On the other side, the father of the virgin, and the rest of her relations, brought many just and well-grounded proofs to show the child could not have been supposed; alleging that the sister of Numitorius, and wife of Virginius, could have no probable reason to suppose a child, since she was then young, and married to a young man, and had brought forth a child no very considerable time after her marriage; neither, if she had been ever so desirous to introduce a foreign offspring into her own family, would she have taken the child of another person’s slave, rather than that of a free woman united to her by consanguinity, or friendship, whose fidelity might have secured to her the possession of the child she had taken; and, when she had it in her power to take either a male or a female child, she would have certainly chosen the former. For, after a woman is brought to bed, if she wants children, she must necessarily be contented with, and bring up, whatever nature produces; whereas, a woman who supposes a child will, in all probability, choose one of that sex which excels the other. As to the informer, and the credible witnesses which Claudius said he would produce in great numbers, they disproved their testimony by this reason, drawn from probability, that Numitoria would never have done a thing openly, and in conjunction with witnesses of free condition, which required secrecy, and might have been transacted by one person, and, by that means, have exposed herself to have the girl taken from her by the master of the mother, after she had brought her up.