At length the expedition sailed for Carthage, taking Bessus with them,--but all search for the cavern, when they arrived, was unavailing. It proved that all the evidence which Bessus had of the existence of the cave, and of the heaps of gold contained in it, was derived from certain remarkable dreams which he had had,--and though Nero's commissioners dug into the ground most faithfully in every place on the estate which the dreams had indicated, no treasure, and not even the cavern, could ever be found. CHAPTER XIII. NERO'S END. A.D. 66. Galba.--His history.--His province.--Revolt of Vindex.--Embassadors sent to Galba.--Debates in the council.--Galba joins Vindex.--News of the rebellion meets Nero at Naples.--The proclamation of Vindex.--Nero's ire.--Nero plans new performances.--The new instruments.--Galba joins the insurrection.--Nero appalled.--His plans for vengeance.--He is restrained.--He attempts to raise an army.--Slaves.--Nero's hopeless condition.--His plans for escape.--The arrival of the cargoes of sand from Egypt.--His distraction and terror.--Nero proposes to fly to Egypt.--He sinks into hopeless despair.--The night.--He is deserted by his guards.--He calls for a gladiator.--Phaon proposes a place of retreat.--Nero's flight from the city.--Incidents.--He refuses to be buried before he is dead.--He gets through the wall.--He is concealed.--Phaon counsels Nero to kill himself.--Nero is condemned by the Senate.--The daggers.--Armed men come to arrest Nero at Phaon's home.--The soldiers attempt to save Nero.--He dies.--Galba's march to Rome.--Seventy-three. The successor of Nero in the line of Roman emperors, was Galba. Galba, though a son of one of the most illustrious Roman families, was born in Spain, and he was about forty years older than Nero, being now over seventy, while Nero was yet but thirty years of age. During the whole course of his life, Galba had been a very distinguished commander, and had risen from one post of influence and honor to another, until he became one of the most considerable personages in the state. Nero at length appointed him to the command of a very large and important province in Spain. At this station Galba remained some years, and he was here, attending regularly to the duties of his government, at the time when Nero returned from his expedition into Greece. Galba himself, and all the other governors around him, felt the same indignation at Nero's cruelties and crimes, and the same contempt for his low and degrading vanity and folly, that prevailed so generally at Rome. In fact, feelings of exasperation and hatred against the tyrant, began to extend universally throughout the empire. The people in every quarter, in fact, seemed ripe for insurrection.