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 Ru- 

 fian enters an apartment, where ten of the little Fuscans 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 dis- 

 membered body of the devoted nurse. Moving on her bleed- 

 ing 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 march of the victorious Ru- 

 fians, each Amazonian victress shouldering her ravished ban- 

 tling. Of the little captives, some (the pupa?) were wrapt in a 

 sort of swaddling clothes, whilst others (the larvce,) 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 irregu- 

 lar : but converging from all points, they at last reassembled 

 again in a compact body before their own capital. 



