ster or his fears for
himself. She went, accordingly, to the emperor's physician and found
means to enlist him in her cause; and a plan was formed between them
which proved effectual in accomplishing her designs. The manner in
which they contrived it was this. The physician, at a time when the
emperor was lying sick and in distress upon his couch, came to him
and proposed that he should open his mouth and allow the physician
to touch his throat with the tip of a feather, to promote vomiting,
which he said he thought would relieve him. The emperor yielded to
this treatment, and the feather was applied. It had previously been
dipped in a very virulent and fatal poison. The poison thus
administered took effect, and Claudius, after passing the night in
agony, died early in the morning.

[Illustration: THE POISONING OF CLAUDIUS.]

Of course, Agrippina, when her husband's dying struggles were over,
and she was satisfied that life was extinct, experienced for the
moment a feeling of gratification and relief. It might have been
expected, however, that the pangs of remorse, after the deed was
perpetrated, would have followed very hard upon the termination of
her suspense and anxiety. But it was not so. Much still remained to
be done, and Agrippina was fully prepared to meet all the
responsibilities of the crisis. The death of her husband took place
very early in the morning, the poisoning operations having been
performed in the night, and having accomplished their final effect
about the break of day. Agrippina immediately perceived that the
most effectual means of accomplishing the end which she had in view,
was not to allow of any interval to elapse between the announcement
of the emperor's death and the bringing forward of her son for
induction into office as his successor; since during such an
interval, if one were allowed, the Roman people would, of course,
discuss the question, whether Britannicus or Nero should succeed to
power, and a strong party might possibly organize itself to enforce
the claims of the former. She determined, therefore, to conceal the
death of her husband until noon, the hour most favorable for
publicly proclaiming any great event, and then to announce the
death of the father and the accession of the adopted son together.

She accordingly took prompt and decisive measures to prevent its
being known that the emperor was dead. The immediate attendants
at his bedside could not indeed be easily deceive