ring the ripened corn.

This absence of the king's friends gave him the opportunity he wished.
Gathering a band of armed men, he suddenly entered the Forum, and took
his seat on the king's throne, before the door of the senate-chamber,
from which Servius was accustomed to judge the people. Word of this act
of treason was borne to the old king, who at once hastened to the Forum
and sternly asked the usurper why he had dared to take that seat.

Lucius insolently answered that it was his father's throne, and that he
had the best right to it. Then, as the aged and unguarded king mounted
the steps of the senate-house, his ambitious son-in-law sprang up,
caught him by the middle, and flung him headlong down the steps to the
ground. Then he went into the senate-chamber and called the senators
together, as though he were already king.

The old monarch, sadly shaken by his fall, rose to his feet and made his
way slowly towards his home on the Esquiline Hill. But when he came near
it he was overtaken by some bravos whom Lucius had sent in pursuit.
These killed the unprotected old man, and left him lying in his blood in
the middle of the street.

And now was done a deed which has aroused the execrations of mankind in
all later ages. Tullia, who had instigated her husband to the murder of
her father, waited with impatience until it was performed. Then,
mounting her chariot, she bade the coachman to drive to the Forum,
where, heedless of the crowd of men who had assembled, she called Lucius
from the senate-house, and cried to him, in accents of triumph, "Hail to
thee, King Tarquinius!"

Wicked as Lucius was, he was not as shameless as his wife, and sternly
bade her to go home. She obeyed, taking the same street as her father
had followed. Soon reaching the spot where the bleeding body of the old
king lay stretched across the way, the coachman drew up his horses and
pointed out to Tullia the dreadful spectacle.

"Drive on," she harshly commanded. "I cannot," he replied. "The street
is too narrow to pass without crushing the king's body." "Drive on," she
again fiercely ordered, and the coachman did so. Tullia went to her home
with her father's blood upon the wheels of her chariot, and with the
execration of all good men upon her head. And thus it was that Lucius
Tarquinius and his wicked wife succeeded the good king Servius upon the
throne.

We may tell here briefly the end of this evil pair. Tarquin the Proud,
as he is known