then the Ludi Romani, which were continued for nine days. Soon after
that would come the games in honor of Victory--so soon that an
adjournment over them would be obtained as a matter of course. In this
way the trial would be thrown over into the next year, when Hortensius
and one Metellus would be Consuls, and another Metellus would be the
Praetor, controlling the judgment-seats.

Glabrio was the Praetor for this present year. In Glabrio Cicero could
put some trust. With Hortensius and the two Metelluses in power,
Verres would be as good as acquitted. Cicero, therefore, had to be
on the alert, so that in this unexpected way, by sacrificing his own
grand opportunity for a speech, he might conquer the schemers. We hear
how he went to Sicily in a little boat from an unknown port, so as to
escape the dangers contrived for him by the friends of Verres.[109] If
it could be arranged that the clever advocate should be kidnapped by a
pirate, what a pleasant way would that be of putting an end to these
abominable reforms! Let them get rid of Cicero, if only for a time,
and the plunder might still be divided. Against all this he had to
provide. When in Sicily he travelled sometimes on foot, for the sake
of caution--never with the retinue to which he was entitled as a Roman
senator. As a Roman senator he might have demanded free entertainment
at any town he entered, at great cost to the town. But from all this
he abstained, and hurried back to Rome with his evidence so quickly
that he was able to produce it before the judges, so as to save the
adjournments which he feared.

Verres retired from the trial, pleading guilty, after hearing the
evidence. Of the witness, and of the manner in which they told the
story, we have no account. The second speech which we have--the
Divinatio, or speech against Caecilius, having been the first--is