When he continued to broil it as if he had been quite insensible, the king, astonished at this surprising sight, after he had leaped from his throne and commanded the young man to be removed from the altar, says, "Be gone, having acted more like an enemy towards thyself than me.

I would encourage thee to persevere in thy valour, if that valour stood on the side of my country.

I now dismiss you untouched and unhurt, exempted from the right of war." Then Mucius, as if making a return for the kindness, says, "Since bravery is honoured by you, so that you have obtained by kindness that which you could not by threats, three hundred of us, the chief of the Roman youth, have conspired to attack you in this manner.

It was my lot first.

The rest will follow, each in his turn, according as the lot shall set him forward, unless fortune shall afford an opportunity of you." 13.