to enjoy the fruits of their evil doings long, and, in the course of
time, the daughter of the dethroned Numitor became the mother of a
beautiful pair of twin boys, (their father being the god of war, Mars,)
who proved the avengers of their grandfather. Not immediately, however.
The detestable usurper determined to throw the mother and her babes
into the river Tiber, and thus make an end of them, as well as of all
danger to him from them. It happened that the river was at the time
overflowing its banks, and though the poor mother was drowned, the
cradle of the twins was caught on the shallow ground at the foot of the
Palatine Hill, at the very place where the good Evander had begun his
city so long before. There the waifs were found by one of the king's
shepherds, after they had been, strangely enough, taken care of for a
while by a she-wolf, which gave them milk, and a woodpecker, which
supplied them with other food. Faustulus was the name of this shepherd,
and he took them to his wife Laurentia, though she already had twelve
others to care for. The brothers, who were named Romulus and Remus,
grew up on the sides of the Palatine Hill to be strong and handsome
men, and showed themselves born leaders among the other shepherds, as
they attended to their daily duties or fought the wild animals that
troubled the flocks.

The grandfather of the twins fed his herds on the Aventine Hill, nearer
the river Tiber, just across a little valley, and a quarrel arose
between his shepherds and those of Faustulus, in the course of which
Remus was captured and taken before Numitor. The old man thus
discovered the relationship that existed between him and the twins who
had so long been lost. In consequence of the discovery of their origin,
and the right to the throne that was their father's, they arose against
their unworthy uncle, and with the aid of their followers, put him to
death and placed Numitor in supreme authority, where he rightfully