avour among the nobles, especially such as were of the lesser
houses, and so ambitious of higher place in the State. Some he would
remind of kindnesses that his father had done them in past time, and
would ask for a like return; and to some he would promise gifts; and all
he sought to turn against the King. And at the last, when it now seemed
time to make his venture, he burst into the market-place, having with
him a company of armed men; and all that stood near being so stricken
with dismay that they hindered him not, commanded the herald that he
should call the Senators to meet King Tarquin. Nor did the Senators,
being thus summoned, refuse to come, for some had been won over to the
young man beforehand, and others feared that they should suffer harm if
they came not, for the matter was altogether beyond their expectation;
also they thought that King Servius had already perished. And when they
were were assembled, Tarquin sat down upon the throne and spake in
some such fashion as this: "The slave that was the son of a slave-woman
seized the kingdom when the King my father had been shamefully slain.
Neither was there any assembly held for election; nor did the people
give their votes for him, nor did the Senate confirm the matter. By none
of these things doth he possess this great dignity, but by the bounty of
a woman. And now he, being such an one as he is, favours the lowest
of the people, to whom he divideth this land, which is of right the
possession of the nobles; in like manner the burdens which at one time
were borne in common by all, he putteth upon you; and this ordering of
the citizens that he hath lately established, for what purpose is it but
that he may know who hath aught, that he may make distribution to the
needy?"

While he thus spake there came in King Servius, having been fetched by
a messenger in hot haste, and cried with a loud voice from the porch of
the senate-house, "What doest thou here, Tarquin? How darest thou,
while I am yet alive, to call the Senators together and to sit upon my
throne?"

To this Tarquin made answer, "This throne is the throne of the King my
father, of which I, being the son of a king, am worthier than thou that
art the son of a slave. Surely now thou hast long enough triumphed over
them that are by right thy masters."

After this there was a great shouting and tumult, some favouring Servius
and some Tarquin; and the people ran together into the senate-house;
and it was