pened to be met by his wife's messenger. They
find Lucretia sitting in her chamber in sorrowful dejection. On the
arrival of her friends the tears burst from her eyes; and to her
husband, on his inquiry "whether all was right," she says, "By no means,
for what can be right with a woman who has lost her honour? The traces
of another man are on your bed, Collatinus. But the body only has been
violated, the mind is guiltless; death shall be my witness. But give me
your right hands, and your honour, that the adulterer shall not come off
unpunished. It is Sextus Tarquin, who, an enemy in the guise of a guest,
has borne away hence a triumph fatal to me, and to himself, if you are
men." They all pledge their honour; they attempt to console her,
distracted as she was in mind, by turning away the guilt from her,
constrained by force, on the perpetrator of the crime; that it is the
mind sins, not the body; and that where intention was wanting guilt
could not be. "It is for you to see," says she, "what is due to him. As
for me, though I acquit myself of guilt, from punishment I do not
discharge myself; nor shall any woman survive her dishonour pleading the
example of Lucretia." The knife, which she kept concealed beneath her
garment, she plunges into her heart, and falling forward on the wound,
she dropped down expiring. The husband and father shriek aloud.

[Footnote 64: _To do so, and that quickly_,--a use of the participles
_facto_ and _maturato_ similar to that already noticed in chap. 53,
_degeneratum_.]

59. Brutus, while they were overpowered with grief, having drawn the
knife out of the wound, and holding it up before him reeking with blood,
said, "By this blood, most pure before the pollution of royal villany, I
swear, and I call you, O gods, to witness my oath, that I shall pursue
Lucius Tarquin the Proud, his wicked wife, and all their race, with
fire, sword, and all other means in my power; nor shall I ever suffer
them or any other to reign at Rome." Then he gave the knife to
Collatinus, and after him to Lucretius and Valerius, who were surprised
at such extraordinary mind in the breast of Brutus. However, they all
take the oath as they were directed, and converting their sorrow into
rage, follow Brutus as their leader, who from that time ceased not to
solicit them to abolish the regal power. They carry Lucretia's body
from her own house, and convey it into the forum; and assemble a number
of persons by the strangenes