It was the dead of winter, when the flame of rebellion was thus quenched in rebel blood; Cicero still was consul. But it was blithesome springtide, and the great orator had long since sworn that he had saved his country, among the acclamations of a people for once grateful; had long since retired into the calm serenity of private life and literary leisure, when Paullus was sufficiently recovered from his wounds to receive the thanks of his friend and benefactor; to receive in the presence of the good and great Consular his best reward in the hand of his sweet Julia. It was balmy Italian June, and all in Rome was peace and prosperity, most suitable to the delicious season, when on the sacred day of Venus,[16] clad in her snowwhite bridal robe, with its purple ribands and fringes, her blushing face concealed by the saffron-colored nuptial veil, the lovely girl was borne, a willing bride, over the threshold of her noble husband's mansion, amid the merry[pg 243] blaze of waxen torches, and the soft swell of hymeneal music, and the congratulations of such a train of consuls, consulars, senators and patricians, as rarely had been seen collected at any private festival. In a clear voice, though soft and gentle, she addressed Paullus with the solemn formula—
"Where thou art Caius, I am Caia."
Thenceforth their trials ceased; their happiness began; and thenceforth, they two were one for ever. And, for years afterward, when Roman maidens called blessings down upon a kindred bride, they had no fairer fate to wish her than to be happy as Arvina's Julia.
And how should any man be blessed, in this transitory life, if not by the love of such a girl as Julia, the friendship of such a man as Cicero, the fame of such a deed, as the death of the Roman Traitor.
THE END
NOTES TO THE ROMAN TRAITOR.
It is perhaps hardly necessary to state, that the oration of Cicero in the [37th page] of the second volume, those of Cæsar and Cato in the [137th] and [142d] pages, and that of Catiline in the [217th] page of the same, are all literal translations from the actual speeches delivered on those occasions, and recorded by Cicero and Sallust.
It was absolutely necessary for the truth and spirit of the romance, that these speeches should be inserted; and the author considered that it would be equally vain and absurd to attempt fictitious orations, when these master-pieces of ancient eloquence were extant.