Page:The Children's Plutarch, Romans.djvu/44

 “You, Titus, and you, Tiberius, why do you not make your defence against the charge?”

No answer.

“You, Titus, and you, Tiberius, why do you not make your defence against the charge?”

No answer.

“You, Titus, and you, Tiberius, why do you not make your defence against the charge?”

To this third question, no answer.

Brutus turned to the officers.

“Lictors,” he said, “the rest of the business is left to you.”

Then the lictors laid hold of the youths, and stripped off their coats, and tied their hands behind them, and placed them on the ground, and flogged them with the rods.

Brutus said nothing. He looked neither to the right hand nor to the left.

At last the lictors took their axes, and cut off the heads of the sons of Brutus.

Then the father who had lost his sons rose up amid a great silence of the people, and went to his house.

“Oh,” cried some, “how cruel a man is Brutus, to condemn his own sons to death!”

“Nay,” said others, “he loved them all the time as his sons; but he is Consul of Rome, and it was his duty to defend Rome against her enemies.”