rm a great duty, in strength of
purpose, singleness of spirit--and all felt deeply the weight of the
present moment, the vastness of the interests concerned. The good and the
true were there convened to defend the majesty, perhaps the safety, of
their country--the wicked to strive for interest, for revenge, for life
itself!

For Catiline well knew, and had instilled his knowledge carefully into the
minds of his confederates, that now to conquer was indeed to triumph; that
now to be defeated was to fail, probably, forever--to die, it was most
like, by the dread doom of the Tarpeian.

Not one of the conspirators but was in his appointed place, firm,
seemingly unconscious, and unruffled; and as the eye of the great consul
glanced from one to another of that guilty throng, he could not, even amid
his detestation of their crimes, but admire the cool hardihood with which
they sat unmoved on the brink of destruction; could not but think, within
himself, how vast the good that might be wrought by such resolution, under
a virtuous leader, and in an upright cause. Catiline noticed the glance;
and as he marked it run along the crowded benches, dwelling a moment on
the face of each one of his own confederates, he saw in an instant, that
all was discovered; and, as he saw, resolved that since craft had failed
to conceal, henceforth he would trust audacity alone to carry out his
detected villainy.

But now the augurs had performed their rites; the day was pronounced
fortunate; the assembly formal; and nothing more remained, but to proceed
to the business of the moment.

A little pause ensued, after the sanction of the augurs had been given; a
short space, during which each man drew a deep breath, as though he were
aware that ere long he should hear words spoken, that would thrill his
every nerve with excitement, and hold him breathless with awe and
apprehension.

There was not a voice, not a motion, not the rustling of a garment,
through the large building; for every living form was mute, as the marble
effigies around them, with intense expectation.

Every eye of conspirator, or patriot, was riveted upon the consul, the new
man of Arpinum.

He rose, not unobservant of the general expectation, nor ungratified; for
that great man, with all his grand genius, solid intellect, sound virtue,
had one small miserable weakness; he was not proud, but vain; vain beyond
the feeblest and most craving vanity of womanhood.

Yet now he sho