Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/507

Rh she chiefly exerted in lyrical pieces. She excelled in versification, and from the variety of her knowledge deserves to be classed with people of learning. She composed also three pastorals to be set to music. F. C.

When the Romans were at war with the Rutuli, and before the capital, Ardea, the siege of which went on very slowly, the general officers had a good deal of leisure for diversions, and they mutually made entertainments for one another in their quarters. One day, when Sextus Tarquinius was feasting his brothers, their kinsman Collatinus being of the company, the conversation happened to turn upon the merit of their wives. Every one extolled the good qualities of his own; but Collatinus affirmed, that his Lucretia excelled all others. It was a kind of quarrel; and, in order to end it, they took the method that mirth and wine inspired, which was, to mount their horses and surprize their wives; and it was agreed, that she whom they found employed in the manner most becoming the sex, should have the preference. Away therefore they galloped first to Rome, where they surprized the king's daughters-in-law all together in the midst of gaiety and diversions, who seemed much disconcerted by the unexpected return of their husbands. From Rome they hastened away to Coilatia, the place where Collatinus resided in time of peace. Though the night was far advanced when the princes arrived there, they found Lucretia up, with her maids about her, spinning and working in wool. The company her husband brought of a sudden did not discompose her, and they were all pleased