ent he was sole master of the situation. He had the
two great parties of the period--the Gothic Government and its
enemies--completely in his power. And the principal motive-power in the
heart of this powerful man, which he had for years thought paralysed,
was suddenly aroused to the greatest activity. The unlimited
desire--yes, the necessity--to _govern_, made itself all at once
serviceable to all the powers of his rich nature, and excited them to
violent emotion.

Cornelius Cethegus Caesarius was the descendant of an old and immensely
rich family, whose ancestor had founded the splendour of his house as a
general and statesman under Caesar during the civil wars; it was even
rumoured that he was the son of the great Dictator.

Our hero had received from nature various talents and violent passions,
and his immense riches gave him the means to develop the first and
satisfy the last to the fullest extent. He had received the most
careful education that was then possible for a young Roman noble. He
practised the fine arts under the best teachers; he studied law,
history, and philosophy in the famous schools of Berytus, Alexandria,
and Athens with brilliant success. But all this did not satisfy him. He
felt the breath of decay in all the art and science of his time. In
particular, his study of philosophy had only the effect of destroying
the last traces of belief in his soul, without affording him any
results. When he returned home from his studies, his father, according
to the custom of the time, introduced him to political life, and his
brilliant talents raised him quickly from office to office.

But all at once he abandoned his career. As soon as he had made himself
master of the affairs of state, he would no longer be a wheel in the
great machine of a kingdom from which freedom was excluded, and which,
besides, was subject to a barbarian King.

His father died, and Cethegus, being now his own master and possessor
of an immense fortune, rushed into the vortex of life, enjoyment, and
luxury with all the passion of his nature.

He soon exhausted Rome, and travelled to Byzantium, into Egypt, and
even as far as India.

There was no luxury, no innocent or criminal pleasure, in which he did
not revel; only a well-steeled frame could have borne the adventures,
privations, and dissipations of these journeys.

After twelve years of absence, he returned to Rome.

It was said that he would build magnificent edifices. Peopl