_ Mr. B_. Pray Emily, what was passing in Rome all this time.
_Emily_. Brutus assembled the people in the field of Mars, and in long
speeches exhorted them to concord; and the consuls, standing before the
altars, took an oath, in the name of themselves, their children, and
posterity, that they would never recall king Tarquin nor his family from
banishment, nor create any other king of Rome; and they made the people
take the same oath. Under these circumstances, you may suppose that the
ambassadors from the banished king did not meet with a very favourable
reception. From their earnest supplications to the senate, however, that
they would hear their monarch before he was condemned, the consuls at
first inclined to bring them before the people, and to leave the
decision of the affair to them; but Valerius, a man of great weight in
the council, strongly opposed this measure, and, by his influence in the
senate, defeated this first attempt of the artful Tarquin. His next step
seemed likely to be more successful. A second embassy was dispatched to
Rome, under pretence of demanding the estates of the exiles, but with
private instructions to stir up a faction, if possible, against the
consuls. The ambassadors were admitted, and urged the most modest
demands in behalf of the banished king. They requested only his paternal
estate, and on that condition promised never to attempt the recovery of
his kingdom by force of arms.
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