6. He determined, therefore, to
make her his slave. 7. After having vainly tried to corrupt the
fidelity of her nurse, he had recourse to another expedient, still
more wicked. He fixed upon one Clau'dius, who had long been the
minister of his crimes, to assert that the beautiful maid was his
slave, and to refer the cause to Ap'pius's tribunal for decision. 8.
Clau'dius behaved exactly according to his instructions; for, taking
with him a band of ruffians like himself, he entered into the public
school, where Virginia was found among her female companions, and
seizing upon her under pretence that she was the daughter of one of
his slaves, was dragging her away, when he was prevented by the
people, drawn together by her cries. 9. At length, after the first
heat of opposition was over, he led the weeping virgin to the tribunal
of Ap'pius, and there plausibly exposed his pretensions. 10. Clau'dius
asserted that she was born in his house, of a female slave, who sold
her to the wife of Virgin'ius, who had been childless.
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