fhalt live, as thou liveft now, befet by my numerous, my trufty Guards, fo that thou fhalt not have the Power fo much as to wag against the State; for many fhall be the Eyes, and many the Ears, who, unperceived by thee, as they have hitherto been, fhall watch thy Motions, and obferve thy Actions.

BUT, Catiline, what haft thou now to truft to? If neither the Gloom of Night can conceal your lawless Affemblies, nor the Walls of a private Dwelling prevent thy Treason from lifting up its Voice; if every Word is heard, if every Circumstance bursts into Difcovery. Put off, put off, that hardened Senfe; for once wipe from thy Mind the Thoughts of Fire and Murder. You are on all Hands befet; your Practices are clear as the Sun at Noon, as you fhall own from the Detail I am now to make. You may remember, that on the twenty-firft of October laft, I foretold in the Senate, that on a certain Day, before the twenty-fifth, Caius Manlius, the Confederate and Creature of your Guilt, would appear in Arms. Was I deceived, Catiline, in my Conjectures upon this enormous, this deteftable,

t

this

Cicero had certain Intelligence of all Catiline's private De liberations, by Curius, one of the Confpirators, whom Fulvia, a noted Courtezan, had perfuaded to betray their Secrets.

this unparallelled Attempt? But what is more remarkable, did I not point out the precise Day? I likewife foretold in the Senate, that

you

had fixed the Maffacre of our Nobles for the twenty-eighth; a Time when many of our greatest Men left Rome, not prevailed on by a selfish Sense of their own Safety, but the Patriot Refolution to live that they might crush your Treasons. Can you deny that on that very Day you was fo befet by my Vigilance, by my Guards, that to attempt ought against the State, was out of your Power though you boafted that the Blood of us who remained in Rome would be fufficient Atonement for the Escape of the others. But how! when favoured by Darkness, "you attempted to furprize Preneste upon the 1ft of November, didst thou not perceive that Colony to be fortified by my Orders, by my Officers, my Guards, and my Garrifon? The Words of your Mouth, the Actions of pour Hands, and the Meditations of your Heart, are familiar to my Ears, prefent to my Eye, and plain to my Understanding,

RECOLLECT

" None of the Hiftorians, who have left us the Account of Catiline's Confpiracy, make any Mention of this Attempt; fo that we know nothing of the Circumftances of it, more than Cicero here informs us.

5

W

RECOLLECT now the Tranfactions of laft Night, while I recount them, and force you to acknowledge, that I am more vigilant in Cares to preferve, than my you in your Plots to deftroy, this Republic. I affirm, that laft Night, you met your Confederate Affafines, (let me speak it aloud and plain) at the House of Marcus Lecca, " in the Street of the Armorers: I affirm that then, and there, Numbers of your Affociates, in Madness and Guilt, were affembled. You don't dare to deny this! You own it by your Silence. Did you not, I could prove it. For I have now in my Eye, fome in this very Affembly, who were present at your Confultation *.

IMMORTAL 'Gods! In what Air do we breathe; in what a City do we live; of what a State are we Members! Here, here, Fathers Confcript, within thefe Walls, and in this Affembly, this Affembly, the most awful, the

moft

w Orig. Inter falcarios: We are told by the Author of the Declamation against Cicero, that this Houfc of Loca, as his Name is fpelt on Medals, stood in a very retired Place of Rome, and very proper for being a Magazine of Arms. Inter falcarios, therefore, may fignify the Street of the Armorers, more properly than the Reapers, from Falx a Scymiter, hence the Word Faulchion.

X

Salluft reckons up ten Senators befides Catiline, who were concerned in this Confpiracy; of which Number is Marcus Portius Lecca.

most venerable the Sun beholds, are Men who meditate my Death, and your Destruction; who meditate the Ruin of this City, and confequently of this World. Their Persons I can now point out; their Opinions I am now to afk; and instead of shedding their Blood, I fpare their Reputation. That Night, therefore, Catiline, you was at the House of Lecca; you cantoned all Italy out, you appointed the Station to which every one was to repair; you fingled out those whom you in Person was to head; and those who were to stay in Rome ; you pointed out the Parts of the City, which the Flames were first to catch, and declared, that you yourself would go forth, but that you would tarry a little, because I was ftill alive. Two Roman Knights, then, to ease you of this Difquiet, undertook with their own Hands, before they flept, and e're the Day should dawn, to dispatch me upon my humble Couch.

SCARCE was your Affembly diffolved, before I learnt all this. The Guards of my House I doubled; the Retinue of my Perfon I increased; to those whom you fent to compliment me in the Morning I refused Admittance; having before-hand to many great, to many worthy Men, declared by whom, and at what Hour these Compliments were to be paid.

SINCE

SINCE fuch, O Catiline! is the Situation of

your Affairs, finish what you have planned; for once march out of the City; her Gates are

open; they invite you to be gone; too long has

the Camp of Manlius mourned the Abfence of their Leader. Carry along all your Accomplices; at leaft as many as poffible: Let Rome difgorge her Impurities. From mighty Fears will you deliver me should a Wall divide us. No longer fhall you tarry with us. I will not fuffer, I will not endure, I will not allow you.

GREAT are the Thanks we owe to the Eternal Gods! and chief to thee, O JOVE, THE STAYER! thou moft antient Guardian of Rome; that they have enabled us so often to escape this dreadful, this dangerous, this detestable Scourge of his Country; and surely for one Man the fupreme Safety of the Republic fhould not be exposed to repeated Dangers.

BEFORE,

y The Romans being put to Flight in an Engagement with the Sabines, Romulus vowed a Temple to Jupiter, if he would ftop their Flight, and fave the Roman State; which happening, Romulus erected a Temple to Jupiter, with the Appellation of STATOR, or STAYER.