Can it be that the contemplation of human wo, in some form or other, is in all ages grateful to poor corrupt humanity?
CHAPTER V.
THE ORATION.
Quousque tandem abutere—
Cicero.
The Senate was assembled in the great temple on the Palatine, built on the spot where Jupiter, thence hailed as Stator, had stayed the tide of flight, and sent the rallied Romans back to a glorious triumph.
A cohort was stationed on the brow of the hill, its spear-heads glancing in the early sunshine.
The Roman knights, wearing their swords openly, and clad in their girded tunics only, mustered around the steps which led to the colonnade and doors of the temple, a voluntary guard to the good consul.