1And as for the poison itself, what account of it is invented? 1where was it sought, how was it prepared, in what way, to whom, in what place was it handed over? 1They say that he had it at home and tested its strength on a certain slave procured for that very purpose; 1and that by his very swift death the poison was proved good by this man. 59O immortal gods! 59why do you sometimes either shut your eyes to the greatest crimes of men or postpone to a future day the punishment of present wickedness? 59For I saw, I saw and I drank in that grief, perhaps the bitterest of my life, when Quintus Metellus was torn from the bosom and lap of his country, and when that man, who believed himself born for this empire, two days after he had been flourishing in the senate house, on the rostra, in public life, in the prime of his age, in the best of health, in his fullest strength, was snatched away most undeservedly from all good men and from the whole state.
59At that time, as he lay dying, when his mind was already overwhelmed in its other parts, he kept his last feeling for the memory of the state, when, looking at me as I wept, he indicated with broken and dying words how great a storm was hanging over me, how great a tempest over the state, and when, striking again and again the wall which he had shared with Quintus Catulus, he called often on Catulus, often on me, most often on the state, so that he grieved not so much that he was dying as that both his country and I were being robbed of his protection. 60If no violence of sudden crime had removed this man, how would he as a consular have withstood his raving cousin, when as consul he had said in the hearing of the senate that he would kill him with his own hand when he was beginning to rave and thunder?
60Will that woman, then, coming forth from this house, dare to speak of the swiftness of poison? 60Will she not fear the house itself, lest it utter some voice, will she not shudder at the walls that know her secret, at that deadly and mournful night? 60But I return to the charge; 60for this mention of that most illustrious and most brave man has both weakened my voice with weeping and clouded my mind with grief.