“Manlius next acknowledged his seal and handwriting.  A letter from him much to the same effect was read.  He confessed his guilt.  I then showed Lentulus his letter, and asked him, ‘Do you acknowledge the seal?’ ’I do,’ he answered.  ‘Yes,’ said I, ’it is a well-known device, the likeness of a great patriot, your grandfather.  The mere sight of it ought to have kept you from such a crime as this.’  His letter was then read.  I then asked him whether he had any explanation to give.  ’I have nothing to say,’ was his first answer.  After a while he rose and put some questions to the Gauls.  They answered him without any hesitation, and asked him in reply whether he had not spoken to them about the Sibylline books.  What followed was the strangest proof of the power of conscience.  He might have denied every thing, but he did what no one expected, he confessed; all his abilities, all his power of speech deserted him.  Vulturcius then begged that the letter which he was carrying from Lentulus to Catiline should be brought in and opened.  Lentulus was greatly agitated; still he acknowledged the seal and the handwriting to be his.  The letter, which was unsigned, was in these words:  You will know who I am by the messenger whom I send to you.  Bear yourself as a man.  Think of the position in which you now are, and consider what you must now do.  Collect all the help you can, even though it be of the meanest kind. In a word, the case was made out against them all not only by the seals, the letters, the handwritings, but by the faces of the men, their downcast look, their silence.  Their confusion, their stealthy looks at each other were enough, if there had been no other proof, to convict them.”

Lentulus was compelled to resign his office of praetor.  He and the other conspirators were handed over to certain of the chief citizens, who were bound to keep them in safe custody and to produce them when they were called for.

The lower orders of the capital, to whom Catiline and his companions had made liberal promises, and who regarded his plans, or what were supposed to be his plans, with considerable favor, were greatly moved by Cicero’s account of what had been discovered.  No one could expect to profit by conflagration and massacre; and they were disposed to take sides with the party of order.  Still there were elements of danger, as there always are in great cities.  It was known that a determined effort would be made by the clients of Lentulus, whose family was one of the noblest and wealthiest in Rome, to rescue him from custody.  At the same time several of the most powerful nobles were strongly suspected of favoring the revolutionists.  Crassus, in particular, the wealthiest man in Rome, was openly charged with complicity.  A certain Tarquinius was brought before the Senate, having been, it was said, arrested when actually on his way to Catiline.  Charged to tell all he knew, he gave the same account as had been given by other