gradually until it was now at its height.

Among all these parties, this restlessness had taken the shape of
anticipation, either dreadful or desirable, of some great change, of some
strange novelty--though no one, either of the wishers or fearers, could
explain what it was he wished or feared--to be developed at the consular
comitia.

And amid this confusion, most congenial to his bold and scornful spirit,
Catiline stalked, like the arch magician, to and fro, amid the wild and
fantastic shapes of terror which he has himself evoked, marking the hopes
of this one, as indications of an unknown, yet sure friend; and revelling
in the terrors of that, as certain evidences of an enemy too weak and
powerless to be formidable to his projects.

It is true, that a year before, previous to Cicero's elevation to the
chief magistracy, and previous to the murder of Piso by his own adherents
on his way to Spain, the designs of Catiline had been suspected dangerous;
and, as such, had contributed to the election of his rival; his own
faction succeeding only in carrying in Antonius, the second and least
dreaded of their candidates.

Him Cicero, by rare management and much self-sacrifice, had contrived to
bring over to the cause of the commonwealth; although he had so far kept
his faith with Catiline, as to disclose none, if indeed he knew any of his
infamous designs.

In consequence of this defeat, and this subsequent secession of one on
whom they had, perhaps, prematurely reckoned, the conspirators, all but
their indomitable and unwearied leader, had been for some time paralyzed.
And this fact, joined to the extreme caution of their latter proceedings,
had tended to throw a shade of doubt over the previous accusation, and to
create a sense of carelessness and almost of disbelief in the minds of the
majority, as to the real existence of any schemes at all against the
commonwealth.

Under all these circumstances, it cannot be doubted, for a moment, that
had Catiline and his friends entertained any real desire of ameliorating
the condition of the masses, of extending the privileges, or improving the
condition, of the discontented and suffering plebeians, they could have
overturned the ancient fabric of Rome's world-conquering oligarchy.

But the truth is, they dreamed of nothing less, than of meddling at all
with the condition of the people; on whom they looked merely as tools and
instruments for the present, and sources of plunder