"Ah! mother, what is it you do?" he cried as he lifted her up. "Thou
hast saved Rome, but lost thy son."

[Illustration: ROMAN CAMP]

And so it proved, for when he had broken up his camp and returned to the
Volscian territory till the senate should recall him as they proceeded,
Tullus, angry and disappointed, stirred up a tumult, and he was killed
by the people before he could be sent for to Rome. A temple to "Women's
Good Speed" was raised on the spot where Veturia knelt to him.

Another very proud patrician family was the Quinctian. The father,
Lucius Quinctius, was called Cincinnatus, from his long flowing curls of
hair. He was the ablest man among the Romans, but stern and grave, and
his eldest son Kæso was charged by the tribunes with a murder and fled
the country. Soon after there was a great inroad of the Æqui and
Volscians, and the Romans found themselves in great danger. They saw no
one could save them but Cincinnatus, so they met in haste and chose him
Dictator, though he was not present. Messengers were sent to his little
farm on the Tiber, and there they found him holding the stilts of the
plough. When they told their errand, he turned to his wife, who was
helping him, and said, "Racilia, fetch me my toga;" then he washed his
face and hands, and was saluted as Dictator. A boat was ready to take
him to Rome, and as he landed, he was met by the four-and-twenty lictors
belonging to the two consuls and escorted to his dwelling. In the
morning he named as general of the cavalry Lucius Tarquitius, a brave
old patrician who had become too poor even to keep a horse. Marching out
at the head of all the men who could bear arms, he thoroughly routed the
Æqui, and then resigned his dictatorship at the end of sixteen days. Nor
would he accept any of the spoil, but went back to his plough, his only