CHAPTER VII. ~~ THE STORY OF CORIOLANUS.

It came to pass about the space of fifty years after the driving out of
the kings that there arose great talk in Rome by reason of those that
were in debt, their creditors dealing harshly with them. For the law was
that if a man was in debt and had not wherewithal to pay, his creditor
could cast him into prison and scourge him, dealing with him in all ways
as with a slave. And when many of the people were already in this case,
and many more feared lest they should be so hereafter, neither was there
any hope of relief, because the rich men would not, for the most part,
relax a right that was their due, they took counsel how they might best
deliver themselves from this bondage. Now it chanced in a certain year
that the army, having put to flight all their enemies, and being now
returned to Rome, was bidden by the Consuls to set forth yet again to
the battle, for the Consuls feared lest the men, being discharged
from their service, should seek to make some change in the State. This
bidding they were not willing to obey. First they doubted whether they
should not slay the Consuls, thinking thus to be free from their oath;
but, considering that a man cannot free himself from an oath by such
ill-doing, they followed rather the counsel of a certain Sicinius, who
bade them depart from Rome as though they would build them a city of
their own. So they departed, marching to a certain place that men call
the Sacred Hill, that is distant from the city about three miles, and is
on the other side of the river Anio. There they made a camp with trench
and rampart, and abode in this place many days, doing nothing either for
good or evil. But when the nobles saw what had been done, they were in
great fear what this thing might mean, but doubted not that Rome must
be brought to destruction, unless the rich and the poor should be
reconciled the one to the other. Therefore they sent a certain Menenius
Agrippa, an eloquent man and dear to the Commons, as belonging to them
by birth, who should be their spokesman. So Agrippa, coming to the camp
and being admitted thereunto, spoke to the Commons this parable only;
for in those days men were not wont to make set speeches. "In old times
the members of man lived not together in such harmony as we now see to
be among them; but each member had his own counsel and his own speech.
All the other members therefore had great wrath against the belly,
because that a