her join the army and get
themselves killed, or else disappear, whither they would, among the
provinces. The object of this second Catiline oration, spoken to the
people, was to convince the remaining conspirators that they had better
go, and to teach the citizens generally that in giving such counsel he
was "banishing" no one. As far as the citizens were concerned he was
successful; but he did not induce the friends of Catiline to follow
their chief. This took place on the 9th of November. After the oration
the Senate met again, and declared Catiline and Mallius to be public
enemies.

Twenty-four days elapsed before the third speech was spoken--twenty-four
days during which Rome must have been in a state of very great fever.
Cicero was actively engaged in unravelling the plots the details of
which were still being carried on within the city; but nevertheless he
made that speech for Murena before the judicial bench of which I gave an
account in the last chapter, and also probably another for Piso, of
which we have nothing left. We cannot but marvel that he should have
been able at such a time to devote his mind to such subjects, and
carefully to study all the details of legal cases. It was only on
October 21st that Murena had been elected Consul; and yet on the 20th of
November Cicero defended him with great skill on a charge of bribery.
There is an ease, a playfulness, a softness, a drollery about this
speech which appears to be almost incompatible with the stern, absorbing
realities and great personal dangers in the midst of which he was
placed; but the agility of his mind was such that there appears to have
been no difficulty to him in these rapid changes.

On the same day, the 20th of November, when Cicero was defending Murena,
the plot was being carried on at the house of a certain Roman lady named
Sempronia. It was she of whom Sallust said that she danced better than
became an honest woman. If we can believe Sallust, she was steeped in
luxury and vice. At her house a most vile project was hatched for
introducing into Rome Rome's bitterest foreign foes. There were in the
city at this time certain delegates from a people called the Allobroges,
who inhabited the lower part of Savoy. The Allobroges were of Gaulish
race. They were warlike, angry, and at the present moment peculiarly
discontented with Rome. There had been certain injuries, either real or
presumed, respecting which these delegates had been sent to the c