12. What followed?

13. What was the conduct of his daughter on this melancholy occasion?

14. What was the character of Servius, and how long did he reign?

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A flame of fire gliding about without doing any harm.

[2] A large plain at Rome, without the walls of the city, where the
Roman youth performed their exercises. Cam'pus is the Latin word for
field; and this field or plain was called Mar'tius, because it was
dedicated to Mars, the god of war.

[3] The blood of the good old king is said to have dyed the chariot
wheels, and even the clothes of the inhuman daughter; from that time
the street where it happened was called _vicus sceleratus_, the wicked
or accursed street.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM THE DEATH OF SERVIUS TULLIUS TO THE BANISHMENT OF TARQUINIUS
SUPERBUS THE SEVENTH AND LAST KING OF ROME U.C. 220.

A nobler spirit warm'd
Her sons; and roused by tyrants, nobler still
It burn'd in Brutus.--_Thomson_.

1. LU'CIUS TARQUIN'IUS, afterwards called Super'bus, or the Proud,
having placed himself upon the throne, in consequence of this horrid
deed, was resolved to support his dignity with the same violence with
which it was acquired. Regardless of the senate or the people's
approbation, he seemed to claim the crown by an hereditary right, and
refused burial to the late king's' body, under pretence of his being
an usurper. 2. All the good part of mankind, however, looked upon his
accession with detestation and horror: and this act of inefficient
cruelty only served to confirm their hatred. 3. Conscious of this, he
ordered all such as he suspected to have been attached to Ser'vius, to
be put to death; and fearing the natural consequences of his tyranny,
he increased the guard round his person.

4. His chief policy seems to have been to keep the people always
employed either in wars or public works, by which means he diverted
their attention from his unlawful method of coming to the crown. He
first marched against the Sab'ines, who refused to pay him obedience;
and he soon reduced them to submission. 5. In the meantime, many of
the discontented patricians, abandoning their native country, took
refuge in Ga'bii, a city of Latium, about twelve miles from Rome,
waiting an opportunity to take up arms, and drive Tarquin from his
throne. To escape this danger. Tarquin had recourse to the following
stratagem. 6. He caused his son Sextus to count