near by. "One man more
has fallen of the Etruscans than of the Romans," it said; "the Romans
are to conquer." This strange oracle ended the war. It was a reason,
surely, for which war was never ended before or since. The Etruscans,
affrighted, marched hastily home; while the Romans carried home their
slain patriot, for whom their women mourned a whole year, in honor of
his noble service in avenging Lucretia.

The banished king still craved his lost kingdom, and made other efforts
to regain it. Having failed in his first attempt, he went to another
city, named Clusium, in the distant part of Etruria, and here besought
Lars Porsenna, the king of that city, to aid him recover his throne.
Lars Porsenna, with a fellow-feeling for his dethroned brother king,
raised a large army and marched with Tarquin and his fellow-exiles
against defiant Rome.

The Romans now awaited him at home, and the two armies met on the hill
called Janiculum, beyond the river from the city. Here came the crash of
battle, but the men of Clusium proved the stronger, and after a sharp
struggle the Romans gave way and were driven pell-mell down the hill and
across the bridge which spanned the Tiber at this point. This was a
wooden bridge on which the Romans set great store, as it was their only
means of crossing the stream. But it now was likely to serve as a means
of the loss of their city. Their flying army was pouring in panic across
it, with the Etruscans in hot pursuit, seeking strenuously to win the
bridge.

The bridge must be speedily destroyed or the city would be lost, but it
seemed too late for this; unless the enemy could in some way be kept
back till the bridge was cut down, Tarquin and his allies would be in
the streets of Rome.

At this juncture a brave and stalwart son of Rome, Horatius Cocles by
name, stepped forward and offered his life in his city's defence. "Cut
away with all haste," he said; "I will keep the bridge until it falls."
Two others, Spurius Lartius and Titus Herminius, sprang to his side, and
the three, fully armed and stout of heart, ranged themselves across the
narrow causeway, while behind them the axes of the Romans played
ringingly upon the supports of the bridge.

On came the Etruscans in force. But the bridge was so narrow that only a
few could advance at once, and these found in the way the sharp spears
and keen-edged blades of the patriot three. Down went the leading
Etruscans, and others pressed on, only to