could say without regret, "I am now ready to be offered up, and the time of my departure is at hand." His whole life had been spent in preparing for that hour, and to him the future was so full of hope, that death was, in his opinion, a gain, and to depart he thought far better.

Nero, on the contrary, saw nothing before him but the most gloomy prospects; and, in hopes of prolonging his wretched existence, he determined on fleeing to a country house about four miles from Rome, where he was generously offered shelter by Phaon, to whom it belonged.

Without taking time to put on all his clothes, he threw over his dress a large dark cloak to disguise himself, and covering his face for concealment, he fled from Rome, attended by four servants, who still remained. On all sides the soldiers and citizens might be heard cursing his reign, and rejoicing at his fall. One person asked him, in passing, if he had heard anything of Nero; and on another occasion, when the wretched emperor was trying to conceal his face with a handkerchief, he accidentally dropped it, and was recognised instantly by a soldier on the road, who spoke to him by name.

Alarmed at being so easily known, Nero dismounted from his horse, and turning it loose in the fields, he pursued the rest of his course on foot, through the long wet grass, and over bushes and brambles, which tore his face and hands. At length he arrived near the place of refuge, but without daring to enter at the door, lest some enemy might have observed him. His servant therefore made a hole in the back wall of the house, large enough to let Nero creep in.

There

he found a small dark closet prepared for him, which had once been occupied by a slave, with a wretched bed, and nothing to eat or drink but coarse brown bread, and muddy water from a neighbouring ditch. The fallen emperor looked around with despair on such a scene, and remembering the glories of his golden palace, he exclaimed in accents of grief and despondency, "These are now the luxuries of Nero."

The terrors of his distracted and guilty mind increased every moment; he repeated verses describing the horrors of his thoughts, and tried to occupy himself by collecting stones for his tomb. But while Nero mourned so loudly for his own untimely end, he exclaimed, with some satisfaction, that by his death Rome would lose the finest musician in the world.

At length one of his servants brought the dreadful intelligence that Nero was condemned by the Roman senate to be stripped naked and Scourged to death. Upon hearing this, the emperor hastily seized a sword, wishing to kill himself, that he might avoid so shocking a fate; but again his courage failed, and he threw it aside, unable to bear the thoughts of being his own executioner.

Nero then begged some of his attendants to die before his eyes, that their example might encourage him; but the time was now over when people were forced to suffer death for his pleasure, and they all refused to oblige him. It only shows how selfish and wicked Nero still continued, that he would willingly have sacrificed the few friends who had been faithful to him, for a moment's Comfort.

Nero next tried to rouse his own spirit, by talking to himself, and reproaching himself for his cowardice: "Is this conduct fit for Nero?" he cried; "let me take courage."

But still he trembled to commit the fatal act, till at length the soldiers of Rome were heard approaching, and he knew that a moment's delay would make him their prisoner, after which, the most dreadful tortures and insults would attend his execution. Seizing a dagger, Nero then placed it against his breast, but not having courage to strike the fatal blow, he desired his secretary to assist, and by his help he gave himself a mortal wound.

Thus died Nero, at the age of thirty-two, having for thirteen years, in which he reigned, shown a frightful example of the progress which vice makes in the hearts of all those who indulge their wicked inclinations. If Nero had been told in his youth of all the fierce and dreadful actions he was afterwards to commit, probably his words would have been like those of Hazael, king of Syria, when Elisha warned him how very wicked he would gradually become. When Hazael heard the prophet tell him how many young men he would slay, how many houses he would burn, and that he would dash the little children against the walls to destroy them, Hazael exclaimed in horror and indignation, "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" (2 Kings viii, 13.) And if Nero had known when he was young what a monster he would afterwards become, he might, perhaps, have been as much shocked at his own character, as many of those who read with horror of his crimes and cruelties.

SEVENTH

GALBA,

EMPEROR

OF ROME.

[BEGAN TO REIGN A.D. 68.]

SEVERAL of the emperors after Nero survived so short a time, that they were like kings at a theatre, who wear their crowns only for a few hours, and then disappear. Galba, during his very short reign of seven monhs, acted admirably. At first he refused to be made emperor, and retired to a city in Spain, wishing to live out his days in ease and quietness, but a messenger, who followed, rushed into his bed-room during the night, announcing that the people of Rome had elected him emperor.

Galba seemed glad of this news, but if he had known the sad end it would bring him to, he would have grieved at it. He was very rich, but used often to say that he was not so proud of being wealthy, as of being related to a very wise and prudent man, called Quintus Catulus, who was reckoned the best citizen at Rome, but who, never attempting to be great or powerful, lived a much happier and safer life than if he had been an emperor.

Galba was seventy-two when he began to reign, and for so old a man it was scarcely worth his while to begin a new mode of life. Having no

son, he resolved to adopt an heir, and fixed upon Piso, a youth of much modesty, firmness, and prudence, as most deserving of his favour. Otho, who had long been a friend and favourite of Galba, was deeply offended at being passed over, and having got into debt by his riotous and extravagant mode of living, he resolved to be emperor by force.

Having bribed the soldiers, Otho was carried upon their shoulders into the camp, where, with their swords drawn, they terrified the citizens, and, rushing into the forum, they trampled down all who stood in their way. Galba seeing them approach, behaved with great dignity and courage, but finding them resolved on his destruction, he bent his head forward, bidding the soldiers strike it off if that were for the good of the people. A soldier instantly did so, and sticking it upon the point of a lance, he showed it to Otho, who caused it to be contemptuously carried round the city, and the emperor's body remained unburied in the streets, till a slave at last interred it from compassion. When people are raised very high, it often makes their fall only the greater and more terrible afterwards.