"By the Gods, you brave me, then!" exclaimed Catiline; "fool! fool! beware how you tamper with your fate. Speak instantly, speak out: to whom have you dared give it?" "There was no daring in the matter, Catiline," he answered steadily, keeping an eye on the arch-traitor’s movements; "before I knew that it was yours, I sent it, as I had promised, to Cicero, with word that Volero could tell him who was the owner of it." "Ha, didst thou so?" said the other, mastering instantly his fury, in his desire to make himself fully acquainted with all that had passed. "When was all this? has he seen Volero, and learned the secret of him, then?" "I sent it, Catiline, within an hour of the time I left the Campus yesterday." "Before coming to my house to dinner?" "Before going to thy house to dinner, Sergius." "Before seducing Lucia Orestilla?" again sneered the desperate villain. "Before yielding," answered the young man, who was now growing angry, for his temper was not of the meekest, "to her irresistible seduction." "Ha! yielding—well! we will speak of that hereafter. Hath the consul seen Volero?" "He hath seen him dead; and how dead, Catiline best knoweth." "It was, then, thou, whom I saw in the feeble lamplight with the accursed wretch that crosses my path everywhere, the dastard, drivelling dotard of Arpinum; thou that despite thine oath, didst lead him to detect the man, thou hadst sworn to obey, and follow! Thou! it is thou, then, that houndest mine enemies upon my track! By the great Gods, I know not whether most to marvel at the sublime, unrivalled folly, which could lead thee to fancy, that thou, a mere boy and tyro, couldst hoodwink eyes like mine; or at the daring which could prompt thee to rush headlong on thine own ruin in betraying me! Boy, thou hast but one course left; to join us heart and hand; to go and renew thine oath in such fashion as even thou, premeditated perjurer, wilt not presume to break, and then to seal thy faith by the blood"— "Of whom?" "Of this new man; this pendant consul of Arpinum." "Aye!" exclaimed Paullus, as if half tempted to accede to his proposal; "and if I do so, what shall I gain thereby?" "Lucia, I might say," answered Catiline, "but—seeing that possession damps something at all times the fierceness of pursuit—what if I should reply, the second place in Rome?" "In Rome?" "When we have beaten down the proud patricians to our feet, and raised the conquering ensign of democratic sway upon the ramparts of the capitol; when Rome and all that she contains of bright and beautiful, shall be our heritage and spoil; the second place, I say, in regenerated Rome, linked, too, to everlasting glory." "And the first place?" "By Mars the great avenger! dost soar so high a pitch already? ho! boy, the first is mine, by right, as by daring. How say you? are you mine?" "If I say no!" "Thou diest on the instant." "I think not," replied Arvina quietly, "and I do answer No." "Then perish, fool, in thy folly."