Note 22 — CHAPTER THE EIGHTH.

This description is not exaggerated, at least, if the authority of Macaulay is to be relied upon; and for the incidents of this remote period we are perhaps justified in trusting quite as much to the lay of the poet, as to any other source. The following lines refer to the state of Appius, when taken home, after the death of Virginia:—

"One stone hit Appius in the mouth, and one beneath the ear, And ere he reached Mount Palatine he swooned with pain and fear. His cursed head, that he was wont to hold so high with pride, Now like a drunken man's, hung down, and swayed from side to side. And when his stout retainers had brought him to his door, His face and neck were all one cake of filth and clotted gore."