After passionately charging Sextus
Tarquin'ius with the basest perfidy towards her husband and injury to
herself, she drew a poinard from beneath her robe, and instantly
plunging it into her bosom, expired without a groan. 18. Struck with
sorrow, pity, and indignation, Spu'rius and Collati'nus gave vent to
their grief; but Bru'tus, drawing the poinard, reeking, from
Lucre'tia's wound, and lifting it up towards heaven, "Be witness, ye
gods," he cried, "that, from this moment, I proclaim myself the
avenger of the chaste Lucretia's cause; from this moment I profess
myself the enemy of Tarquin and his wicked house; from henceforth this
life, while life continues, shall be employed in opposition to
tyranny, and for the happiness and freedom of my much-loved country."
19. A new amazement seized the hearers: he, whom they had hitherto
considered as an idiot, now appearing, in his real character, the
friend of justice, and of Rome. He told them, that tears and
lamentations were unmanly, when vengeance called so loudly; and,
delivering the poinard to the rest, imposed the same oath upon them
which he himself had just taken.
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