“We made war against them and we beat them, and took their city Fidenæ and their city Veii. Before we made peace they had to pay us certain lands. Before peace was made and the price paid, there were sons of their blood in our power, whom we kept as a pledge that they were willing to pay the price. That was all. They were not guilty of any crime against us. They were here to show that their people meant to keep faith. When peace was made I sent them back.
“If we had kept them, if we had slain them, if harm had come to them, then the wrong would have been on our side, and we should have had another war. Why should there be war between neighbors? Is not friendship better than hatred?
“Some are angry because I divided the lands, which they gave us as a price, among the soldiers. [pg 256]Yet who has better right than the men who fight the battles? This is all of my story. Ye believe?” Then a shout arose to the very skies,—“Romulus! Romulus! Romulus!”
Suddenly the clouds grew black, and lightnings flashed through them. Just as Naso was rising to speak, a tremendous clap of thunder shook the earth, or so it seemed. Winds swept suddenly down from the mountains and howled across the plains, carrying away mantles and curtains and boughs of trees in their flight. The crowd broke up in confusion, and the patricians were heard calling in distress, “Marcus!” “Caius!” “Aulus!” for in the darkness they could not see their friends a rod away. They hastened to whatever shelter they could find, and sheets of rain poured from the clouds. It was one of the most terrific tempests any one there present had ever known. It did not last long—perhaps an hour—but when it was over Romulus was nowhere to be seen.
The people had scattered in all directions, but the patricians had managed to keep together. When the storm was over, they did not know at first that Romulus had disappeared, but presently one after another of the common people was heard asking where he was, and no one could be found who knew. The people searched every[pg 257]where without finding so much as the hem of his mantle. It began to be whispered that he had been killed and his body hidden away, and black looks were cast upon the public men in their white robes.
They themselves were perhaps more perplexed and worried than any one else, for they saw what the people thought. It began to dawn upon them that the united opinion of hundreds of men, even though of the despised plebs, or peasants, was not exactly a thing to be overlooked. That night was a black and anxious one.
On the following morning, Naso, Caius Cossus, and some other leaders came to see Calvo and ask his opinion of the mystery. He had not been at the Goat’s Marsh the day before, nor had Cossus and others of the friends of the vanished chief. All the men who had been there, of the upper class, were enemies of Romulus. It was a most unpleasant position for them.
Calvo heard the story gravely, without making any comment.
The storm had not been nearly so severe in Rome; in fact it was not much more than an ordinary summer storm. But when Naso told of it he described it as something beyond anything that could be natural.
“Do you think,” asked Calvo coolly at last, [pg 258]“that the gods had anything to do with these strange appearances?” Naso could not say.