But as the conspirators talked together, a slave chanced to overhear what they said, and he at once went to the Consuls and told them of the danger that threatened the city.
The conspirators were immediately seized and thrown into prison, while the slave was set free and made a citizen of Rome.
Among the prisoners were Titus and Tiberius, the sons of Brutus.
The brave Consul was dismayed to learn that his sons, whom he loved well, had been guilty of treason. How could he bear to pronounce judgment upon them as upon other traitors?
Yet soon he thrust aside his weakness. A true Roman must love his country better even than his own children.
So when the conspirators were brought before him he did not flinch. With stern, set face he condemned Titus and Tiberius to death along with the other traitors, nor did he stoop to ask the people to show mercy to his sons.
The young men were bound to the stake before his eyes, after which the lictors beat them with rods and then cut off their heads with the axe.
So angry were the Senate and the people with Tarquin for attempting to plot against the Republic, that they now refused to send to him his possessions. And not only so, but they divided his goods among the people, while the field between the city and the Tiber which Tarquin had sown with corn was destroyed, the corn cut down and thrown into the river. The angry citizens then dedicated the field to the god Mars, and henceforth it was known as the Field of Mars.
The Senate then made a law banishing for ever from Rome all who bore the hated name of Tarquin.
So Collatinus, whose other name was Tarquinius, resigned his Consulship and left the city in obedience to the law. And this he did, although he was the friend of Brutus, and hated the exiled king.
