Their
patience, however, may be exhausted, and the disgust may rise to a point
when any change may seem an improvement. Authority is no longer shielded
by the majesty with which it ought to be surrounded. It has made public
its own degradation; and the most worthless adventurer knows that he has
no moral indignation to fear if he tries to snatch the reins out of hands
which are at least no more pure than his own. If he can dress his
endeavors in the livery of patriotism, if he can put himself forward as
the champion of an injured people, he can cover the scandals of his own
character and appear as a hero and a liberator. Catiline had missed the
consulship, and was a ruined man. He had calculated on succeeding to a
province where he might gather a golden harvest and come home to live in
splendor, like Lucullus. He had failed, defeated by a mere plebeian whom
his brother-patricians had stooped to prefer to him. Were the secret
history known of the contest for the consulship, much might be discovered
there to explain Cicero's and Catiline's hatred of each other. Cicero had
once thought of coalescing with Catiline, notwithstanding his knowledge of
his previous crimes: Catiline had perhaps hoped to dupe Cicero, and had
been himself outwitted. He intended to stand again for the year 62, but
evidently on a different footing from that on which he had presented
himself before.
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