Ir was an hour after noon. Ligarius was returning from the Campus Martius. He strolled through one of the streets which led to the forum, settling his gown, and calculating the odds on the gladiators who were to fence at the approaching Saturnalia. While thus occupied, he overtook Flaminius, who, with a heavy step and a melancholy face, was sauntering in the same direction. The light-hearted young man plucked him by the sleeve. "Good-day, Flaminius. Are you to be of Catiline's party this evening?" "Not I."

Two friends meet.

"Why so? Your little Tarentine girl will break her heart."

"No matter. Catiline has the best cooks and the finest wine in Rome. There are charming women at his parties. But the twelve-line board and the dicebox pay for all. The gods confound Losses at play. me if I did not lose two

millions of sesterces last night. My villa at Tibur, and all the statues that my father, the prætor, brought from Ephesus, must go to the auctioneer. That is a high price, you will acknowledge, even for Phoenicopters, Chian, and Callinice."

66

"High indeed, by Pollux."

"And that is not the worst.

I saw

gravely, "to bestow some little considera. tion upon it at present. Otherwise, I fear, you will soon renew your acquaintance with the politicians, in a manner quite as unpleasant as that to which you allude."

Rumours of conspiracy.

"Averting gods! what do you mean?" "I will tell you. There are rumours of conspiracy. The order of things established by Lucius Sylla has excited the disgust of the people, and of a large party of the nobles. Some violent con-vulsion is expected."

"What is that to me? I suppose that they will hardly proscribe the vintners and gladiators, or pass a law compelling every citizen to take a wife?"

"You do not understand. Catiline is. supposed to be the author

of

Suspicions of Catiline.

the revolutionary schemes. You must have heard bold opinions at his table repeatedly."

"I never listen to any opinions upon such subjects, bold or timid."

"Look to it. Your name has been mentioned."

"Mine! good gods! I call Heaven to witness that I never had so much as mentioned Senate, Consul, or Comitia, in Catiline's house."

"Nobody suspects you of any partici pation in the inmost counsels of the party. But our great men surmise that you are among those whom he has bribed so high with beauty, or entangled so deeply in distress, that they are no longer their own masters. I shall never set foot within his threshold again. I have been solemnly warned by men who understand public affairs; and I advise you to be cautious."

Caution advised.

The friends had now turned into the forum, which was thronged with the gay and elegant youth of Rome. "I can tell

Flaminius pointed to a man who was pacing up and down the forum at a little distance from them. He was in the prime of manhood. His personal advantages were extremely striking, and were displayed with an extravagant but not ungraceful foppery. His gown waved in loose folds; his long dark curls were dressed with exquisite art, and shone and streamed with odours; his step and gesture exhibited an elegant and commanding figure in every posture of polite languor. But his countenance formed a

A Roman dandy.

singular contrast to the general appearance of his person. The high and imperial brow, the keen aquiline features, the compressed mouth, the penetrating eye, indicated the highest degree of ability and decision. He seemed absorbed in intense meditation. With eyes fixed on the ground, and lips working in thought, he sauntered round the arena, apparently unconscious how many of the young gallants of Rome were envying the taste of his dress, and the ease of his fashionable stagger.

"Good Heaven!" said Ligarius, "Caius Cæsar is as unlikely to be in a plot as I am."

"Not at all."

"He does nothing but game, feast, intrigue, read Greek, and write verses." "You know nothing of Cæsar. Though he rarely addresses the Senate, he is considered as the finest speaker there, after the Consul. His influence Caius Cæsar. with the multitude is immense. He will serve his rivals in public life as he served me last night at Catiline's. We were playing at the twelve lines. *— Immense stakes. He laughed all the time, chatted with Valeria over his shoulder, kissed her hand between every two moves, and scarcely looked at the board. thought that I had him. All

• Duodecim scripta, a game of mixed chance and skill, which seems to have been very fashionable in the higher circles of Rome. The famous lawyer Mucius was renowned for his skill in it.-(Cic. Orat. 1, 50.)

at once I found my counters driven into the corner. Not a piece to move, by Hercules. It cost me two millions of sesterces. All the gods and goddesses confound him for it!"

