c. They saw that popular feeling and
popular votes would be on Catiline's side. But they had money and could
bribe. They did bribe so effectively that when it came to the election
he was beaten again.

The alarm of the propertied classes did not, however, die down, or the
excitement of the disappointed. People had talked of revolution and
civil war so loud and long during the elections that they began to
believe in it. Cicero had been going about for days with a cuirass under
his toga. He really believed that grave plots were on foot. He spent his
time listening to spies and informers. One day he came down to the
Senate with a very long face declaring that he 'knew all'. He produced
no proofs, but most people were too much excited to ask for proofs. The
word plot was enough. A state of siege was proclaimed in the city.

Soon afterwards news came that a follower of Catiline had actually got
some soldiers together in Etruria. Catiline, however, was still in Rome.
He attended a meeting of the Senate. On his bench he sat alone, shunned
by all the other senators, who applauded loudly while Cicero thundered
against him. At last Catiline, unable to bear it any longer, got up,
marched out of the Senate House, and left Rome. Cicero did not dare to
have him arrested. There were as yet no solid proofs against him. A few
days later proofs came. Catiline's supporters in Rome lost their heads
without him. They were foolish enough to ask some ambassadors of the
Allobroges--a tribe of Gauls, then in the city with a petition to the
Senate--whether their people would send soldiers to assist a rising.

Cicero now seemed to have the Catilinarians in his hand. They were
ready, some of them, to bring the Gauls into Italy! That was enough.
There was a wild outburst of feeling. All sorts of prominent people,
including Caesar, were said to be implicated. Catiline had escaped, but
all his close associates were arrested and brought up for trial by the
Senate. Cicero hurried on the proceedings. He was terrified by the wild
passion that swept all classes, the senators no less than the howling
mobs outside. After two days' debate the question of what should be done
to the conspirators was put to the vote. The first senator voted for
death. All the others who followed voted for death until it came to
Caesar. Caesar knew of the rumours going about and the risk of his own
position as leader of the party to which Catiline had belonged.
Nevertheless wi