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So that night they went up stealthily, for there was no moon, and the gate was open, and Tarpeia was standing there. Tatius could see her greedy eyes in the starlight; but instead of his bracelet, he took his shield from his left arm and struck her down with it for a betrayer, and all the Sabine men threw their shields upon her as they passed.
From that lere Prince Richard would say to you, 'Where a subject is so great as to be feared, and too much beloved to be destroyed, the king must remember how Tarpeia was crushed." "I remember naught of Tarpeia, and I detest parables." "And how, O wise in thine own conceit?" Instead of love, I would raise envy; for instead of cold countenance I would heap him with grace.
'Because Mr Meddlechip suffers from too much money, and has to get rid of it to prevent himself being crushed like Tarpeia by the Sabine shields, he is called charitable. 'He does good, though, doesn't he? asked Madame. 'See advertisement, scoffed Calton. 'Oh, yes! he will give thousands of pounds for any public object, but private charity is a waste of money in his eyes.
The Tarpeian Rock, from which the condemned used to be thrown by the ancient Romans, is close by this edifice, if the Rupe Tarpeia still pointed out is the veritable one.
Tarpeia afterwards was buried there, and the hill from her was called Tarpeius, until the reign of king Tarquin, who dedicated the place to Jupiter, at which time her bones were removed, and so it lost her name, except only that part of the Capitol which they still call the Tarpeian Rock, from which they used to cast down malefactors.
One Tarpeius was governor of the citadel, whose daughter, Tarpeia by name, going forth from the walls to fetch water for a sacrifice, took money from the King that she should receive certain of the soldiers within the citadel; but when they had been so received, the men cast their shields upon her, slaying her with the weight of them.
So steep were the rocks on which it stood, so strong were the walls, that the Sabines must have given up their attempt in despair, had it not been for the treachery of Tarpeia, the governor's daughter.
It was that divine love, then, that tower of strength, that shield and buckler, that made me this thing you see. Tarpeia was enough. Away with your generalities! Go, go, you slave of the past! Yet no, you have not gone? You believe what you say, I know with those eyes you cannot deceive. Ah, but I trusted her eyes once!
Simylus the poet talks utter nonsense when he says that it was not the Sabines but the Gauls to whom Tarpeia betrayed the Capitol, because she was in love with their king. His verses run as follows: "And near Tarpeia, by the Capitol That dwelt, betrayer of the walls of Rome. She loved the chieftain of the Gauls too well, To guard from treachery her father's home."
And Simylus, the poet, who thinks Tarpeia betrayed the Capitol, not to the Sabines, but the Gauls, having fallen in love with their king, talks mere folly, saying thus: Tarpeia 'twas, who, dwelling close thereby, Laid open Rome unto the enemy. She, for the love of the besieging Gaul, Betrayed the city's strength, the Capitol. And a little after, speaking of her death:
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