Language therefore failing him, he says, "Romans, since I do not speak with as much readiness as I make good what I have spoken, attend here to-morrow.

I will either die here before your eyes, or will carry the law." On the following day the tribunes take possession of the temple; the consuls and the nobility take their places in the assembly to obstruct the law.

Laetorius orders all persons to be removed, except those going to vote; the young nobles kept their places, paying no regard to the officer; then Laetorius orders some of them to be seized.

The consul Appius insisted "that the tribune had no jurisdiction over any one except a plebeian; for that he was not a magistrate of the people in general, but only of the commons; for that even he himself could not, according to the usage of their ancestors, by virtue of his authority remove any person; because the words run thus, _if ye think proper, depart, Romans_." He was able to disconcert Laetorius by arguing fluently and contemptuously concerning the right.

The tribune therefore, burning with rage, sends his beadle to the consul; the consul sends his lictor to the tribune, exclaiming that he was a private individual, without power and without magistracy; and the tribune would have been roughly treated, had not both the entire assembly risen up with great warmth in behalf of the tribune against the consul, and a rush of persons belonging to the multitude, which was now much excited, taken place from the entire city into the forum.