a_

They tried to soothe her grief, laying the blame, not on the
unwilling victim, but on the perpetrator of the offence. 'It is
the mind,' they said, 'not the body that sins. Where there is no
intention, there is no fault,' 'It is for you,' she replied, 'to
consider the punishment that is his due; I acquit myself of guilt,
but I do not free myself from the penalty; no woman who lives
after her honour is lost shall appeal to the example of Lucretia,'
Then she took a knife which she had hidden under her dress,
plunged it into her heart, and dropping down soon expired. Her
husband and father made the solemn invocation of the dead.

While the others were occupied in mourning, Brutus drew the knife
from the wound, held it still reeking before him, and exclaimed,
'I swear by this blood, pure and undefiled before the prince's
outrage, and I call you, gods, to witness, that I will punish
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, his impious wife, and all his children
with fire and sword to the utmost of my power, and that I will not
allow them or any other to rule in Rome.' After this, he handed
the knife to Collatinus, next to Lucretius and Valerius, all
amazed at Brutus and perplexed to account for his new spirit of
authority. They took the oath as he directed and, changing wholly
from grief to anger, they obeyed his summons to follow him and
make an immediate end of the royal power.

The body of Lucretia was brought from her house and carried to the
Forum, the people thronging round, as was natural, in wonder at
this strange and cruel sight, and loud in condemning the crime of
Tarquinius. They were deeply moved by the father's sorrow, and
still more by the words of Brutus, who rebuked their tears and
idle laments, urging them to act like men and Romans by taking up
arms against the common enemy.

Livy, i. 58. 9-59. 4.

[Illustration: ETRUSCAN SOLDIER
from a Brit. Mus. bronze]

Mucius and Cloelia

The same spirit was shown by Caius Mucius and the maiden Cloelia and
many others in the long and bitter wars that followed. Tarquin found
refuge with Lars Porsena, King of the Etruscans, who pretended to be
eager to restore him while he really wanted to submit the Roman people
to his own rule. Porsena laid siege to the city and the people were
reduced to the hardest straits. A young man named Caius Mucius
determined to kill Lars Porsena. He succeeded in passing through