which
were circling and narrowing so rapidly around him. There was, in
fact, no hope now left for him--no refuge, no protection, no
possibility of escape; and so, after suddenly seizing, and as
suddenly abandoning, one impracticable scheme after another, his
mind became wholly bewildered, and he sank down, at length, into a
condition of blank and hopeless despair.

Although the insurrection had become very general in the provinces,
the troops in the city, consisting chiefly of the emperor's guards,
yet remained faithful; and now as the night was coming on, they were
stationed as usual at their respective posts in various parts of the
city and at the palace gates. Nero retired to rest. He found,
however, that he could not sleep. At midnight he rose, and came
forth from his apartment. He was surprised to find that there was no
sentinel at the door. On farther examination he found to his
amazement that the palace guards had been wholly withdrawn. He was
thunderstruck at making this discovery. He returned into the palace
and aroused some of the domestics, and then went forth with them to
the residences of some of his chief ministers, who resided near, to
ask for help. He could, however, nowhere gain admission. He found
the houses all closely shut up, and by all his knocking at the doors
he could get no answer from any persons within. He then came back in
great distress and alarm to his own apartment. He found that it had
been broken into during the short time that he had been gone, and
rifled of every thing valuable that it contained. Even his golden
box of poison had been carried away. In a word the great sovereign
of half the world found that he had been abandoned by all his
adherents, and left in a condition of utter and absolute exposure.
The guards had concluded to declare for Galba, and had accordingly
gone away, leaving the fallen tyrant to his fate.

Nero called desperately to his servants to send for a gladiator to
thrust him through with a sword, but no one would go. "Alas!" he
exclaimed, "has it come to this? Am I so utterly abandoned that I
have not even enemies left who are willing to kill me?"

After a little time he began to be a little more composed, and
expressed a wish that he knew of some place in the environs of the
city where he could go and conceal himself for a little time until
he could determine what to do. One of the servants of his household
named Phaon, told him that he had a country-house ne