. Nevertheless they laid hands on him and took him
to the King that he should judge him. But the King being loath to judge
such a matter, or to give sentence against the man, said, "I appoint
two men as the law commands, who shall judge Horatius for murder." Now
the law was this: "If a man do murder, two men shall judge him; if he
appeal against the two, let the appeal be tried; if their sentence be
confirmed, ye shall cover his head and scourge him within the walls
or without the walls, and hang him by a rope upon the gallows." Then
there were appointed two men according to the law, who affirmed that they
could not let the man go free, whether his guilt was small or great,
seeing that he had manifestly done the deed. Therefore said one of them,
"Publius Horatius, we adjudge thee to be guilty of murder. Go, lictor,
bind his hands." But when the lictor came and was now ready to cast the
rope about him, Horatius cried, "I appeal to the people;" for the King
himself, being mercifully disposed to him, bade him do so. Then was
there a trial before the people, in which that which most wrought upon
the hearts of men was that the father of Horatius constantly affirmed
that his daughter had been rightly slain. "Nay," said he, "verily, if
the young man had not slain her, I had used against him my right as a
father, and had condemned him to die."

Then again he besought them that they should not leave him desolate and
bereaved of his children, he who but the day before had had so fair a
stock. Afterwards, throwing his arms about the young man, he stretched
out his hands to the spoils of the Curiatii, crying, "Will ye endure,
men of Rome, to see him bound under the gallows and beaten with stripes
whom ye beheld but yesterday adorned with these spoils and rejoicing in
his victory? Not so. Surely the men of Alba themselves had not borne to
see such a sight. Go, lictor, bind his hands, though but yesterday they
won so great a dominion for the people of Rome. Go, cover the head of
him that made this people free; hang him upon the accursed tree; scourge
him, whether within the walls, so that thou do it among the spoils
of them that he slew, or without the walls, so that it be near to the
sepulchres of the champions of Alba. Whither can ye take this youth
that the memorials of his valour shall not save him from so foul a
punishment?" And when the people saw the tears of the old man, and
bethought them also what great courage the youth had