Page:The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1 (1890).djvu/134

 MARTIUS CARIOLANUS.

principal parsonages, to prouoke them to take that aduauntage, and then aflembled the multitude in the valleie, hard by the high way, to whom he pronounced these words. " sorgetting all iniuries and difpleafures past, done by the Romaine people against the Volfcians, how can you abide the shame you suffer this daye, wherein to oure great reproch, they begin to oftentate and (hew sorth their plaies. Do not you beleeue, that euen to day, they triumph ouer you ? Is not your departure (thincke ye) ridiculous to all the Romaines, to ftrangers, and other cities adioyning ? Be not your wiues and children (trow ye) now paffing homewards, laughed to fcorne? What thincke ye your selues to be, which were warned to depart, at the sound of the trumpet ? What (fup- pofe ye) wil all they thinke, which do meete this multitude retiring homewards, to their great reproch and shame? Truly excepte there be some secrete occalion, whereby we mould be fufpeted to violate the plaies or commit some other crime, and so sorced to relinquifh the company and fellowfhip of the honest, I know not what mould be the cause of this repulfe ? Were we lyuing, when we made such feftination to depart ? If it may be called a depar ture, and not a running away, or fhamefull retire. I perceiue ye did not accompt this to be a citie of our enemies, wher I thinck if ye had taried but one day longer, ye had all beene flaine. They haue denounced warres vppon you, which if you be men of courage, mall redounde to the vtter destru&ion of them, which first gaue the defiaunce." The Volfcians perceyuing themfelues greatly derided, for confiderations besore remembred, determined by common accord, to inferre warres vppon the Romaines, vnder the conduction of Actius Tullius, and Coriolanus. After they had recouered diuers of the Romaine cities, they proceded further, and in sondrie places fpoiled and destroyed the fame, encamping them selues fiue miles from Rome, betides the trenches called soflas Cluilias. In the meane time contention rofe betwene the people and the fathers, howbeit the feare of sorren partes, linked their mindes together, in the bands of concord. The Confuls and fa thers repofed their whole confidence in battel, which the common people in no wife could abide. Whersore they were conftrained to aiTemble the Senate, in which confult was determined, that Am-

MARTIUS