consult. She accordingly went to
her, and asked her if she did not know of any poison which would
immediately take effect upon the brain and mind, so as to
incapacitate the patient at once from all mental action, while yet
it should be gradual and slow in its operations on the vital
functions of the body. Locusta answered in the affirmative. Such
characters were always prepared to furnish any species of
medicaments that their customers might call for. She compounded a
potion which she said possessed the properties which Agrippina
required, and Agrippina, receiving it from her hands, went away.

Agrippina then went to Halotus, the servant who waited upon the
emperor and gave him his food,--and contrived some means to induce
him to administer the dose. Halotus was the emperor's "taster," as
it was termed:--that is, it was his duty to taste first, himself,
every article of food or drink which he offered to his master, for
the express purpose of making it sure that nothing was poisoned. It
is obvious, however, that many ways might be devised for evading
such a precaution as this, and Halotus and Agrippina arranged it,
that the poison, in this case, should be put upon a dish of
mushrooms, and served to the emperor at his supper. The taster was
to avoid, by means of some dextrous management, the taking of any
portion of the fatal ingredients himself. The plan thus arranged was
put into execution. The emperor ate the mushrooms, and Agrippina
tremblingly awaited the result.

She was, however, disappointed in the effect that was produced.
Whether the mixture that Locusta had prepared was not sufficiently
powerful, or whether Halotus in his extreme anxiety not to get any
of the poisonous ingredients himself failed to administer them
effectually to his intended victim, the emperor seemed to continue
afterward much as he had been before,--still sick, but without any
new or more dangerous symptoms. Of course, Agrippina was in a state
of great solicitude and apprehension. Having incurred the terrible
guilt and danger necessarily involved in an attempt to poison her
husband, she could not draw back. The work that was begun must be
carried through now, she thought, at all hazards, to its
termination; and she immediately set herself at work to devise some
means of reaching her victim with poison, which would avoid the
taster altogether, and thus not be liable to any interference on his
part, dictated either by his fidelity to his ma