rmies were now near together,
knew the face of the man. Then he cried aloud in great wrath, "Lo, there
is the man that hath driven us forth into banishment. See how proudly he
goeth, bearing the honours that by good right are ours. Now may the gods
that avenge the wrongs of kings be with me that I may slay him." So he
struck spurs into his horse, and when Brutus saw that Aruns came against
him he made haste to meet him. (In those days they that led armies into
battle held it to be to their honour themselves to do battle.) And so
full of fury were these two that neither took any thought how he might
defend himself, but each smote the other through the body with his
spear, so that they fell dying both of them from their horses.

After this there was fought a great battle, neither side having the
victory, for when the men of Veii fled before the Romans, the men
of Tarquinii prevailed against them that stood over against them.
Nevertheless in the night a great panic fell upon the army of the
Etrurians, so that they departed and went to their homes. Also they
say that there was heard a voice from the grave of the hero Horatius,
saying, "There fell in this battle more in number by one of the
Etrurians than of the Romans; therefore the Romans are conquerors." When
it was now day there was not a man of the Etrurians in his place; so
Valerius the consul gathered together the spoil and returned in great
triumph to Rome. Also he made a great burial for Brutus; and the people
also mourned greatly for him, the women lamenting him for the space of a
whole year, even as is the custom for women to lament for a father or
a brother. And this they did because he had avenged the wrong done to a
woman in so noble a fashion.

CHAPTER VI. ~~ THE STORY OF LARS PORSENNA.

King Tarquin and his son Lucius (for he only remained to him of the
three) fled to Lars Porsenna, king of Clusium, and besought him that he
would help them. "Suffer not," they said, "that we, who are Tuscans by
birth, should remain any more in poverty and exile. And take heed also
to thyself and thine own kingdom if thou permit this new fashion of
driving forth kings to go unpunished. For surely there is that in
freedom which men greatly desire, and if they that be kings defend not
their dignity as stoutly as others seek to overthrow it, then shall
the highest be made even as the lowest, and there shall be an end of
kingship, than which there is nothing more honourable