"I for

"As to Valeria," said Ligarius, got to ask whether you have heard the news."

"Not a word. What?"

"I was told at the baths to-day that Cæsar escorted the lady home. Unfor tunately old Quintus Lutatius had come back from his villa in A scandal. Campania, in a whim of jealousy. He was not expected for three days. There was a fine tumult. The old fool called for his sword and his slaves, cursed his wife, and swore that he would cut Cæsar's throat.” "And Cæsar?"

"He laughed, quoted Anacreon, trussed his gown round his left arm, closed with Quintus, flung him down, twisted his sword out of Quintus disarmed. his hand, burst through the attendants, ran a freed-man through the shoulder, and was in the street in an instant."

"Well done! Here he comes. Goodday, Caius."

Cæsar lifted his head at the salutation. His air of deep abstraction vanished; and he extended a hand to each of the friends. "How are you after your last night's exploit ?"

"As well as possible," said Cæsar, laughing.

"In truth we should rather ask how Quintus Lutatius is."

The successful

"He, I understand, is as well as can be expected of a man with a faithless spouse and a broken head. His freed-man is most seriously rival. hurt. Poor fellow! he shall have half of whatever I win tonight. Flaminius, you shall have your revenge at Catiline's."

"You are very kind. I do not intend to be at Catiline's till I wish to part with my town-house. My villa is gone already."

"Not at Catiline's, base spirit! You are not of his mind, my gallant Ligarius. Dice, Chian, and the loveliest Greek singing girl that was ever seen. Think of that, Ligarius. By Venus, she almost made me adore her, by telling me that I talked Greek with the most Attic accent that she had heard in Italy." "I doubt she will not say the same of

The Greek language.

me," replied Ligarius. "I am just as able to decipher an obelisk as to read a line of Homer."

"You barbarous Scythian, who had the care of your education?"

"An old fool,-a Greek pedant,--a Stoic. He told me that pain was no evil, and flogged me as if he thought so. At last one day, in the middle of a lecture, I set fire to his enormous filthy beard, singed his face, and sent him roaring out of the house. There ended my studies. From that time to this I have had as little to do with Greece as the wine that your poor old fool friend Lutatius calls his delicious Samian."

"Well done, Ligarius. I hate a Stoic. I wish Marcus Cato had a beard, that you might singe it for him. The fool talked his two hours in Cato in Senate. the Senate yesterday, without changing a muscle of his face. He looked as savage and as motionless as the mask in which Roscius acted Alecto. I detest everything connected with him."

"And that she was not angry." "What woman is?"

"Aye-but they say

"No matter what they say. Common fame lies like a Greek rhetorician. You might know so much, Ligarius, without reading the philosophers. But come, I will introduce you to little dark-eyed Zoe,"

"I tell you I can speak no Greek."

"More shame for you. It is high time that you should begin. You will never have such a charming instructress. Of what was your father thinking when he sent for an old Stoic with a long beard to teach you? There is no languagemistress like a handsome woman. When

An invitation.

I was at Athens, I learnt more Greek from a pretty flower-girl in the Peiræus than from the Portico and the Academy. She was no Stoic, Heaven knows. But come along to Zoe. I will be your interpreter. Woo her in honest Latin, and I will turn it into elegant Greek between the throws of dice. I can make love and mind my game at once, as Flaminius can tell you." "Well, then, to be plain, Cæsar, Flaminius has been talking to me about plots, and suspicions, and politicians. I never

do not wish to risk my neck for them. Now, tell me as a friend, Caius-is there no danger?

"Danger!" repeated Cæsar, with a short, fierce, disdainful laugh; "what danger do you apprehend?"

"That you should best know," said Flaminius; "you are far more intimate with Catiline than I. But I advise you to be cautious. The leading men entertain strong suspicions."

Cæsar drew up his figure from its ordinary state of graceful relaxation into an attitude of commanding dignity, and replied in a voice of which the deep and impassioned melody formed a strange contrast to the humorous and affected tone of his ordinary conversation. "Let them suspect. They suspect because they know what they have deserved. What have they done for Rome ?-what

Dangerous language.

for mankind? Ask the citizens-ask the provinces. Have they had any other object than to perpetuate their own exclusive power, and to keep us under the yoke of an oligarchical tyranny, which unites in itself the worst evils of every other system, and combines more than Athenian turbulence with more than Persian despotism?"

