My gold, my father's presents, jewels, rings,—
All, to the baubles on my neck, are gone.
The consulship might have upheld us still;
But now, we must go down.

Catiline.-Aurelia !-wife!

All will be well; but hear me,-stay a little;
I had intended to consult with you
On our departure-from-the-city.

Aurelia. [Indignantly and surprised.]—Róme?
Catiline.-Even so, we must leave Rome.

Aurelia.-Let me look on you; are you Catiline?
Catiline.-I know not what I am,-we must be gone!
Aurelia.-Madness!

Catiline. [Wildly.]-Not yet,-not yet!

Aurelia.-Let them take all. ·

Catiline.-Seize my last sésterce! Let them have their will.

We must endure. Aye, ransack,—ruin all;

Tear up my father's grave, tear out my heart!
Wife, the world's wide.--Can we not dig or beg?
Can we not find on earth a den or tomb?

Aurelia.-Before I stir, they shall hew off my
Catiline.-What's to be done?

Aurelia.--Hear me, Lord Catiline ;

hands.

The day we wedded,-'tis but three short years since!
You were the first patrician here,—and I

Was Marius' daughter! There was not in Rome

An eye, however haughty, but would sink

When I turned on it; when I passed the streets,

My chariot wheel was followed by a host

Of

your chief Senators; as if their gaze Beheld an empress on its golden round; An earthly providence!

Catiline.-'Twas so !-'twas so! But it is vanished,-gone.

Aurelia.-By yon bright sun!

That day shall come again; or, in its place,

One that shall be an era to the world!

Catiline. [Eagerly.]-What's in your thoughts?
Aurelia.-Our high and hurried life

Has left us strangers to each other's souls;

But now we think alike. You have a sword,-
Have had a famous name in the legions!
Catiline.-Hush!

Aurelia. Have the walls ears? I wish they had,
And tongues too, to bear witness to my oath,
And tell it to all Rome.

Catiline.-Would you destroy?
Aurelia.-Wère I a thunderbolt!·

Rome's ship is rotten;

Has she not cast you out? and would you sink
With her, when she can give you no gain else
Of her fierce fellowship? Who'd seek the chain
That linked him to his mortal enemy ?

Who'd face the pestilence in his foe's house?
Who, when the poisoner drinks by chance the cup,
That was to be his death, would squeeze the dregs,
To find a drop to bear him company ?

Catiline. [Shrinking.]—It will not come to this.
Aurelia. [Haughtily.]-Shall we be dragged
A show to all the city rabble;-robbed,-
Down to the very mantle on our backs,—
A pair of branded beggars! Doubtless Cicero-
Catiline.-Cursed be the ground he treads!
Name him no more.

Aurelia.-Doubtless he'll see us to the city gates; "Twill be the least respect that he can pay

To his fallen rival. Do you hear, my lord?
Deaf as the rock. [Aside.] With all his lictors shouting,
"Room for the noble vagrants; all caps off

For Catiline!-for him that would be consul!"

Catiline. [Turning away.]-Thus to be like the scorpion, ringed with fire,

Till I sting mine own heart! [Aside.] There is no hope!

Aurelia.-One hope there is, worth all the rest-REVENGE !

The time is harassed, poor, and discontent,—
Your spirit practiced, keen, and desperate,-
The Senate full of feuds, the city vexed
With petty tyranny, the legions wronged.

Catiline. [Scornfully.]-Yet, who has stirred?
Woman, you paint the air with passion's pencil.

Aurelia.-Wère my will a sword!

[Rome

Catiline.-Hear me, bold heart! The whole gross blood of

Could not atone my wrongs! I'm soul-shrunk, sick,

Weary of man! And now my mind is fixed
For Lybia; there to make companionship
Rather of bear and tiger,-of the snake,-

The lion in his hunger,-than of man!

Aurelia.—I had a father once, who would have plunged Rome in the Tiber for an angry look!

You saw our entrance from the Gaulish war?

Catiline. My legion was in Spain.

Aurelia. We swept through Italy, a flood of fire,

A living lava, rolling straight on Rome.

For days, before we reached it, the whole road

Was thronged with suppliants,-tribunes, consulars,
The mightiest names of the state. Could gold have bribed,
We might have pitched our tents and slept on gold.
But we had work to do,-our swords were thirsty.

