paullus." 
 
 * I think so, Julia," answered the general. 
 
 " I know it," she said slowly- " but what availeth that 
 to me to me who had rather hear one accent of his noble 
 voice, meet one glance of his glorious eye alas ! alas ! 
 my Paullus ! my Lord! my Life ! But I will not survive 
 him!" 
 
 " Hold, Julia, hold ! I would not nurse you to false 
 hopes, but he may yet be living; many are wounded doubt 
 less, who shall be saved to-morrow " 
 
 " To-morrow ]" she exclaimed, a gleam of hope bursting 
 upon her soul like the dayspring. " Why not to-night ? 
 Petreius, I say, why not to-night 1" 
 
 " It is impossible. The men are all worn out with 
 wounds and weariness, and must have daylight to the task. 
 Dear girl, it is impossible." 
 
 "I will go forth myself, alone, unaided, I will save him." 
 
 "You must not, Julia." 
 
 " Who shall prevent me 1 Who dare to part a betrothed 
 maiden from her true lover, true, alas ! in death ! in 
 death !" 
 
 " I will," replied Petreius firmly. " You know not the 
 perils of such a night as this. The gaunt wolves from the 
 Appennines ; the foul and carrion vultures ; the plundering 
 disbanded soldiers ; the horrid unsexed women, who roam 
 the field of blood more cruel than the famished wolf, more 
 sordid than the loathsome vulture. I will prevent you, 
 Julia. But with the earliest dawn to-morrow I will my- 
 
238 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 ji - 
 
 self go with you. Fare you well, try to sleep, and hope, 
 hope for the best, poor Julia." 
 
 And with a deep sigh at the futility of his consolation, 
 the noble Roman left the tent, giving strict orders to the 
 peasant girls who had been pressed into her service, and 
 to Arvina s freedmen who were devoted to her, on no ac 
 count to suffer her to leave the camp that night, and even, 
 if need were, to use force to prevent her. 
 
 Meanwhile the frost wind had risen cold and cutting 
 over the field of blood. Its chilly freshness, checking the 
 flow of blood and fanning the brow of many a maimed and 
 gory wretch, awoke him to so much at least of life, as to 
 be conscious of his tortures; and loud groans, and piercing 
 shrieks, and agonizing cries for water might be heard now 
 on all sides, where, before the wind rose, there had been 
 but feeble wailings and half-unconscious lamentations. 
 
 Then came a long wild howl from the mountain side, 
 another, and another, and then the snarling fiendish cry of 
 the fell wolf-pack. 
 
 Gods ! what a scream of horrid terror rose from each 
 helpless sufferer, unanimous, as. that accursed sound fell 
 on their palsied ears, and tortured them back into life. 
 
 But cries were of no avail, nor prayers, nor struggles, 
 nor even the shouts, and trumpet blasts, and torches of the 
 legionaries from the camp, who hoped thus to scare the 
 bloodthirsty brutes from their living prey, of friend and foe, 
 leal comrade and false traitor. 
 
 It was all vain, and ere long to the long-drawn howls 
 and fierce snarls of the hungry wolves, battening upon their 
 horrid meal, were added the flapping wings and croaking 
 cries of innumerable night birds flocking to the carnage ; 
 and these were blended still with the sharp outcries, and 
 faint murmurs, that told how keener than the mortal sword 
 were the beak and talon, the fang and claw, of the wild 
 beast and the carrion fowl. 
 
 Such, conquerors, such a thing is glory ! 
 
 That frost wind, among others awakened Paullus to 
 new life, and new horrors. Though gashed and weak from 
 loss of blood, none of his wounds were mortal, and yet he 
 felt that, unaided, he must die there, past doubt, even if 
 spared by the rending beak, and lacerating talon. 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE. 239 
 
 As he raised himself slowly to a sitting posture, and was 
 feeling about for his sword, which had fallen from his grasp 
 as he fainted, he heard his name called feebly by some one 
 near him. 
 
 " Who calls Arvina V he replied faintly. " I am here." 
 
 " I, Caius Pansa," answered the voice ; it was that of the 
 old legionary horseman, who had predicted so confidently 
 the fall of Catiline by the hand of Paullus. " I feared thou 
 wert dead." 
 
