_Mr. B._ Very well, Now can Ferdinand tell us any thing about Romulus.

_Ferdinand_. Yes, papa, I can tell you how wickedly he deceived the
Sabines, to get wives for his Roman people.

_Mr. B._ Who were the Sabines?

_Ferdinand_. A neighbouring nation, and reckoned the most warlike
people in all Italy.

_Mrs. B._ Well, now for your account of the treachery of Romulus.

_Ferdinand_. Romulus proclaimed that he should give a feast in honour
of the god Neptune, and made very great preparations for it. The Sabines
came, with the rest of their neighbours, and brought their wives and
daughters with them: but the poor things had better have been at home,
papa, for in the middle of the entertainment, the young Romans rushed in
with drawn swords, seized the most beautiful women, and carried them
off. I think it was one of the most wicked actions I ever heard of.

_Mr. B._ I am not surprised, my dear, at your warm expressions. If we
regard the deed merely as a breach of hospitality, we must pronounce it
both barbarous and unmanly; but to mediate such treachery, and veil it
under the cloak of religion, was indeed a sin of the deepest dye. Can
you, Edward, tell us what was the consequence of this treachery?

_Edward._ A bloody war ensued. Tatius, the Sabine king, entered the
Roman territories at the head of twenty-five thousand men; a force
greatly exceeding that which the Romans could bring against them into