CHAPTER VI.

THE WAR WITH PORSENA.


From the time of the flight of the Tarquins, Rome was governed by two
consuls, who wore all the tokens of royalty except the crown. Tarquin
fled into Etruria, whence his grandfather had come, and thence tried to
obtain admission into Rome. The two young sons of Brutus and the nephews
of Collatinus were drawn into a plot for bringing them back again, and
on its discovery were brought before the two consuls. Their guilt was
proved, and their father sternly asked what they had to say in their
defence. They only wept, and so did Collatinus and many of the senators,
crying out, "Banish them, banish them." Brutus, however, as if unmoved,
bade the executioners do their office. The whole Senate shrieked to hear
a father thus condemn his own children, but he was resolute, and
actually looked on while the young men were first scourged and then
beheaded.

Collatinus put off the further judgment in hopes to save his nephews,
and Brutus told them that he had put them to death by his own power as a
father, but that he left the rest to the voice of the people, and they
were sent into banishment. Even Collatinus was thought to have acted
weakly, and was sent into exile--so determined were the Romans to have
no one among them who would not uphold their decrees to the utmost.
Tarquin advanced to the walls and cut down all the growing corn around