 " We shall both be dead soon, Caius Pansa," replied the 
 young man. " Hark ! to those wolves ! It makes my 
 very flesh creep on my bones ! They are sweeping this 
 way, too." 
 
 " No ! no ! cheer up, brave heart," replied the veteran. 
 " We will not die this bout. By Hercules ! only crawl to 
 me, thou. My thigh is broken, and I cannot stir. I have 
 wine here ; a warming draught, in a good leather bottle. 
 Trust to old Caius for campaigning ! I have lifs enough 
 in me to beat off these howling furies. Come, Paullus; 
 come, brave youth. We will share the wine ! You shall 
 not die this time. I saw you kill that dog I knew that 
 you would kill him. Courage, I say, crawl hitherward." 
 
 Cheered by the friendly voice, the wounded youth crept 
 feebly and with sore anguish to the old trooper s side, and 
 shared his generously proffered cup ; and, animated by the 
 draught, and deriving fresh courage from his praises, en 
 dured the horrors of that awful night, until the day break 
 ing in the east scared the foul beasts and night birds to 
 their obscene haunts in the mountain peaks and caverns. 
 
 Many times the gory wings had flapped nigh to them, 
 and the fierce wolf-howls had come within ten feet of 
 where they sat, half recumbent, propped on a pile of dead, 
 but still their united voices and the defensive show which 
 they assumed drove off the savages, and now daylight and 
 new hopes dawned together, and rescue was at hand and 
 certain. 
 
 Already the Roman trumpets were heard sounding, and 
 the shouts of the soldiers, as they discerned some friend 
 living, or some leader of the rebels dead or dying, came 
 swelling to their eara, laden with rapture, on the fresh 
 morning air. 
 
 At this moment, some groans broke out, so terribly 
 
 
240 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 acute and bitter, from a heap of gory carcasses bard by Ar- 
 vina and the old trooper, that after calling several times in 
 vain to enquire who was there, the veteran said, 
 
 " It were pity, Paullus, that after living out such a me 
 lee as this, and such a night as the last, any poor fellow 
 should die now. Cannot you crawl to him with the flask, 
 and moisten his lips ; try, my Paullus." 
 
 " I will try, Caius, but I am stiffer than I was, and my 
 hurts shoot terribly, but I will try." 
 
 And with the word, holding the leathern bottle in his 
 teeth, he crawled painfully and wearily toward the spot 
 whence the sounds proceeded ; but ere he reached it, 
 creeping over the dead, he came suddenly on what seemed 
 a corpse so hideous, and so truculently savage, so horribly 
 distorted in the death pang, that involuntarily he paused to 
 gaze upon it. 
 
 It was Catiline, although at first he recognised him not, 
 BO frightfully was his face altered, his nether lip literally 
 gnawed half-through, by his own teeth in the death agony, 
 and his other features lacerated by the beak and talons of 
 some half-gorged vulture. 
 
 But, while he gazed, the heavy lids rose, and the glazed 
 eyes stared upon him in ghastly recognition ; Paullus knew 
 him at the same moment, and started back a little, draw 
 ing a deep breath through his set teeth, and murmuring, 
 "Ah! Catiline !" 
 
 The dying traitor s lips were convulsed by a fearful sar 
 donic grin, and he strove hard to speak, but the words rat 
 tled in his throat inarticulate, and a sharp ruckling groan 
 was the only sound that he uttered. 
 
 But with a mighty effort he writhed himself up from the 
 ground, and drove his sword, which he still clasped in his 
 convulsed fingers, by a last desperate exertion through 
 Paullus massive corslet, and deep into his bosom. 
 
 With a sharp cry the youth fell prone, and after two 
 or three struggles to arise, lay on his face motionless, and 
 senseless. 
 
 Catiline dropped back with a fiendish grin, and eyes 
 rolling in a strange mixed expression of agony and triumph ; 
 while old Pansa, after crying, twice or thrice, "Paullus, 
 ho ! noble Paullus ! exclaimed mournfully, " Alas ! . He is 
 dead! He is dead ! And I it is who have slain him." 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, OATO AND CATALINE. !241 
 
 Within half an hour, Petreius and his guards with seve 
 ral mounted officers, and a lady upon a white palfrey, came 
 riding slowly toward the fatal spot, pausing from time to 
 time to examine every pile of carcasses, and after causing 
 his men to dismount and turn over the bodies, in the hope 
 of finding him they sought. 
 
