Tarquin, knowing that if he lingered he would have to face the army led by Brutus, turned away from the city and hastened to seek refuge in Etruria. The Romans, having thus expelled their king, appointed a day to be celebrated as the Feast of Flight, or the Feast of the Expulsion of the Kings. This feast was held each year on the 24th February. CHAPTER XXII THE SONS OF BRUTUS After Tarquin the Proud had been driven away from Rome, the people determined that they would never again be ruled by kings. They resolved to follow the wise laws of Servius, who had bidden them choose each year two men to rule, giving them equal power, the right to make laws, and to see that justice was done in the land. The two men, chosen by the Senate and the people, were called Consuls. In token of his office, each Consul had at his command six men, named lictors. When a Consul went into the Forum or into the street, he was preceded by his lictors, who carried, as a sign of their master’s power, rods to chastise and an axe to kill. Rome had now become a Republic, and the first Consuls to be elected were Brutus and Collatinus. But if the Romans expected Tarquin to make no effort to recover his throne, they soon discovered their mistake. Before long, the king sent messengers to Rome to ask that his own private possessions might be sent to him, and to this simple request the Senate and the people agreed. As perhaps the Romans might have suspected, Tarquin had another reason for sending to Rome than the one his messengers carried to the Senate. He knew that among the younger patricians were many who wished to place him again upon the throne, and his messengers had come to talk secretly with these nobles. They even hoped to arrange the best time for the king’s return. But as the conspirators talked together, a slave chanced to overhear what they said, and he at once went to the Consuls and told them of the danger that threatened the city. The conspirators were immediately seized and thrown into prison, while the slave was set free and made a citizen of Rome. Among the prisoners were Titus and Tiberius, the sons of Brutus. The brave Consul was dismayed to learn that his sons, whom he loved well, had been guilty of treason. How could he bear to pronounce judgment upon them as upon other traitors? Yet soon he thrust aside his weakness. A true Roman must love his country better even than his own children. So when the conspirators were brought before him he did not flinch. With stern, set face he condemned Titus and Tiberius to death along with the other traitors, nor did he stoop to ask the people to show mercy to his sons. The young men were bound to the stake before his eyes, after which the lictors beat them with rods and then cut off their heads with the axe.