Volume Ii Part 24 (2/2)

Yield yourselves up to idleness and sloth, and in vain you shall implore the G.o.ds-they are irate and hostile.

”In the time of our forefathers, t.i.tus Manlius Torquatus during the Gallic war commanded his own son to be slain, because he had fought against orders; and that ill.u.s.trious youth suffered the penalty of his immoderate valor.-Do ye know this, and delay what ye shall decide against the cruellest parricides? Is it forsooth that the lives of these men are in their character repugnant to this guilt.-Oh! spare the dignity of Lentulus, if he have ever spared his own modesty, his own good report; if he have ever spared any man or any G.o.d! Oh! pardon the youth of Cethegus, if this be not the second time that he has waged war on his country. For wherefore should I speak of Gabinius, Statilius or Caeparius?-who if they ever felt any care for the republic, would never have taken these councils. To conclude, Conscript Fathers, if there were any s.p.a.ce for a mistake, I would leave you right willingly, by Hercules, to be corrected by facts, since you will not be warned by words! But we are hemmed in on all sides. Catiline with his army is at our very throats-others of our foes are within our walls in the bosom of the state. Nothing can be prepared, nor any counsel taken, so privately but they must know it.-Wherefore I shall vote thus, seeing that the republic is plunged into most fearful peril by the guilty plot of atrocious citizens, seeing that these men are convicted on the evidence of t.i.tus Volturcius, and of the amba.s.sadors of the Allobroges, and seeing that they have confessed the intent of murder, conflagration, and other foul and barbarous crimes, against their fellow citizens and native country-I shall vote, I say, that execution, according to the custom of our ancestors, be done upon them having thus confessed, as upon men manifestly convicted of capital treason.”

The stern voice ceased. The bitter irony, which had stung so many souls to the quick, the cutting sarcasm, which had demolished Caesar's sophistry, the clear reasoning, which had so manifestly found the heart of the mystery, were silent. And, folding his narrow toga closely about him, the severe patriot resumed his seat, he alone unexcited and impa.s.sive.

But his words had done their work. The guilty were smitten into silence; even the daring eloquence and high heart of the ambitious Caesar, were subdued and mute.-The friends of their country were encouraged to shake off their apathy.

With one voice, unanimous, the consulars of Rome cried out for the question, applauding loudly the energy and fearlessness of Cato, and accusing one another of timidity and weakness.

A great majority of the Senate, likewise, exclaimed aloud that they required no more words, but were prepared to vote.

And convinced that the time had arrived for striking, Cicero put it to the vote, according to the regular form, requiring those who thought with Marcus Porcius Cato, to pa.s.s over to the right of the curule chair.

The question was not in doubt a moment; for above three-fourths of the whole body arose, as a single man, and pa.s.sed over to the right of the chair, and gathered about the seat of Cato; while very few joined themselves openly to Julius Caesar, who sat, somewhat crest-fallen and scarcely able to conceal his disappointment, immediately on the left of the consul.

Rallying, however, before the vote of the Senate had been taken, the factious n.o.ble sprang to his feet and loudly called upon the tribunes in general, and upon Lucius Bestia, in particular, a private friend of Catiline, and understood by all to be one of the conspirators, to interpose their VETO.

That was too much, however, even for tribunician daring. No answer was made from the benches of the popular magistrates, for once awed into patriotic silence.

But a low sneering laugh ran through the crowded ranks of the Patricians, and the vote was taken, now nearly unanimous; for many men disgusted by that last step, who had believed the measure to be unconst.i.tutional, pa.s.sed across openly from Caesar's side to that of Cato.

A decree of the Senate was framed forthwith, and committed to writing by the persons appointed, in presence of Marcus Porcius Cato and Decius Julius Sila.n.u.s, as authorities or witnesses of the act, empowering the consul to see execution done upon the guilty, where and when it should to him seem fitting.

Thus was it that Cicero and Cato for a while saved the commonwealth, and checked the future Dictator in his first efforts to subvert the liberties of Rome, happy for him and for his country if it had been his last.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE TULLIANUM.

To be, or not be, that is the question.

HAMLET.

Night was at hand.

The Roman Senate might not sit after the sun had set.

Although the Tribunes had failed, in the consternation of the moment, to respond to the call of Caesar, there was no doubt, that, if one night should intervene, those miscalled magistrates would check the course of justice.

Confined, apart one from the other, in free custody, the traitors had not failed to learn all that was pa.s.sing, almost ere it pa.s.sed.

Their hopes had been high, when the rabble were alert and thundering at the prison gates-nor when the charge of the knights had beaten back the mult.i.tude, did they despair; for simultaneously with those evil tidings, they learned the effect of Caesar's speech; and shortly afterward the news reached them that Cicero's reply had found few willing auditors.

Confined, apart one from the other, they had eaten and drunken, and their hearts were ”jocund and sublime”; the eloquence of Caesar, the turbulence of the tribunes, were their predominant ideas. Confined, apart one from the other, one thought was common to them all,-immediate liberation, speedy vengeance.

And, in truth, immediate was the liberation; speedy the vengeance.

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