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iline resolved to hazard all on a desperate engagement. In exhorting his troops, he dwelt on the fact that men fighting for life and liberty were more than a match for a foe who had infinitely less at stake. Thus brought to bay, Catiline's soldiers met the attack of the government troops with furious valour, their leader setting a brilliant example of desperate daring, and the most vigilant and vigorous generalship. But Petreius, on the other side, directed his force against the rebel centre, shattered it, and took the wings in flank. Catiline's followers stood and fought till they fell, with their wounds in front; he himself hewed his way through the foe, and was found still breathing at a distance from his own ranks. No quarter was given or taken; and among the rebels there were no survivors. In the triumphant army, all the stoutest soldiers were slain or wounded; mourning and grief mingled with the elation of victory. * * * * * EDWARD GIBBON Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--I Edward Gibbon, son of a Hampshire gentleman, was born at Putney, near London, April 27, 1737. After a preliminary education at Westminster, and fourteen "unprofitable" months at Magdalen College, Oxford, a whim to join the Roman church led to his banishment to Lausanne, where he spent five years, and acquired a mastery of the French language, formed his taste for literary expression, and settled his religious doubts in a profound scepticism. He served some years in the militia, and was a member of parliament. It was in 1764, while musing amidst, the ruins of the Capitol of Rome, that the idea of writing "The Decline and Fall" of the city first started into his mind. The vast work was completed in 1787. "A Study in Literature," written in French, and his "Miscellaneous Works," published after his death, which include "The Memoirs of his Life and Writings," complete the list of his literary labours. He died of dropsy on January 16, 1794. The portion of the work which is epitomized here covers the period from the reign of Commodus to the era of Charlemagne, and includes the famous portion of the work dealing with the growth of the Christian church. _I.--Rome, Mistress of the World_ In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the eart
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