Then the wild current of drunken exultation,
suspended within them during this brief interval, flowed once more,
doubly fierce, in its old course. Insensible, the moment after they had
passed away, to the warning and terrific scenes they had beheld, each
now looked round on the other with a glance of triumphant levity.
'Hark!' cried Vetranio, 'the mob without, feeble and cowardly to the
last, abandon their puny efforts to force my palace gates! Behold our
banqueting-tables still sacred from the intrusion of the revolted
menials, driven before my guest from the dead, like a flock of sheep
before a single dog! Say, O Marcus! did I not well to set the corpse at
the foot of our banqueting-table? What marvels has it not effected,
borne before us by the frantic Reburrus, as a banner of the hosts of
death, against the cowardly slaves whose fit inheritance is oppression,
and whose sole sensation is fear! See, we are free to continue and
conclude the banquet as we had designed! The gods themselves have
interfered to raise us in security above our fellow-mortals, whom we
despise! Another health, in gratitude to our departed guest, the
instrument of our deliverance, under the auspices of omnipotent Jove!'
As Vetranio spoke, Marcus alone, out of all the revellers, answered his
challenge.
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