He was now prepared to watch, wait, plot, and contrive for years on
years; he was resigned to be contented with the poorest and slowest
advancement--to be encouraged by the smallest prospect of ultimate
triumph. Acting under this determination, he started his project by
devoting all that remained of his enfeebled energies to cautiously
informing himself, by every means in his power, of the private,
political, and religious sentiments of all men of influence in Rome.
Wherever there was a popular assemblage, he attended it to gather the
scandalous gossip of the day; wherever there was a chance of overhearing
a private conversation, he contrived to listen to it unobserved. About
the doors of taverns and the haunts of discharged servants he lurked
noiseless as a shadow, attentive alike to the careless revelations of
intoxication or the scurrility of malignant slaves. Day after day
passed on, and still saw him devoted to his occupation (which, servile
as it was in itself, was to his eyes ennobled by its lofty end), until
at the expiration of some months he found himself in possession of a
vague and inaccurate fund of information, which he stored up as a
priceless treasure in his mind.
Pages:
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232