gely a creature of legend, but he plays an
active part in old Roman annals, and the tale of his doings is well
worth repeating.

Rome was at war with the city of Veii, a large and strong city beyond
the Tiber, and not many miles away. In the year of Rome 350 (or 403
B.C.) the siege of Veii began, and was continued for seven years. We are
told that the Romans surrounded the city, five miles in circumference,
with a double wall, but it could not have been complete, or the
Veientians could not have held out against starvation so long. For the
end of the siege and the taking of the city we must revert to the
legendary tale.

For seven years and more, so the legend says, the Romans had been
besieging Veii. During the last year of the siege, in late summer, the
springs and rivers all ran low; but of a sudden the waters of the Lake
of Alba began to rise, and the flood continued until the banks were
overflowed and the fields and houses by its side were drowned. Still
higher and higher the waters swelled till they reached the tops of the
hills which rose like a wall around the lake. In the end they
overflowed these hills at their lowest points, and poured in a mighty
torrent into the plain beyond.

The prayers and sacrifices of the Romans had failed to check the flood,
which threatened their city and fields, and despairing of any redress
from their own gods they sent to Delphi, in Greece, and applied there to
the famous oracle of Apollo. While the messengers were on their way, it
chanced that a Roman centurion talked with an old Veientian on the walls
whom he had known in times of peace, and knew to be skilled in the
secrets of Fate. The Roman condoled with his friend, and hoped that no
harm would come to him in the fall of Veii, sure to happen soon. The old
man laughed in reply, and said,--

"You think, then, to take Veii. You shall not take it till the waters of
the Lake of Alba are all spent, and flow out into the sea no more."

This remark troubled the Roman, who knew the prophetic foresight of his
friend. The next day he talked with him again, and finally enticed him
to leave the city, saying that he wished to meet him at a certain secret
place and consult with him on a matter of his own. But on getting him in
this way out of the city, he seized and carried him off to the camp,
where he brought him before the generals. These, learning what the old
man had said, sent him to the senate at Rome.

The prisoner here spoke