 Their search had hitherto been fruitless, and unreward 
 ed even by the discovery of any wounded friends or com 
 rades, for this was the place in which the battle had been 
 most desperately contested, and few had fallen here but 
 to die almost on the instant. 
 
 But now a weak voice was heard calling to the general. 
 
 " Petreius, he is here ! here ! He is here, noble Petre 
 ius !" 
 
 "The immortal Gods be praised!" cried Julia, inter 
 preting the casual words at once to signify Arvina, and 
 giving her palfrey the rein, she gallopped to the spot, fol 
 lowed by Petreius shaking his head gloomily ; for he was 
 not so deceived. 
 
 " Who 1 who is here?" exclaimed the general. "Ha ! 
 my stout Pansa, right glad am I to find you living. See 
 to him, quickly, Postumus, and Capito. But whom do you 
 mean ] Who is here ]" 
 
 " Catiline ! Paullus Arvina slew him !" 
 
 " By all the G-ods !" exclaimed Petreius, leaping down 
 from his horse and gazing at the hideous mutilated carcase, 
 still breathing a little, and retaining in its face that ferocity 
 of soul which had distinguished it while living ! 
 
 But swifter yet than he, Julia sprang from her saddle, 
 and rushed heedless and unconscious, through pools of 
 blood, ancle deep, treading on human corpses, in her wild 
 haste, and cast herself down on the well known armor, the 
 casque crested and the cloak embroidered by her own de 
 licate hands, which could alone be distinguished of her 
 lover s prostrate form. 
 
 "Aye ! me ! aye me ! dead ! dead ! my own Arvina !" 
 
 "Alas! alas!" cried Petreius, "Raise her up ; raise 
 them both, this is most lamentable !" 
 
 " Never heed me !" said the veteran Pansa, eagerly, to 
 the officers who were busy raising him from the ground. 
 " Help the poor girl ! Help the brave youth ! He may be 
 
242 THE ROMAN TRAITOR; OR, THE 
 
 living yet, though I fear me not. It is my fault, alas ! that 
 he is not living now !" 
 
 " Thy fault, old Pansa, how can that be, my friend 1 
 who slew him V 
 
 Once more the rigid features of Catiline relaxed into a 
 horrid smile, the glaring eyes again opened, and starting 
 half upright he shook his hand aloft, and with a frightful 
 effort, half laugh, half groan, half words articulate, sneered 
 fiendishly"!! I. Ha! ha! I did. Ha! ha! ha! 
 ha!" 
 
 But at the same instant there was- a joyous cry -from the 
 officers who had lifted Paullus, and a j&pturouS shriek 
 from Julia. 
 
 He is not dead!" 
 
 " His hurts are not mortal, lady, it is but logs of blood." 
 
 " He lives ! he lives !" 
 
 " Curses ! cur cur ha ! ha ! this this is Hades!" 
 
 The fierce sneer died from the lips, a look of horror 
 glared from the savage eyes, the jaw gibbered and fell, a 
 quick spasm shook the strong frame, and in a paroxysm of 
 frustrated spite, and disappointed fury, the dark spirit, 
 which had never spared or pitied, went to its everlasting 
 home. 
 
 IT was the dead of winter, when the flame of rebellion 
 was thus quenched in rebel blood ; Cicero still was con 
 sul. But it was blithesome springtide, and the great ora 
 tor had long since sworn THAT HE HAD SAVED HIS COUN 
 TRY, among the acclamations of a people for once grateful ; 
 had long since retired into the calm serenity of private life 
 and literary leisure, when Paullus was sufficiently recov 
 ered from his wounds to receive the thanks of his friend 
 and benefactor; to receive in the presence of the good and 
 great Consular his best reward in the hand of his sweet 
 Julia. It was balmy Italian June, and all in Rome was 
 peace and prosperity, most suitable to the delicious season, 
 when on the sacred day of Venus, * clad in her snow- 
 white bridal robe, with its purple ribands and fringes, her 
 blushing face concealed by the saffron- colored nuptial veil, 
 the lovely girl was borne, a willing bride, over the thres 
 hold of her noble husband s mansion, amid the merry 
 
 Friday^ 
 
DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CAT ALINE. 243 
 
 blaze of waxen torches, and the soft swell of hymeneal 
 music, and the congratulations of such a train of consuls, 
 consulars, senators and patricians, as rarely had been seen 
 collected at any private festival. In a clear voice, though 
 soft and gentle, she addressed Paullus with the solemn for 
 mula 
 
 " Where thou art Caius, I am Caia." 
 