We entered Rome, as conquerors, in arms;

I by my father's side, cuirassed and helm'd,
Bellona beside Mars".

Catiline. [With coldness.]-The world was yours.
Aurelia.-Rome was all eyes; the ancient tottered forth;
The cripple propped his limbs beside the wall;

The dying left his bed to look and die.

The way before us was a sea of heads;
The way behind a torrent of brown spears;
So on we rode, in fierce and funeral pomp,
Through the long, living streets, that sank in gloom,
As we, like Pluto and Proserpina",

Enthroned, rode on, like twofold destiny!

Catiline. [Sternly interrupting her.]-Those triumphs are but gewgaws. All the earth, What is it? Dust and smoke!

I've done with life!

Aurelia. [Coming nearer and looking steadfastly on him.]— Before that eve, one hundred senators

And fifteen hundred knights, had paid,-in blood,—
The price of taunts, and treachery, and rebellion!
Were my tongue thunder,-I would cry, REVENGE!
Catiline. [In sudden wildness.]-No more of this!
There is a whirling lightness in my brain.

That will not now bear questioning.-Away!

[As Aurelia moves slowly toward the door.] Where are our veterans now? Look on these walls, I can not turn their tissues into life.

Where are our revenues,-our chosen friends?

Are we not beggars? Where have beggars friends?
I see no swords and bucklers on these floors!

I shake the stăte! I,--what have I on earth
But these two hands? Must I not dig or starve ?—
Come back! I had forgot. My memory dies,
I think, by the hour. Who sups with us to-night?
Let all be of the rarest,-spare no cost,-

If 'tis our last;—it may be,-let us sink
In sumptuous ruin, with wonderers round us!
Our funeral pile shall send up amber smokes ;
We'll burn in myrrh, or-blood! [She goes.]
I feel a nameless pressure on my brow,

As if the heavens were thick with sudden gloom;
A shapeless consciousness, as if some blow

Were hanging o'er my head. They say such thoughts
Partake of prophecy. [He stands at the casement.]
This air is living sweetness. Golden sun,

Shall I be like thee yet? The clouds have past—
And, like some mighty victor, he returns

To his red city in the west, that now
Spreads all her gates, and lights her torches up,
In triumph for her glorious conqueror.

LESSON CXX.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. In the year 1832, a state convention of South Carolina passed an ordinance, declaring that certain enactments of Congress, in regard to imposts, were unconstitutional, and therefore null and void, and that any attempt on the part of the United States' government to enforce them, would produce the withdrawal of that State from the Union, and the establishment of an independent government. This doctrine was promptly met by the President of the United States, ANDREW JACKSON, in a proclamation, which he issued Dec. 11, 1832, from which the following is an extract. The sentiments of the proclamation met with a cordial response from all the friends of the Union, and South Carolina with becoming promptness and patriotism receded from her hostile position.

2. CHARLES C. PINKNEY and THOMAS PINKNEY, brothers, were distinguished Revolutionary officers. They were natives of South Carolina, but were educated at Oxford in England. The former was made an Aidde-Camp to General Washington, and was also a member of the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States.

3. SUMTER was a celebrated general of South Carolina, in the American Revolution. He was distinguished for his insuperable firmness and

courage.

4. JOHN RUTLEDGE and EDWARD RUTLEDGE were eminent Revolutionary Patriots of South Carolina. The former was a member of the first Continental Congress, 1774, and was distinguished for his Demosthenian eloquence. The latter was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and also an officer in the army in South Carolina.

AN APPEAL TO THE PATRIOTISM OF S. CAROLINA. ANDREW JACKSON.

1. FELLOW CITIZENS of my native State! let me not only admonish you, as the first magistrate of our common country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a father would over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In that paternal language, with that paternal feeling, let me tell you, my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who either are deceived themselves or wish to deceive you. Mark under what pretenses you have been led on to the brink of insurrection and treason, on which you stand.

2. You were told that this opposition might be peaceably, -might be constitutionally made,-that you might enjoy all the advantages of the Union, and bear none of its burdens. Eloquent appeals to your passions, to your state pride, to your