were sent back by the Romans, whose way it was to keep their
pledges; but King Porsenna, admiring the courage of Cloelia, set her
free, and bade her choose such of the youths as she wished to go with
her. She chose those of tenderest age, and the king set them free.

The Romans rewarded Caius by a gift of land, and had a statue made of
Cloelia, which was set up in the highest part of the Sacred Way. And
King Porsenna led his army home, with Tarquin still dethroned.

_THE BATTLE OF LAKE REGILLUS._

A third time Tarquin the Proud marched against Rome, this time in
alliance with the Latins, whose thirty cities had joined together and
declared war against the Romans. But as many of the Romans had married
Latin wives, and many of the Latins had got their wives from Rome, it
was resolved that the women on both sides, who preferred their native
land to their husbands, might leave their new homes and take with them
their virgin daughters. And, as the legend tells, all the Latin women
but two remained in Rome, while all the Roman women returned with their
daughters to their fathers' homes.

The two armies met by the side of Lake Regillus, and there was fought a
battle the story of which reads like a tale from the Iliad of Homer; for
we are told not of how the armies fought, but of how their champions met
and fought in single combats upon the field. King Tarquin was there, now
hoary with years, yet sitting his horse and bearing his lance with the
grace and strength of a young man. And there was Titus his son, leading
into battle all the banished band of the Tarquins. And with them was
Octavius Mamilius, the leader of the Latins, who swore to seat Tarquin
again on his throne and to make the Romans subjects of the Latins.

On the Roman side were many true and tried warriors, among them Titus
Herminius, one of those who fought on the bridge by the side of Horatius
Cocles, when that champion fought so well for Rome.

It is too long to tell how warrior rode against warrior with levelled
lances, and how this one was struck through the breast and that one
through the arm, and so on in true Homeric style. The battle was a
series of duels, like those fought on the plain of Troy. But at length
the Tarquin band, under the lead of Titus, charged so fiercely that the
Romans began to give way, many of their bravest having been slain.

At this juncture Aulus, the leader of the Romans, rode up with his own
chosen band, and bade the