 Thenceforth their trials ceased, their happiness began ; 
 and thenceforth, they two were one for ever. And, for 
 years afterward, when Roman maidens called blessings 
 down upon a kindred bride, they had no fairer fate to wish 
 her than to be happy as Arvina s Julia. 
 
 And how should any man be blessed, in this transitory 
 life, if not by the love of such a girl as Julia, the friendship 
 of such a man as Cicero, the fame of such a deed, as the 
 death of THE ROMAN TRAITOR. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 42 
 
244 
 
 NOTES TO THE ROMAN TRAITOR. 
 
 IT is perhaps hardly necessary to state, that the oration of 
 Cicero in the 37th page of the second volume, those of Caesar 
 and Cato in the 137th and 142d pages, and that of Catiline 
 in the 217th page of the same, are all literal translations from 
 the actual speeches delivered on those occasions, and recorded by 
 Cicero and Sallust. 
 
 It was absolutely necessary for the truth and spirit of the ro 
 mance, that these speeches should be inserted ; and the author 
 considered that it would be equally vain and absurd to attempt 
 fictitious orations, when these master-pieces of ancient eloquence 
 were extant. 
 
 This brief explanation made, no farther notes will, I believe, 
 be found necessary ; as the few Latin words which occur in 
 the body of the work are explained therein ; and the costumes 
 and customs are described so much in detail, that they will be 
 readily comprehended even by the unclassical reader. 
 
 A table is appended, containing the Roman and English Ca 
 lendars of the three months during which all the events of the 
 conspiracy occurred, illustrating the complicated and awkward 
 mode of Roman computation ; and this, I believe, is all that is 
 needful in the way of simplifying or elucidating the narrative. 
 
245 
 
 TABLE OF THE 
 
 ROMAN CALENDAR 
 
 FOR THE MONTHS OF 
 
 OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, AND DECEMBER, 
 B.C. 63. 
 
 OCTOBER, B.C. 63. 
 
 Roman Reckoning. 
 
 Days before 
 
 the Ides 
 of October. 
 
 CALENDS OF OCTOBER. 
 
 VI \ 
 
 V f Days before the 
 
 IV Nones. 
 
 Ill J 
 
 Day before the Nones. 
 
 NONES OF OCTOBER. 
 
 VIII 
 
 VII 
 
 VI 
 
 V 
 
 IV 
 
 III 
 
 Day before the Ides. 
 
 IDES OF OCTOBER. 
 
 XVII 
 
 XVI 
 
 XV 
 
 XIV 
 
 XIII 
 
 XII 
 
 XI 
 
 X 
 
 IX 
 
 VIII 
 
 VII 
 
 VI 
 
 V 
 
 IV 
 
 III 
 
 Day before the Calends 
 of November. 
 
 Days before 
 
 the 
 Calends 
 
 of 
 November. 
 
 Events. 
 
 * On this day the Consular 
 elections should have been 
 held, but were postponed by 
 the Senate at the request of 
 the consul, Cicero. 
 
 f Cicero delivered a speech 
 (not one of the orations) against 
 Catiline, disclosing the plan of 
 the conspiracy. 
 
 J The Consular Elections 
 were held, and Decius Junius 
 Silanus and Lucius Licinius 
 Mursena elected Consuls for 
 the year ensuing. 
 
 || Day originally appointed 
 by Catiline for the murder of 
 Cicero. 
 
246 
 
 NOVEMBER, B.C. 63. 
 
 Modern 
 Reck 
 oning. 
 
 Roman Reckoning. 
 
 Events. 
 
 1* 
 2 
 
 CALENDS OF NOVEMBER. 
 IV ? Days before the 
 
 * Day appointed by Cati 
 line for the seizure of the cita 
 
 3 
 
 III $ Nones. 
 
 del of Prseneste now Pales 
 
 4 
 
 Day before the Nones. 
 
 trina. 
 
