the water of the lake of Alba rose to such a
height as had never been seen before, and this without great rains
or any other cause which might make the thing less to be wondered at.
Messengers therefore were sent to the oracle of Delphi to enquire of
the god what this might portend. But the Romans found, for so fate would
have it, an interpreter of the marvel that was nearer at hand than the
oracle of Apollo. As the Roman soldiers and the soldiers of Veii talked
together at the outposts, a certain old man, an Etrurian, chanted in the
fashion that prophets use this verse--

"Ne'er till the depths of Alba's lake be drained
Shall Veii's walls by Roman arms be gained."

Of these words none at first took any heed, but afterwards some began
to doubt what they might mean. A certain Roman therefore enquired of
the townsfolk (for the siege having now endured for many years there
had grown up acquaintance between them) who the man might be that had
chanted this prophecy. And when he heard he was a soothsayer, he spake
to him, saying that he would fain have some talk with him, for that
there had happened to himself a certain marvel, and he desired to know
how he might rightly deal with it. So the two went to a certain place by
themselves, neither of them carrying arms. Then the Roman (for he was a
young man and of great strength) caught up the Etrurian in his arms and
carried him away to the camp, the Etrurians not being able to hinder
him. So they brought the soothsayer to the general, and the general sent
him to the Senate; and when the Senate enquired of him what it was that
he had prophesied concerning the lake of Alba, the old man answered,
"Surely the Gods were wroth with Veii that day when they put it into my
mind to betray the thing which by the ordering of fate must bring about
the destruction of the city. Nevertheless I cannot recall that which I
once uttered by divine inspiration so that it should be as if it were
unsaid; and perchance there is no less wickedness in concealing that
which the immortal Gods would have revealed than in uttering that which
they would have concealed. Know therefore that in the books of fate and
in the lore of the Etrurians it is written that if ever the water of the
lake of Alba shall increase, the Romans, draining it off in due manner,
shall prevail over the men of Veii, but that before that shall have been
done, the Gods will not desert the walls of the city." And when he had
sa