FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141  
142   143   144   145   >>  
d were soon eagerly engaged in forming and discussing all possible plans for rescuing and recovering them. Thus the night was passed in agitation and excitement, both within and without the city,--the excitement of terror and distress, great perhaps, though subsiding on the part of the captives, and of resentment and rage which grew deeper and more extended every hour, on the part of their countrymen. When the morning came, Romulus ordered the captive maidens to be all brought together before him in order that he might make as it were an apology to them for the violence to which they had been subjected, and explain to them the circumstances which had impelled the Romans to resort to it. "You ought not," said he, "to look upon it as an indignity that you have been thus seized, for the object of the Romans in seizing you was not to dishonor you, or to do you any injury, but only to secure you for their wives in honorable marriage; and far from being displeased with the extraordinariness of the measures which they have adopted to secure you, you ought to take pride in them, as evincing the ardor and strength of the affection with which you have inspired your lovers. I will assure you that when you have become their wives you shall be treated with all the respect and tenderness that you have been accustomed to experience under your fathers' roofs. The brief coercion which we have employed for the purpose of securing you in the first instance,--a coercion which we were compelled to resort to by the necessity of the case,--is the only rudeness to which you will ever be exposed. Forgive us then for this one liberty which we have taken, and consider that the fault, whatever fault in it there may be, is not ours, but that of your fathers and brothers who rejected our offers for voluntary and peaceful alliances, and thus compelled us to resort to this stratagem or else to lose you altogether. Your destiny if you unite with us will be great and glorious. We have not taken you captive to make you prisoners or slaves, or to degrade you in any way from your former position; but to exalt you to positions of high consideration in a new and rising colony;--a colony which is surely destined to become great and powerful, and of which we mean you to be the chief glory and charm." The young and handsome Romans stood by while Romulus made this speech, their countenances animated with excitement and pleasure. The maidens themselves see
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141  
142   143   144   145   >>  



Top keywords:
Romans
 

resort

 

excitement

 

maidens

 

fathers

 
coercion
 
secure
 

captive

 
compelled
 

colony


Romulus

 

exposed

 
Forgive
 

rudeness

 
surely
 

destined

 
powerful
 
necessity
 

handsome

 

animated


countenances

 

pleasure

 

speech

 

employed

 

instance

 

securing

 

purpose

 

rising

 

glorious

 

prisoners


voluntary

 
degrade
 

slaves

 

offers

 

peaceful

 
experience
 

altogether

 
destiny
 

stratagem

 
alliances

consideration
 

liberty

 
positions
 
brothers
 

rejected

 

position

 
deeper
 

extended

 
resentment
 

subsiding