He departed for Rome, where his poor daughter was guarded in the house of her uncle, Numitorius, in the deepest distress and terror. He entered; and such was his expression as he cried, "My child! my child!" and she rushed into his arms, that there were scarcely ever many dry eyes in the theatre at that moment. Then it was something divine to be seen, and never to be forgotten, to behold how he turned from his blistering and disdainful apostrophe to the villain who had dared set his panders after her, and, taking her precious head in his hands, gazed in her face, saying,-- "I never saw you look so like your mother In all my life! _Virginia._ You'll be advised, dear father? _Virginius._ It was her soul,--her soul, that played just then About the features of her child, and lit them Into the likeness of her own. When first She placed thee in my arms,--I recollect it As a thing of yesterday!--she wished, she said, That it had been a man. I answered her, It was the mother of a race of men. And paid her for thee with a kiss. Her lips Are cold now,--could they but be warmed again, How they would clamor for thee! _Virginia._ My dear father, You do not answer me! Will you not be advised? _Virginius._ I will not take him by the throat and strangle him! But I COULD do it! I could DO IT!" They go to the Forum, where Appius is seated on the tribunal, supported by the lictors and an armed troop. The acting of Forrest in the trial-scene that followed was as genuine and moving, set in as bold relief, as anything the American theatre has known. Who that saw him can ever forget the imperial front with which, bearing Virginia on his arm, he advanced before the judgment-seat,--the firm step, the indomitable face, the parental love that seemed to throw a thousand invisible tendrils around his child to hold her up! The tableau caused a silence that was absolute, and was maintained so long that the suspense had begun to be painful, when the kingly voice of Virginius broke the spell: "Does no one speak? I am defendant here! Is silence my opponent? Fit opponent To plead a cause too foul for speech! What brow Shameless, gives front to this most valiant cause, That tries its prowess 'gainst the honor of A girl, yet lacks the wit to know that they Who cast off shame should likewise cast off fear!" The strong, lucid, cutting tones in which these words were spoken went vibrating into the breasts of the listeners, and thrilled them with sympathetic echoes. The perjured witness was summoned by the recreant judge. And the next passage of the play had a moral meaning deep enough, and was represented with a truth and power grand enough, to turn the stage for the time being into a pulpit and make the world tremble at its preaching. "_Virginius._ And are you the man That claims my daughter for his slave?--Look at me, And I will give her to thee.