THE ALARMIST. 145 



swim, and wrote out for him a history of Rome in 

 large pothook characters, that he might become 

 acquainted at an early age with the great actions of 

 the ancient Romans. He was as careful in what he 

 said before the child as if he had been in the presence 

 of the vestal virgins. 



This Cato was the man on whom rests chiefly the 

 guilt of the Murder which we must now relate. In 

 public and in private, by direct denunciation, by 

 skilful inuendo, by appealing to the fears of some and 

 to the interests of others, he laboured incessantly to- 

 wards his end. Once, after he had made a speech 

 against Carthage in the senate, he shook the skirt of 

 his robe as if by accident, and some African figs fell 

 upon the ground. When all had looked and wondered 

 at their size and beauty, he observed that the place 

 where they grew was only three days' sail from Rome. 



It is possible that Cato was sincere in his alarms, 

 for he was one of the few survivors of the second 

 Punic war. He had felt the arm of Carthage in its 

 strength. He could remember that day when even 

 Romans had turned pale ; when the old men covered 

 their faces with their mantles ; when the young men 

 clambered on the walls ; when the women ran wail- 

 ing round the temples of the gods, praying for pro- 

 tection, and sweeping the shrines with their hair ; 

 when a cry went forth that Hannibal was at the gates ! 

 when a panic seized the city ; when the people, collect- 

 ing on the roofs, flung tiles at Roman soldiers, be- 

 lieving them to be the enemy already in the town ; 

 when all over the Campagna could be seen the smoke 

 of ricks and farmhouses mounting in the air, and the 

 wild Berber horsemen driving herds of cattle to the 

 Punic camp. 



K 



