“If you are to found a city here,” said Colonus slowly, “Mars must lead you as he leads us. If our young men fight in your battles, your men must come and live with us and worship our gods and obey our laws. That is what a city means. How will these things be, Romulus, son of the Ramnes, son of the wolf?”
“My men will go where I go,” said Romulus [pg 128]briefly. “This also is in my mind, my uncle, and you shall tell me whether it is a wise plan or the hasty vision of youth. There are many in the army of Amulius, my uncle, who hate him as much as they fear him. He suspects that we are the children he tried to murder, and will try to hunt us down and make the people we have protected betray us. Perhaps they will fight for themselves if they will not fight for us; I do not know. But there is not one among my men,” the youth lifted his dark head in high confidence, “who follows me from any other reason than because he wishes. They do not all love me,” he added, with a grin that showed his sharp white teeth, “but I am their leader and they will die fighting before they will yield to Amulius.
“If then I lead my men boldly against Amulius, not waiting for him to be ready, not staying until he sends his slaves to hunt me down, not letting him hear of our coming till we are there, I think that we may succeed, and then will the land be freed. He himself is old and has not led men to war for many years. I think that many in his army will refuse to fight against us, and others will yield without much fighting, and when we have come and taken his city, the people who obey him now will be glad. But my grandfather is still alive, and he, and not my brother [pg 129]nor myself, has the right to rule upon the Long White Mountain.
“When my grandfather is again ruler where he has the right, then would I come here and found my own city in my own place where the she-wolf saved our lives. Was she not the servant of Mars?”
Colonus nodded thoughtfully. “It would seem so.”
“Then shall my people be your people, and your gods my gods,” said Romulus, his clear voice cutting the rest like the call of a trumpet. The young people on the other side of the square looked curiously at the two, the young man and the older one, so deep in talk, and Remus, laughing, began to play again. It was a sweet and piercing measure that set all their feet flying.
Colonus stood up and took his young kinsman by the hand. “You are of our blood,” he said, “and your fight is our fight. We have talked of this among us, and have thought that perhaps you would do this. I think that our council will be of one mind with me in this matter. The gods guide you, my son.”