rom the thought that he too
was entitled to that boastful name, higher than any monarch's style, of
Roman citizen.

"Fairest and noblest city of the universe," cried the enthusiastic boy,
spreading his arms abroad over the glorious view, which, kindling all the
powers of his imaginative mind, had awakened something of awe and
veneration, "long may the everliving gods watch over thee; long may they
guard thy liberties intact, thy hosts unconquered! long may thy name
throughout the world be synonymous with all that is great, and good, and
glorious! Long may the Roman fortune and the Roman virtue tread, side by
side, upon the neck of tyrants; and the whole universe stand mute and
daunted before the presence of the sovereign people."

"The sovereign slaves!" said a deep voice, with a strangely sneering
accent, in his ear; and as he started in amazement, for he had not
imagined that any one was near him, Cataline stood at his elbow.

Under the mingled influence of surprise, and bashfulness at being
overheard, and something not very far removed from alarm at the unexpected
presence of one so famed for evil deeds as the man beside him, Arvina
recoiled a pace or two, and thrust his hand into the bosom of his toga,
disarranging its folds for a moment, and suffering the eye of the
conspirator to dwell on the hilt of a weapon, which he recognized
instantly as the stiletto he had lost in the struggle with the miserable
slave on the Esquiline.

No gleam in the eye of the wily plotter betrayed his intelligence; no show
of emotion was discoverable in his dark paleness; but a grim smile played
over his lips for a moment, as he noted, not altogether without a sort of
secret satisfaction, the dismay caused by his unexpected presence.

"How now," he said jeeringly, before the smile had yet vanished from his
ill-omened face--"what aileth the bold Paullus, that he should start, like
an unruly colt scared by a shadow, from the approach of a friend?"

"A friend," answered the young man in a half doubtful tone, but instantly
recovering himself, "Ha! Cataline, I was surprised, and scarce saw who it
was. Thou art abroad betimes this morning. Whither so early? but what
saidst thou about slaves?"

"I thought thou didst not know me," replied the other, "and for the rest,
I am abroad no earlier than thou, and am perhaps bound to the same place
with thee!"

"By Hercules! I fancy not," said Paullus.

"Wherefore, I pray thee, not? Who knoweth