"It was quite a while after Æneas settled in Italy. The two boys were his great-great-great-grandchildren; thirteen times great, I believe. Their mother was a vestal virgin,—that is, she was a maiden who tended the sacred fire in the temple of the goddess Vesta. Such maidens were treated with great honour, but they were not allowed to marry.
"So the people were very angry when the young girl claimed that the god Mars was her husband, and that the two baby boys were his and her children. So the poor girl was buried alive, while the helpless babies were put in a trough and set afloat on the river Tiber."
"Poor little things! Were they drowned?" asked Beppo.
"No, for if they had been, there would be no more story to tell," said Mr. Gray.
"It happened that the river was very high at that time and had overflowed its banks, just as it sometimes does nowadays. The water settled down soon afterward and the two boys were left high and dry on the bank.
"And now what do you suppose came along and saw the children?"
"Some bad men," answered Arthur.
"The boys' mother, who had escaped from her grave," guessed Beppo.
"No. It was a mother wolf, who carried them home to her lair and fondled and nursed them," was the answer.