ence, and knew not what to do.

At length they sent in one after another to attempt to calm and
console him. Their efforts, however, were attended with little
success. When the morning came, it brought with it some degree of
composure; but the dreadful burden of guilt which pressed upon
Nero's mind made him still unutterably wretched. He said that he
could not endure any longer to remain on the spot, as every thing
that he saw, the villas, the ships, the sea, the shore, and all the
other objects around him, were so associated in his mind with the
thought of his mother, and with the remembrance of his dreadful
crime, that he could not endure them.

In the mean time, as soon as the servants and attendants at
Agrippina's villa found that Anicetus and his troop had gone, they
returned to the chamber of their mistress and gazed upon the
spectacle which awaited them there, with inexpressible horror.
Anicetus had left some of his men behind to attend to the disposal
of the body, as it was important that it should be removed from
sight without delay, since it might be expected that all who should
look upon it would be excited to a high pitch of indignation against
the perpetrators of such a crime. The countenance, in the condition
of repose which it assumed after death, appeared extremely
beautiful, and seemed to address a mute but touching appeal to the
commiseration of every beholder. It was necessary, therefore, to
hurry it away. Besides, the soldiers themselves were impatient. They
wished to get through with their horrid work and be gone.

They accordingly built a funeral pile in the garden of the
villa,--using such materials for the purpose as came most readily to
hand--and then took up the body of Agrippina on the bed upon which
it lay, and placed all together upon the pile. The fires were
lighted. The soldiers watched by the side of it until the pile was
nearly consumed, and then went away, leaving the heart-broken
domestics of Agrippina around the smoldering embers.

CHAPTER IX.

EXTREME DEPRAVITY.

A.D. 62-64

The atrocity of Nero's crime in murdering Agrippina.--Nero's messages
to the senate.--Action of the senate.--Nero divorces Octavia and
marries Poppaea.--Octavia banished from Rome.--Anicetus.--Octavia's
unhappy destiny.--Charges against her.--She is put to death.--Extreme
depravity.--Nero recovers from his remorse.--His various
crimes.--Public affairs neglected.--His performances on the
stage.--M