Agrippina, being desirous of getting rid of Claudius, but not daring to despatch him suddenly, and yet wishing not to leave him time sufficient to make new regulations concerning the succession to the throne, made choice of a poison which should deprive him of his reason and gradually consume him. This she caused to be prepared by an expert poisoner, named Locusta, who had been condemned to death for her infamous actions, but saved that she might be employed as a state engine. The poison was given to the emperor in a dish of mushrooms, but as, on account of his irregular manner of living, it did not produce the desired effect, it was assisted by some of a stronger nature. We are also further told that this Locusta prepared the drug wherewith Nero despatched Britannicus, the son of Messalina, whom his father, Claudius, wished to succeed him on the throne. As this poison occasioned only a dysentery, and was too slow in its operation, the emperor compelled Locusta, by blows, and by threatening her with death, to prepare in his presence one more powerful. It was first tried on a kid, but as the animal did not die till the end of five hours, she boiled it a little longer, until it instantaneously killed a pig to which it had been given, and this poison despatched Britannicus as soon as he had tasted it. For this service the emperor pardoned Locusta, rewarded her liberally, and gave her pupils, whom she was to instruct in her art, in order that it might not be lost. The pupils of Locusta have not left us, however, the secret which their mistress confided to them. The demand made of the apothecary in “Romeo and Juliet” would have suited Nero’s case, in the latter instance. “Let me have A dram of poison; such soon speeding geer As will disperse itself through all the veins, That the life-weary taker may fall dead; And that the trunk may be discharged of breath As violently, as hasty powder fired Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s mouth.”