120 TRIUMPHANT RETURN. 



fenders of the baby Tuscans who, driven from the field, still 

 struggled to preserve them. Their deeds of devoted heroism 

 would fill a volume; one of them will adorn a page. A 

 Rufian enters an apartment, where ten of the little Tuscans are 

 committed to the care of one attendant, on whom she rushes. 

 The ruthless Amazon by main weight bears her to the ground, 

 then severing with her trenchant weapon the lower limbs of 

 their faithful guardian, snatches up two of the infants, and 

 retreats. But life and affection are still strong within the 

 dismembered body of the devoted nurse. Moving on her 

 bleeding trunk, she bears with persevering agony, first one, 

 then another of her helpless charges to a place of concealment, 

 and not till the last is hidden (as she fondly hopes) from the 

 search of its enemies, does she fall down and die. 



Triumphant was the homeward inarch of the victorious 

 Rufians, each Amazonian victress shouldering her ravished 

 bantling. Of the little captives, some (thejw#?) were wrapt in a 

 sort of swaddling clothes, whilst others (the larva), who were 

 younger and not thus enthralled, felt equally ill at ease under 

 the awkward handling of their warlike captors. No longer 

 keeping (in consequence, perhaps, of their acquired encum- 

 brances) the regular array in which, spite of impeding obstacles, 

 they had advanced towards the ransacked city, their return, 

 for the greater portion of the way, was straggling and irregular : 

 but converging from all points, they at last reassembled again 

 in a compact body before their own capital. 



