ear to! Now mark me,
when Lentulus comes hither, they must accuse to him Paullus Caecilius
Arvina, whose person, if they know him not, you must describe to them--him
who dined with me, you know, the day before yesterday--of subornation to
commit murder. The place where he did so, the top of the Caelian hill. The
time, sunrise on that same day. The person whom he desired them to slay,
Volero the cutler, who dwelt in the Sacred Way. They must make up the tale
their own way, but to these facts they must swear roundly. Do you
understand me?"

"Perfectly; they shall do it well, and both be in one tale. I will help
them to concoct it, and dress it up with little truthful incidents that
will tell. But are you sure that he cannot prove he was not there?"

"Quite sure, Chaerea. For he _was_ there."

"And no witnesses who can prove to whom he spoke?"

"Only one witness, and he will say nothing, unless called upon by
Paullus."

"And if so called upon?"

"Will most reluctantly corroborate the tale of Stolo and Rufinus!"

"Ha! ha!" laughed the freedman, "thou shouldst have been a Greek,
Catiline, thou art too shrewd to be a mere Roman."

"A _mere_ Roman, hang-dog!" answered Catiline, "but thou knowest thine
opportunity, and profitest by it! so let it pass! Now as for thee, seeing
thou dost love lying, thou shalt have thy part. Thou shalt swear that the
night before that same morning, at a short time past midnight, thou wert
returning by the Wicked street, from the house of Autronius upon the
Quirinal, whither I sent thee to bid him to dinner the next day--he shall
confirm the tale--when thou didst hear a cry of murder from the Plebeian
graveyard on the Esquiline; and hurrying to the spot, didst see Arvina,
with his freedman Thrasea bearing a torch, conceal a fresh bleeding body
in a broken grave; and, hidden by the stem of a great tree thyself, didst
hear him say, as he left the ground, 'That dog will tell no tales!' Thou
must swear, likewise, that thou didst tell me the whole affair the next
morning, and that I bade thee wait for farther proof ere speaking of the
matter. And again, that we visited the spot where thou saw'st the deed,
and found the grass trampled and bloody, but could not find the body.
Canst thou do this, thinkest thou?"

"Surely I can," said the Athenian, rubbing his hands as if well pleased,
"so that no one shalt doubt the truth of it! And thou wilt confirm the
truth?"

"By chiding thee for speaking o