"No! traitor! Ha!" cried Catiline, "is it an honest deed to creep into the bosom of a daughter of the house which entertained thee as a friend!—No! Traitor—ha! ha! ha! thou shalt ere long learn better—ha! ha! ha!" And he laughed with the fearful sneering mirth, which was never excited in his breast, but by things perilous and terrible and hateful. In a moment, however, he repressed his merriment, and added— "Give me that poniard thou didst wear this morning. It is mine." "Thine!" cried the unhappy youth, starting back, as if he had received a blow; "thine, Catiline!" "Aye!" he replied, in a hoarse voice, looking into the very eyes of Paul. "I am the slayer of the slave, and regret only that I slew him without torture. Know you whose slave he was, by any chance?" "He was the Consul’s slave," answered Arvina, almost mechanically—for he was utterly bewildered by all that had passed—"Medon, my freedman Thrasea’s cousin." "The Consul’s, ha!—which Consul’s? speak! fool! speak, ere I tear it from your throat; Cicero’s, ha?" "Cicero’s, Catiline!" "Here is a coil; and knows he of this matter? I mean Cicero." "He knows it." "That is to say, you told him. Aye! this morning, after I spoke with you. I comprehend; and you shewed him the poniard. So! so! so! Well, give it to me; I will tell you what to do, hereafter." "I have it not with me, Sergius," he replied, thoroughly daunted and dismayed. "See that you meet me then, bringing it with you, at Egeria’s cave, as fools call it, in the valley of Muses, at the fourth hour of night to-morrow. In the meantime, beware that you tell no man aught of this, nor that the instrument was bought of Volero. Ha! dost thou hear me?" "I hear, Catiline." "And wilt obey?" "And will obey." "So shall it go well with thee, and we shall be fast friends forever. Good repose to thee, good my Paullus." "And Lucia?" he replied, but in a voice of inquiry; for all that he had heard of the tremendous passions and vindictive fury of the conspirator, flashed on his mind, and he fancied that he knew not what of vengeance would fall on the head of the soft beauty. "Hath played her part rarely!" answered the monster, as he dismissed him from the door, which he opened with his own hand. "Be true, and you shall see her when you will; betray us, and both you and she shall live in agonies, that shall make you call upon death fifty times, ere he relieve you." And with a menacing gesture, he closed and barred the door behind him.