ing
every part of the national administration into the best possible
condition. The municipal police, the tribunals of justice, the social
institutions and laws of the industrial classes, the discipline of the
troops, the enlargement and increase of the fortifications of the
city, and the supply of arms, and stores, and munitions of war,--and
every other subject, in fact, connected with the welfare and
prosperity of the city,--occupied his thoughts in every interval of
peace and tranquillity. In consequence of the exertions which he made,
and the measures which he adopted, order and system prevailed more
and more in every department, and the community became every year
better organized, and more and more consolidated; so that the capacity
of the city to receive accessions to the population increased even
faster than accessions were made. In a word, the solid foundations
were laid of that vast superstructure, which, in subsequent ages,
became the wonder of the world.

Notwithstanding, however, all this increasing greatness and
prosperity, Romulus was not without rivals and enemies, even among his
own people at Rome. The leading senators became, at last, envious and
jealous of his power. They said that he himself grew imperious and
domineering in spirit, as he grew older, and manifested a pride and
haughtiness of demeanor which excited their ill-will. He assumed too
much authority, they said, in the management of public affairs, as if
he were an absolute and despotic sovereign. He wore a purple robe on
public occasions, as a badge of royalty. He organized a body-guard of
three hundred young troopers, who rode before him whenever he moved
about the city; and in all respects assumed such pomp and parade in
his demeanor, and exercised such a degree of arbitrary power in his
acts, as made him many enemies. The whole Senate became, at length,
greatly disaffected.

At last one day, on occasion of a great review which took place at a
little distance from the city, there came up a sudden shower, attended
with thunder and lightning, and the violence of the tempest was such
as to compel the soldiers to retire precipitately from the ground in
search of some place of shelter. Romulus was left with a number of
senators who were at that time attending upon him, alone, on the shore
of a little lake which was near the place that had been chosen for the
parade. After a short time the senators themselves came away from the
ground, and r