CHAPTER XII.
_HIS EXILE._ We now come to that period of Cicero's life in which, by common consent of all who have hitherto written of him, he is supposed to have shown himself as least worthy of his high name.

Middleton, who certainly loved his hero's memory and was always anxious to do him justice, condemns him.

"It cannot be denied that in this calamity of his exile he did not behave himself with that firmness which might reasonably be expected from one who had borne so glorious a part in the Republic." Morabin, the French biographer, speaks of the wailings of his grief, of its injustice and its follies.

"Ciceron etait trop plein de son malheur pour donner entree a de nouvelles esperances," he says.

"Il avait supporte ce malheur avec peu de courage," says another Frenchman, M.Du Rozoir, in introducing us to the speeches which Cicero made on his return.