And guide it hitherward by secret paths,
To your destruction and to my salvation.--
The serpent that you trample in the dust
So arrogantly still retains its sting!

[He goes.]

CATILINE. [After a pause.]
This is the trust I built my hopes upon!
Thus one by one they leave me. Oh ye gods!
Treason and cowardice alone stir up
The sullen currents of their slavish souls.
Oh, what a fool am I with all my hopes!
I would destroy yon viper's nest, that Rome,--
Which is long since a heap of sunken ruins.

[The sound of arms is heard approaching; he listens.]

CATILINE. They come, they come! Still are there valiant men
Among them. Ah, the joyous clang of steel!
The merry clash of shields against each other!
Anew the fire kindles in my breast;
The reckoning is near,--the mighty hour
That settles every doubt. I hail the day!

[MANLIUS, STATILIUS, GABINIUS, and many OTHER CONSPIRATORS come
through the forest.]

MANLIUS. Here, Catiline, come your friends and comrades true;
In camp I spread the alarm, as you commanded--