The miserable creature struggled desperately in his bonds, but in vain; and strove so terribly to speak, in despite his gag, that his face turned almost black, from the blood which rushed to every pore; but no sound could he utter, as he was dragged away, save a deep-mouthed groan, which was drowned by the laughter of the remorseless wretches, who gazed on his anguish with fiendish merriment; among which, hideous to relate, the thrilling sounds of Aurelia’s silvery and contagious mirth were distinctly audible. "He will take care to see more truly in Hades!" said Catiline, with his sardonic smile, as he was dragged out of the room, by his appalled and trembling fellows. "But now to business. Tell me, did you display any weapon? or do aught, that can be proved, to show your intent on the Consul?" "Nothing, my Catiline," replied Cethegus, firmly. "Nothing, indeed, Cethegus? By all our hopes! deceive me not!" "By your head! nothing, Catiline." "Then I care nothing for the failure!" answered the other. "Keep good hearts, and wear smiling faces! I will kill him myself to-morrow, if, like the scorpion, I must die in the deed." "Try it not, Catiline. You will but fail—and"—— "Fail! who ever knew me fail, in vengeance?" "No one!" said Orestilla—"and no one can hinder you of it. No! not the Gods!" "There are no Gods!" exclaimed the Traitor, "and if there be, it were all one—I defy them!" "Cicero says there is ONE, they tell me," said Cethegus, half mocking, half in earnest—"and he is very wise." "Very!" replied the other, with his accustomed sneer—"Therefore that ONE may save him—if he can!" "The thing is settled," cried Aurelia Orestilla, "I told him yesterday he ought to do it, himself—I should not be content, unless Catiline’s hand dealt him the death blow, Catiline’s eye gloated upon him in the death-struggle, Catiline’s tongue jeered him in the death-pang!" "You love him dearly, Orestilla," said Cethegus. "And clearly he has earned it," she replied. "By Venus! I would give half my hopes, to see him kiss you." "And I, if my lips had the hydra’s venom. But come," she added, with a wreathed smile and a beaming eye, "Let us go see the fishes eat yon varlet; else shall we be too late for the sport." "Rare sport!" said Cethegus, "I have not seen a man eaten, by a tiger even, these six months past; and by a fish, I think, never!" "The fish do it better," replied Catiline—"Better, and cleaner—they leave the prettiest skeleton you can imagine—they are longer about it, you will say—True; but I do not grudge the time." "No! no! the longer, the merrier!" said Aurelia, laughing melodiously—"The last fellow I saw given to the tigers, had his head crushed like a nut-shell, by a single blow. He had not time to shriek even once. There was no fun in that, you know."