it was, tasted it as usual, and then passed it into the
prince's hand. Britannicus tasted it, and found it too hot. It had
been purposely made so. He gave it back to the attendant to be
cooled. The attendant took it to the pitcher, and cooled it with the
poisoned water, and then gave it back again to Britannicus without
asking the taster to taste it again. Britannicus drank the broth. In
a few minutes the fatal consequences ensued. The unhappy victim sank
suddenly down in a fainting fit. His eyes became fixed, his limbs
were paralyzed, his breathing was short and convulsive. The
attendants rushed toward him to render him assistance, but his life
was fast ebbing away, and before they could recover from the shock
which his sudden illness occasioned them, they found that he had
ceased to breathe.

The event produced, of course, great excitement and commotion
throughout the palace. Agrippina was immediately summoned, and as
she stood over the dying child she was overwhelmed with terror and
distress. Nero, on the other hand, appeared wholly unmoved. "It is
only one of his epileptic fits," said he. "Britannicus has been
accustomed to them from infancy. He will soon recover."

As soon, however, as there was no longer any room to question that
Britannicus was dead, Nero began immediately to make preparations
for the burial of the body. The remorse which, notwithstanding his
depravity, he could not but feel at having perpetrated such a crime,
made him impatient to remove all traces and memorials of it from his
sight; and, besides, he was afraid to wait the usual period and then
to make arrangements for a public funeral, lest the truth in respect
to the death of Britannicus might be suspected by the Romans, and a
party be formed to revenge his wrongs. Any tendency of this kind
which might exist would be greatly favored, he knew, by the
excitement of a public funeral. He determined, therefore, that the
body should be immediately buried.

There was another reason still for this dispatch. It seems that one
of the effects of the species of poison which Locusta had
administered was that the body of the victim was turned black by it
soon after death. This discoloration, in fact, began to appear in
the face of the corpse of Britannicus before the time for the
interment arrived; and Nero, in order to guard against the exposure
which this phenomenon threatened, ordered the face to be painted of
the natural color, by means of cosmetic