14. The day following was fixed for the
trial. In the mean time Ap'pius privately sent letters to the general
to confine Virgin'ius, as his arrival in town might only serve to
kindle sedition among the people. 15. These letters, however, being
intercepted by the centurion's friends, they sent him a full relation
of the design laid against his liberty and the honour of his only
daughter. 16. Virgin'ius, upon this, pretending the death of a near
relation, got permission to leave the camp, and hastened to Rome,
inspired with indignation and revenge. 17. Accordingly, the next
day, to the astonishment of Ap'pius, he appeared before the tribunal,
leading his weeping daughter by the hand, both of them habited in deep
mourning. 18. Clau'dius, the accuser, began by making his demand.
Virgin'ius next spoke in turn: he represented, that, if he had had
intentions of adopting a suppositious child, he should have fixed upon
a boy rather than a girl; that it was notorious to all, that his wife
had herself nursed this daughter; and that it was surprising such a
claim should be made after a fifteen years' silence; and not till
Virginia was become marriageable, and acknowledged to be exquisitely
beautiful.
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