15. There they found Lucre'tia, the wife of Collati'nus, not like the
other women of her age, spending the time in ease and luxury, but
spinning in the midst of her maids, and cheerfully portioning out
their tasks. Her modest beauty, and the easy reception she gave her
husband and his friends, so charmed them all, that they unanimously
gave her the preference, but kindled, in the breast of Sextus
Tarquin'ius, a detestable passion, which occasioned the grossest
insult and injury to Lucre'tia, who, detesting the light, and
resolving to destroy herself for the crime of another, demanded her
husband Collati'nus, and Spu'rius, her father, to come to her; an
indelible disgrace having befallen the family. 16. They instantly
obeyed the summons, bringing with them Valerius, a kinsman of her
father, and Junius Bru'tus, a reputed idiot, whose father Tarquin had
murdered, and who had accidentally met the messenger by the way. 17.
Their arrival only served to increase Lucre'tia's poignant anguish;
they found her in a state of the deepest desperation, and vainly
attempted to give her relief.
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