walls, and concealed her with the greatest care until the fighting
was over; then, as the soldiery, satisfied with the sack of the
city, quickly resumed the manners of Romans, they also returned to
their own countrymen, and themselves restored their mistress to
them. She manumitted each of them on the spot, and was not ashamed
to receive her life from men over whom she had held the power of
life and death. She might, indeed, especially congratulate herself
upon this; for had she been saved otherwise, she would merely have
received a common and hackneyed piece of kindness, whereas, by
being saved as she was, she became a glorious legend, and an
example to two cities. In the confusion of the captured city, when
every one was thinking only of his own safety, all deserted her
except these deserters; but they, that they might prove what had
been their intentions in effecting that desertion, deserted again
from the victors to the captive, wearing the masks of unnatural
murderers.

They thought--and this was the greatest part of the service which
they rendered--they were content to seem to have murdered their
mistress, if thereby their mistress might be saved from murder.
Believe me, it is the mark of no slavish soul to purchase a noble
deed by the semblance of crime.

When Vettius, the praetor of the Marsi, was being led into the
presence of the Roman general, his slave snatched a sword from the
soldier who was dragging him along, and first slew his master. Then
he said, "It is now time for me to look to myself; I have already
set my master free," and with these words transfixed himself with
one blow. Can you tell me of anyone who saved his master more
gloriously?