"Good gods! Cæsar. It is not safe for you to speak, or for us to listen to, such things, at such a crisis."

"Judge for yourselves what you will hear. I will judge for myself what I will speak. I was not twenty years old when I defied Lucius Sylla, surrounded by the spears of legionaries, and the daggers of assassins. Do you suppose that I stand in awe of his paltry successors, who have inherited a power which they never could have acquired; who would imitate his proscriptions, though they have never equalled his conquests?"

"Pompey is almost as little to be trifled with as Sylla. I heard a consular sena. tor say that, in consequence of the present Sylla.

alarming state of affairs,

Pompey and

he would probably be recalled from the command assigned to him by the Manilian law."

"Let him come,-the pupil of Sylla's butcheries, the gleaner of Lucullus's trophies, the thief-taker of the Senate." "For heaven's sake, Caius !-if you knew what the Counsel said

"Something about himself, no doubt. Pity that such talents should be coupled with such cowardice and coxcombry. He is the finest speaker living,-infinitely superior to what Hortensius was, in his best days; a charming companion, except when he tells over for the twentieth time all the jokes that he made at Veires's trial. But he is the despicable tool of a despicable party."

"Your language, Caius, convinces me that the reports which have been circulated are not without foundation. I will venture to prophesy that within a few months the republic will pass through a whole Odyssey of strange adventures."

"I believe so; an Odyssey, of which Pompey will be the Polyphemus, and Cicero the Syren. I would have the state imitate Ulysses,-show no mercy to the former; but contrive, if it can be done, to listen to the enchanting voice of the other, without being seduced by it to destruction."

"But whom can your party produce as rivals to these two famous leaders?"

"Time will show. I would hope that there may arise a man whose genius to conquer, to conciliate, and to govern may unite in one cause an oppressed and divided people; may do all that Sylla should have done, and exhibit the magnificent spectacle of a great nation directed by a great mind."

"And where is such a man to be found?"

"Perhaps where you would least expect to find him. Perhaps he may be one whose powers have hitherto been concealed in domestic or literary retirement. Perhaps he may be one, who, while waiting for some adequate excitement, for some worthy opportunity, squanders or trifles a genius before which may yet be humbled the sword of Pompey and the gown of Cicero. Perhaps he may now be disputing with a sophist; perhaps prattling with a mistress; perhaps and, as he spoke, he turned away, and resumed his lounge, "strolling in the Forum."

It was almost midnight. The party had separated. Catiline and Cethegus were still conferring in the supper-room,

Zoe.

which was, as usual, the highest apart. ment of the house. It formed a cupola, from which windows opened on the flat roof that surrounded it. To this terrace Zoe had retired. With eyes dimmed with fond and melancholy tears, she leaned over the balustrade, to catch the last glimpse of the departing form of Cæsar, as it grew more and more indistinct in the moonlight. Had he any thought of her? Any love for her? He, the favourite of the high-born beauties of Rome, the most splendid, the most graceful, the most eloquent of its nobles? It could not be. His voice had, indeed, been touchingly soft whenever he addressed her. There had been a fascinating tenderness even in the veracity of his look and conversation. But such were always the manners of Cæsar towards women. He had wreathed a sprig and women.

of myrtle in her hair as

Caius Cæsar

she was singing. She took it from her dark ringlets, and kissed it, and wept over it, and thought of the sweet legends of her own dear Greece,-of youths and girls, who, pining away in hopeless love, had been transformed into flowers by the compassion of the gods; and she wished to become a flower, which Cæsar might sometimes touch, though he should touch it only to weave a crown for some prouder and happier mistress.

She was roused from her musings by the loud step and voice of Cethegus, who was pacing furiously up and down the supper-room.

"May all the gods confound me, if Cæsar be not the deepest traitor, or the most miserable idiot, that ever intermeddled with a plot!"

Zoe shuddered. She drew nearer to the window. She stood concealed from observation by the curtain of fine network, which hung over the aperture, to exclude the annoying insects of the climate.

