Had

more and more indistinct in the moonlight.
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 vivacity of his
look and conversation. But such were always the manners
of Cæsar towards women. He had wreathed a sprig of
myrtle in her hair as 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 mis-

tress.

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 plans 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 Catulus. He was so indignant at your sugges

tion, that all 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 massacre, and pillage, and conflagration. 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 Caius ; 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 misconstrue the ordinary gallantries which he is in the habit of paying to every handsome face."

"Curse on his ordinary gallantries, and his verses, and his compliments, and his sprigs of 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 contending - our peaceoffering 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 Cethegus-flew down the stairs through the courtthrough 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 characterise Athenian beauty.

"Clodius has all the luck to night,” cried Ligarius. "Not so, by Hercules," said Marcus Coelius; "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.

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

"What a charming Greek accent she has. Come into the house, my little Athenian nightingale.

"Oh! what will become of me? If you have mothers -if you have sisters"

"Clodius has 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 a gay and commanding voice; "You are making very ungentle love, Clodius."

The whole party started. Cæsar had mingled with them unperceived.

The sound of his voice thrilled through the very heart of Zoe. With a convulsive effort she burst from the grasp of her insolent admirer, flung herself at the feet of Cæsar, and clasped his knees. The moon shone full on her agitated and imploring face: her lips moved; but she uttered no sound. He gazed at her for an instant-raised her-clasped her to his bosom. "Fear nothing, my Then, with folded arms, and a smile of placid defiance, he placed himself between her and Clodius. Clodius staggered forward, flushed with wine and rage, and uttering alternately a curse and a hiccup.

sweet Zoe."

66

"By Pollux, this passes a jest. Cæsar, how dare you insult me thus ? "

"A jest! I am as serious as a Jew on the Sabbath. Insult you; For such a pair of eyes I would insult the whole consular bench, or I should be as insensible as King Psammis's mummy."

"Good Gods, Cæsar!" said Marcus Coelius, interposing; "you cannot think it worth while to get into a brawl for a little Greek girl!"

those of Rome.

"Why not? The Greek girls have used me as well as Besides, the whole reputation of my gallantry is at stake. Give up such a lovely woman to My character would be gone for

that drunken boy!

No more perfumed tablets, full of vows and raptures? No more toying with fingers at the Circus. No more evening walks along the Tiber. No more hiding in chests, or jumping from windows. I, the favoured suitor of half the white stoles in Rome, could never again aspire above a freed-woman. You a man of gallantry, and think of such a thing! For shame, my dear Cœlius! Do not let Clodia hear of it."

While Cæsar spoke he had been engaged in keeping Clodius at arm's length. The rage of the frantic libertine increased as the struggle continued. "Stand back, as you value your life," he cried; "I will pass."

"Not this way, sweet Clodius. I have too much regard for you to suffer you to make love at such disadvantage. You smell too much of Falernian at present. Would you stifle your mistress? By Hercules, you are fit to kiss nobody now, except old Piso, when he is tumbling home in the morning from the vintners. "*

Clodius plunged his hand into his bosom, and drew a little dagger, the faithful companion of many desperate adventures.

“Oh, Gods! he will be murdered!" cried Zoe.

The whole throng of revellers was in agitation. The street fluctuated with torches and lifted hands. It was but for a moment. Cæsar watched with a steady eye the descending hand of Clodius, arrested the blow, seized his antagonist by the throat, and flung him against one of the pillars of the portico with such violence that he rolled, stunned and senseless, on the ground.

"He is killed," cried several voices.

"Fair self-defence, by Hercules!" said Marcus Cœlius. "Bear witness, you all saw him draw his dagger."

*Cic. in Pis.