| LIVES OF THE NOBLE | | |
| | | |
MARCUS | mountaines, thinking by that meanes to stoppe Brutus pas- | |
BRUTUS | sage. Wherefore Brutus sent his horsemen against them, | |
| who stale uppon them as they were at dinner, and slue six | |
| hundred of them: and taking all the small townes and | |
| villages, he did let all the prisoners he tooke, goe without | |
| payment of ransome, hoping by this his great curtesie to | |
| winne them, to drawe all the rest of the contry unto him. | |
Brutus jests* | But they were so fierce and obstinate, that they would | |
in Lycia. | mutyne for every small hurt they receyved as they passed | |
| by their contry, and did despise his curtesie and good | |
| nature: untill that at length he went to beseege the citie | |
| of the Xanthians, within the which were shut uppe the | |
| cruellest and most warrelikest men of Lycia. There was a | |
| ryver that ranne by the walls of the citie, in the which many | |
| men saved them selves, swymming betweene two waters, and | |
| fledde: howbeit they layed nettes overthwart the ryver, and | |
| tyed litle bells on the toppe of them, to sownd when any | |
| man was taken in the nettes. The Xanthians made a salye | |
| out by night, and came to fire certaine engynes of battery | |
| that bette downe their walls: but they were presently driven | |
| in agayne by the Romanes, so soone as they were discovered. | |
| The winde by chaunce was marvelous bygge, and increased | |
The citie of | the flame so sore, that it violently caried it into the cranewes | |
Xanthus set | of the wall of the citie, so that the next houses unto them | |
a fire. | were straight set a fire thereby. Wherefore Brutus beeing | |
| afrayde that all the citie woulde take of a fire, he presently | |
| commaunded his men to quenche the fire, and to save the | |
| towne if it might be. But the Lycians at that instant fell | |
| into such a frensie, and straunge and horrible dispayre, that | |
| no man can well expresse it: and a man can not more rightly | |
| compare or lyken it, then to a franticke and moste desperate | |
The desperat | desire to dye. For all of them together, with their wives | |
ende of the | and children, Maisters and servaunts, and of all sortes of age | |
Xanthians. | whatsoever, fought uppon the ramper of their walles, and | |
| did cast downe stones and fierworkes on the Romanes, which | |
| were very busie in quenching the flame of the fire, to save | |
| the citie. And in contrary manner also, they brought | |
| fagotts, drye wodde, and reedes, to bringe the fire further | |
| into the citie asmuch as might bee, increasing it by suche | |
| 212 | |