But the blood of the people was up, and they had suffered too deeply to
wait for the tardy processes of law. They had not been the aggressors.
They had assembled lawfully, to assert their constitutional rights; they
had been cut in pieces as if they had been insurgent slaves, and the
assassins were not individuals, but a political party in the State.
Marius bears the chief blame for the scenes which followed. Undoubtedly he
was in no pleasant humor. A price had been set on his head, his house had
been destroyed, his property had been confiscated, he himself had been
chased like a wild beast, and he had not deserved such treatment. He had
saved Italy when but for him it would have been wasted by the swords of
the Germans. His power had afterward been absolute, but he had not abused
it for party purposes. The Senate had no reason to complain of him. He had
touched none of their privileges, incapable and dishonest as he knew them
to be. His crime in their eyes had been his eminence. They had now shown
themselves as cruel as they were worthless; and if public justice was
disposed to make an end of them, he saw no cause for interference.
Thus the familiar story repeated itself; wrong was punished by wrong, and
another item was entered on the bloody account which was being scored up
year after year.
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