CATILINE. And have you told them--?

MANLIUS. Yes,--they know our plight.

STATILIUS. We know it well, and we shall follow you
With sword in hand to fight for life and death.

CATILINE. I thank you all, my comrades brave in arms!
But do not think, my friends, that life or death
Is ours to choose;--our only choice is this:
Death in heroic battle with the foe,
Or death by torture when like savage beasts
We shall be hounded down relentlessly.
Ah, which do you prefer? To risk in flight
A wretched life prolonged in misery,
Or like your proud and worthy sires of old
To perish nobly on the battlefield?

GABINIUS. We choose to fight and die!

MANY VOICES. Lead us to death!

CATILINE. Then let us be off! Through death we shall achieve
The glorious life of immortality.
Our fall, our name, through distant generations
Shall be proclaimed with lofty pride--

FURIA. [Calls out behind him among the trees.] --O terror!