[18]
And she, O Catiline, thus pleads with you, and after a
manner silently speaks to you:—There has now for many years been no crime committed
but by you; no atrocity has taken place without you; you alone unpunished and unquestioned
have murdered the citizens, have harassed and plundered the allies; you alone have had power
not only to neglect all laws and investigations, but to overthrow and break through them.
Your former actions, though they ought not to have been borne, yet I did bear as well as I
could; but now that I should be wholly occupied with fear of you alone, that at every sound I
should dread Catiline, that no design should seem possible to be entertained against me which
does not proceed from your wickedness, this is no longer endurable. Depart, then, and deliver
me from this fear; that, if it be a just one, I may not be destroyed; if an imaginary one,
that at least I may at last cease to fear.
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