y.
A proud man was Lars Porsena
Upon the trysting day.

XII

For all the Etruscan armies 90
Were ranged beneath his eye
And many a banished Roman,
And many a stout ally;
And with a mighty following
To join the muster came 95
The Tusculan Mamilius,[21]
Prince of the Latian[22] name.

XIII

But by the yellow Tiber
Was tumult and affright:
From all the spacious champaign 100
To Rome men took their flight.
A mile around the city,
The throng stopped up the ways;
A fearful sight it was to see
Through two long nights and days. 105

XIV

For aged folks on crutches,
And women great with child,
And mothers sobbing over babes
That clung to them and smiled,
And sick men borne in litters 110
High on the necks of slaves,
And troops of sunburnt husbandmen
With reaping-hooks and staves,

XV

And droves of mules and asses
Laden with skins of wine, 115
And endless flocks of goats and sheep,
And endless herds of kine,
And endless trains of wagons
That creaked beneath the weight
Of corn-sacks and of household goods, 120
Choked every roaring gate.

XVI

Now, from the rock Tarpeian,[23]
Could the wan burghers spy
The line of blazing villages
Red in the midnight sky. 125
The Fathers[24] of the City,
They sat all night and day,
For every hour some horseman came
With tidings of dismay.

XVII

To eastward and to westward 130
Have spread the Tuscan bands;
Nor house nor fence nor dovecote
In Crustumerium[25] stands.
Verbenna down to Ostia[26]
Hath wasted all the plain; 135
Astur hath stormed Janiculum,[27]
And the stout guards are slain.

XVIII

I wis,[28] in all the Senate,
There was no heart so bold,
But sore it ached, and fast it beat; 140
When that ill news was told.
Forthwith up rose the Consul,
Up rose the Fathers all;
In haste they girded up their gowns,
And hied them to the wall. 145

XIX

They held a council standing
Before the River-Gate[30];
Short time was there, ye well may guess,
For musing or debate.
Out spake the Consul roundly: 150
"The bridge[31] mus