"And you too!" continued Cethegus, turning fiercely on his accomplice ; " you to take his part against me!-you, who proposed the scheme yourself!"

"My dear Caius Cethegus, you will not understand me. I proposed the scheme; and I will join in executing it. But policy is as necessary to our plan as boldness. I did not wish to startle Cæsar -to lose his co-operation-perhaps to send him off with an information against us to Cicero and Catullus. He was so indignant at your suggestion that all

Humanity and moderation.

my dissimulation was scarcely sufficient to prevent a total rupture." "Indignant! The gods confound him! -he prated about humanity, and generosity, and moderation. By Hercules, I have not heard such a lecture since I was with Xenochares at Rhodes." "Cæsar is made up of inconsistencies. He has boundless ambition, unquestioned courage, admirable sagacity. Yet I have frequently observed in him a womanish weakness at the sight of pain. I remember that once one of his slaves was taken ill while carrying his litter. He alighted, put the fellow in his place and walked home in a fall of snow. I wonder that you could be so ill-advised as to talk to him of massa cre, and pillage, and confla gration. You might have foreseen that such propositions would disgust a man of his temper."

"I do not know. I have not your self-command, Lucius. I hate such conspirators. What is the use of them? We must have blood-blood-hacking and tearing work-bloody work!"

"Do not grind your teeth, my dear Cains; and lay down the carving-knife. By Hercules, you have cut up all the stuffing of the couch."

"No matter; we shall have couches enough soon,--and down to stuff them with, and purple to cover them,-and pretty women to loll on them,-unless this fool, and such as he, spoil our plans. I had something else to say. The essenced fop wishes to seduce Zoe from

me."

"Impossible! You cannot misconstrue the ordinary gallantries which he is in the habit of paying to every handsome face."

Gallantries

and

"Curse on his ordinary gallantries, and his verses, and his compliments, and his sprigs of compliments. myrtle! If Cæsar should dare-by Hercules, I will tear him to pieces in the middle of the Forum."

"Trust his destruction to me. We must use his talents and influence-thrust him upon every danger-make him our instrument while we are contendingour peace-offering to the Senate if we fail-our first victim if we succeed." "Hark! what noise was that?" "Somebody in the terrace!-lend me your dagger."

Catiline rushed to the window. Zoe was standing in the shade. He stepped

out. She darted into the room-passed like a flash of lightning by the startled Cathegus-flew down the Zoe's flight. stairs-through the court -through the vestibule-through the street. Steps, voices, lights, came fast and confusedly behind her; but with the speed of love and terror she gained upon her pursuers. She fled through the wilderness of unknown and dusky streets, till she found herself, breathless and exhausted, in the midst of a crowd of gallants, who, with chaplets on their heads and torches in their hands, were reeling from the portico of a stately mansion.

The foremost of the throng was a youth whose slender figure and beautiful countenance seemed hardly consistent with his sex. But the feminine delicacy of his features rendered more frightful the mingled sensuality and ferocity of their expression. The libertine audacity of his stare, and the grotesque foppery of his apparel, seemed to indicate at least a partial insanity. Flinging one arm round Zoe, and tearing away her veil with the other, he disclosed to the gaze of his thronging companions the regular features and large dark eyes which characterize Athenian beauty.

"Clodius has all the luck to-night," cried Ligarius.

"Not so, by Hercules," said Marcus Cœlius; "the girl is fairly our common prize we will fling dice for her. The Venus throw, as it ought to do, shall decide."

"Let me go-let me go, for Heaven's sake," cried Zoe, struggling with Clodius. "What a charming Greek accent she has! Come into the house, my little Athenian nightingale."

Insulted.

"Oh! what will become of me? If you have mothers-if you have sisters" has "Clodius a sister," muttered Ligarius," or he is much belied." "By Heaven, she is weeping," said Clodius.

"If she were not evidently a Greek," said Cœlius, "I should take her for a vestal virgin."

"And if she were a vestal virgin," cried Clodius, fiercely, "it should not deter me. This way;-no struggling-no screaming."

'Struggling! screaming!" exclaimed

*Venus was the Roman term for the highest throw on the dice.