 5 
 
 NONES OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 
 6f 
 
 VIII > 
 
 f Second meeting of th 
 
 n 
 
 8|| 
 9 
 
 VT Days before 
 JC 1 the Ides 
 TTr of November. 
 
 Conspirators at the house of 
 Marcus Poitius Laeca. 
 t Cicero s murder attempt 
 
 10 
 
 IV 
 
 ed. 
 
 11 
 
 III 
 
 II Cicero delivered his first 
 
 12 
 13 
 
 Day before the Ides. 
 IDF S OF NOVEMBER. 
 
 Oration in the Senate against 
 Catiline ; and on the same 
 
 14 
 
 xvnn 
 
 
 night Catiline fled to the camp 
 
 15 
 
 XVII 
 
 
 of Caius Manlius, at Faesulae, 
 
 16 
 
 XVI 
 
 
 now Fiesole, near Florence. 
 
 17 
 
 XV 
 
 Days before 
 
 On the following day Cicerc 
 
 18 
 
 XIV 
 
 
 delivered the second oration, 
 
 19 
 
 XIII 
 
 the 
 
 justifying his conduct to the 
 
 20 
 
 XII 
 
 
 whole people in the Forum. 
 
 21 
 
 XI 
 
 Calends 
 
 
 22 
 
 X 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 IX 
 
 of 
 
 
 24 
 
 VTII 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 VII 
 
 December. 
 
 
 26 
 
 VI 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 28 
 
 IV 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 III 
 
 
 
 Of* 
 
 Day before (lie Calends 
 
 
 uU 
 
 of December. 
 
 
247 
 
 DECEMBER, B.C. 63. 
 
 Modern 
 Reck 
 oning. 
 
 Roman Reckoning. 
 
 Events. 
 
 1 
 
 CALENDS OF DECEMBER. 
 
 
 2 
 
 IV > Days before the 
 
 
 3* 
 
 III $ Nones. 
 
 * The conspirators arrested. 
 
 4 
 
 Day before the Nones. 
 
 
 5f 
 
 NONES OF DECEMBER. 
 
 f Cicero delivers his third 
 
 6| 
 
 vnr 
 
 oration before the Senate, and 
 
 7 
 8 
 9 
 10 
 
 Days before 
 the Ides 
 jy of December. 
 
 his fourth before the people, 
 t Execution of Lentulus, 
 Cethegus, Gabinius, Statilius, 
 and Caeparius. 
 
 11 
 
 Ill J 
 
 
 12 
 
 Day before the Ides. 
 
 
 13 
 
 IDES OF DECEMBER. 
 
 
 14 
 
 XVIII } 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 XVII 
 
 
 - 
 
 16 
 
 XVI 
 
 
 i 
 
 17 
 
 XV 
 
 Days before 
 
 
 18 
 
 XIV 
 
 
 || It is a matter of gome 
 
 19 
 
 XIII 
 
 the 
 
 question, whether the battle 
 
 20 
 
 XII 
 
 
 of Pistoria was fought, and 
 
 21 
 
 XI 
 
 Calends 
 
 Catiline slain, during the re 
 
 22 
 
 X 
 
 
 mainder of this month, or early 
 
 23 
 
 IX 
 
 of 
 
 in the following January. 
 
 24 
 
 VIII 
 
 
 The question being doubtful, 
 
 25 
 
 VII 
 
 January. 
 
 for the sake of unity, I have 
 
 26|| 
 
 VI 
 
 
 assumed that it was fought on 
 
 27 
 
 V 
 
 
 or about the 26th day of the 
 
 28 
 
 IV 
 
 
 month. 
 
 29 
 
 III 
 
 
 Cicero abdicated the Con 
 
 30 
 
 Day before the Calends 
 of January. 
 
 sulship, and swore that he had 
 saved his country. 
 
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T. B. PETERSON S LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 5 
 GEORGE LIPPARD S WORKS. 
 
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 T. B. PETERSON also publishes a complete edition of Professor Liebig s works 
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6 T. B. PETERSON S LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 
 
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T. B. PETERSON S LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 7 
 
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8 T. B. PETERSON S LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 
 
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 i # 
 
. 
 
 
 
 GENERAL LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY 
 
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 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 
 
 
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