Nevertheless the blockade continued, and there was a scarcity of corn, with a very high price.

Porsena entertained a hope that by continuing the siege he should take the city, when C.Mucius, a young nobleman, to whom it seemed a disgrace that the Roman people, when enslaved under kings, had never been confined within their walls in any war, nor by any enemy, should now when a free people be blocked up by these very Etrurians whose armies they had often routed, thinking that such indignity should be avenged by some great and daring effort, at first designed of his own accord to penetrate into the enemy's camp.
Then, being afraid if he went without the permission of the consuls, or the knowledge of any one, he might be seized by the Roman guards and brought back as a deserter, the circumstances of the city at the time justifying the charge, he went to the senate: "Fathers," says he, "I intend to cross the Tiber, and enter the enemy's camp, if I can; not as a plunderer, or as an avenger in our turn of their devastations.

A greater deed is in in my mind, if the gods assist." The senate approved his design.

He set out with a sword concealed under his garment.

When he came thither, he stationed himself among the thickest of the crowd, near the king's tribunal.