t
there stands the Tarpeian!"

And as he spoke, he flung wide both his arms; pointing with this hand to
the row of glittering blades which shone above the head of the chief
magistrate, with that, through the open door-way of the temple, to the
bold front of the precipitous and fatal rock, all lighted up by the gay
sunbeams, as it stood fronting them, beyond the hollow Velabrum, crowned
with the ramparts of the capitol.

A general hum, as if of assent, followed, and without putting the motion
to the vote, Cicero turned his eye rapidly to every face, and receiving
from every senator a slight nod of assent, he looked steadily in the
fierce and ghastly face of the traitor, and said to him;

"Arise, Catiline, and speak, if you will!--But take my counsel, confess
your guilt, go hence, and be forgiven!"

"Forgiven!" cried the traitor, furious and desperate--"Forgiven!--this to a
Roman citizen!--this to a Roman noble! Hear me, Fathers and Conscript
Senators--hear me!--who am a soldier and a man, and neither driveller nor
dotard. I tell you, there is no conspiracy, hath been none, shall be
none--save in the addled brains of yon prater from Arpinum, who would fain
set his foot upon the neck of Romans. All is, all shall be peace in Rome,
unless the terror of a few dastards drive you to tyranny and persecution,
and from persecution come resistance? For myself, let them who would ruin
me, beware. My hand has never yet failed to protect my head, nor have many
foes laughed in the end at Sergius Catiline!--unless," he added with a
ferocious sneer--"they laughed in their death-pang. For my wrongs past, I
have had some vengeance; for these, though I behold the axes, though I
see, whence I stand, the steep Tarpeian, I think I shall have more, and
live to feast my eyes with the downfall of my foes. Fathers, there are two
bodies in the State, one weak, with a base but crafty head--the other
powerful and vast, but headless. Urge me a little farther, and you shall
find that a wise and daring head will not be wanting long, to that bold
and puissant body. Urge me, and I will be that head; oppress me, and--"

But insolence such as this, was not tolerable. There was an universal
burst, almost a shout, of indignation from that assembly, the wonted mood
of which was so stern, so cold, so gravely dignified, and silent. Many
among the younger senators sprang to their feet, enraged almost beyond the
control of reason; nor did the bold defiance of