, attended by her nurse,
to school in the Forum (around which the schools were placed), she was
seen by Appius Claudius, who was so struck by her beauty that he
determined to gain possession of her, and sought to win her by insidious
words. The innocent girl repelled his advances, but this only increased
his desire to possess her, and he determined, as she was not to be had
by fair means, to have her by foul. He therefore laid a wicked plot for
her capture.

Marcus Claudius, one of his clients, instigated by him, seized the girl
as she entered the Forum, claiming that she was his slave. The nurse
screamed for help, and a crowd quickly gathered. Many of these well knew
the maiden, her father, and her betrothed, and vowed to protect her from
wrong. But the villain declared that he meant no harm, and that he only
claimed his own, and was quite willing to submit his claim to the
decision of the law.

Followed by the crowd, he led the weeping maiden to where Appius
Claudius occupied the judgment-seat, and demanded justice at his hands.
He declared that the wife of Virginius, being childless, had got this
child from its mother and presented it to Virginius as her own, and said
that the real mother had been his slave, and that, therefore, the
daughter was his slave also. This he would prove to Virginius on his
return to Rome. Meanwhile it was but just that the master should keep
possession of his slave.

This specious appeal was earnestly combated by the friends of the
maiden, many of whom were present in the throng. Virginius, they said,
was absent from Rome in the service of the commonwealth. To take such
action in his absence was unjust. They would send him word at once, and
in two days he would be in the city.

"Let the case stand until he can appear," they demanded. "The law
expressly declares that in cases like this every one shall be considered
free till proved a slave. The maiden, therefore, should legally be left
with her friends till the day of trial. Put not her fair fame in peril
by giving up a free-born maiden into the hands of a man whom she knows
not."

To this reasonable appeal Appius, with a show of judicial moderation,
replied,--

"Truly, I know the law you speak of, and hold it just and good, for it
was enacted by myself. But this maiden cannot in any case be free; she
belongs either to her father or to her master. And as her father is not
here, who but her master can have any claim to her? I decide,