ius to
proceed to extremities against him, on account of his intimate
relationship to the family, she contrived a very artful plot to
accomplish her ends. It was this:

She sent word to Silanus, on a certain evening, that the emperor
wished him to come to the palace, to his private apartment, the next
morning, at a very early hour. The emperor wished to see him, the
messenger said, on business of importance.

Just before the time which had been appointed for Silanus to appear,
a certain officer of the household, named Narcissus, whom Messalina
had engaged to assist her in her plot, came into the emperor's
apartment, with an anxious countenance, and in a very hurried
manner, and said to Claudius, whom he waked out of sleep by his
coming, that he had had a very frightful dream--one which he deemed
it his duty to make known to his master without any delay. He
dreamed, he said, that a plot had been formed for assassinating the
emperor; that Silanus was the contriver of it, and that he was
coming early that morning to carry his design into effect.
Messalina, who was present with her husband at the time, listened to
this story with well-feigned anxiety and agitation, and then
declared, with a countenance of great mysteriousness and solemnity,
that she had had precisely the same dream for two or three nights in
succession, but that, not being willing to do Silanus an injury, or
to raise any unjust suspicions against him, she had thus far
forborne to speak of the subject to her husband. She was, however,
now convinced, she said, that Silanus was really entertaining some
treasonable designs, and that the dreams were tokens sent from
heaven to warn the emperor of his danger.

Claudius, who was of an extremely timid and nervous temperament, was
very much alarmed by these communications; and his terrors were
greatly increased by the appearance of a servant who announced to
him at that moment that Silanus was then coming in. The coming of
Silanus to the palace at that unseasonable hour was considered by
the emperor as full confirmation of the dreams which had been
related to him, and as proof of the guilt of the accused; and under
the impulse of the sudden passion and fear which this conviction
awakened in his mind, he ordered Silanus to be seized and led away
to immediate execution. These commands were obeyed. Silanus was
hurried away and dispatched by the swords of the soldiers, without
ever knowing what the accusation was th