'Curse on him!' quoth false Sextus, 'Will not the villain drown? But for this stay, ere close of day, We should have sacked the town!' 'Heaven help him!' quoth Lars Porsena 'And bring him safe to shore; For such a gallant feat of arms Was never seen before.' And now he feels the bottom; Now on dry earth he stands; Now round him throng the fathers To press his gory hands; And now with shouts and clapping, And noise of weeping loud, He enters through the River-gate Borne by the joyous crowd. * * * * * When the goodman mends his armour, And trims his helmet's plume; When the good wife's shuttle merrily Goes flashing through the loom; With weeping and with laughter Still is the story told, How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old." ] [Footnote 13: Of the left hand.--D.O.] [Footnote 14: Probably where the Cliva Capitolina begins to ascend the slope of the Capitol.--D.O.] [Footnote 15: The most ancient of the Greek colonies in Italy. Its ruins are on the coast north of the Promontory of Miseno.--D.O.] [Footnote 16: Leading from the forum to the Velabrum.] [Footnote 17: It was situated in the Alban Hills about ten miles from Rome, on the site of the modern Frascati.--D.O.] [Footnote 18: Suessa-Pometia, mentioned in former note. Cora is now Cori.--D.O.] [Footnote 19: Their home was in Campania.--D.O.] [Footnote 20: Wooden roofs covered with earth or wet hides, and rolled forward on wheels for the protection of those engaged in battering or mining the walls.--D.O.] [Footnote 21: That is, the Romans'.] [Footnote 22: Perhaps because the twenty-four axes of both consuls went to the dictator.--D.O.] [Footnote 23: Now Palestrina] [Footnote 24: See Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome": The Battle of Lake Regillus.] [Footnote 25: The bound (by the law of debt), from nexo, to join or connect.--D.O.] [Footnote 26: That is, for allowing themselves to suffer it and yet fight for their oppressors.--D.O.] [Footnote 27: For military service.] [Footnote:28 Known as Mercuriales. Mercury was the patron of merchants.--D.O.] [Footnote 29: That is, over the senate.--D.O.] [Footnote 30: About 40,000 men.--D.O.] [Footnote 31: That is, like Vetusius, watching the Aequans, who uncrippled were lying in their mountain fastnesses in northern Latium, waiting a chance to renew their ravages.--D.O.] [Footnote 32: Modern Velletri.] [Footnote 33: a chair-shaped X .Its use was an insignia first of royalty, then of the higher magistracies.--D.O.] [Footnote 34: Supposed to be the hill beyond and to the right of the Ponte Nomentano.--D.O.] [Footnote 35: Lucius Calpurnius Piso, the historian.] [Footnote 36: This fable is of very great antiquity. Max Müller says it is found among the Hindus.]