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moved with filial piety, and under the greateſt concern that he ſhould furniſh matter of accuſation againſt his father, reſolved upon a moſt extraordinary method to relieve him. One morning, without appriſing any body he came to the city armed with a dagger, and went directly to the houſe of the tribune Pomponius who had accuſed his father. Pomponius was yet in bed. He ſent up his name, and was immediately admitted by the tribune, who did not doubt but he was come to diſcover to him ſome new inſtances of his father's ſeverity After they had ſaluted each other, young Manlius deſired a private conference; and as ſoon as he ſaw himſelf alone with the tribune, he drew out his dagger, and preſented it to his breaſt, and declared he would ſtab him that moment, if he did not ſwear in the form he ſhould dictate, "Never to hold the aſſembly of the people for accuſing his father." Pomponius, who ſaw the dagger glittering at his breaſt, himſelf alone without arms, and attacked by a robuſt young man, full of a bold confidance in his own ſtrength, took the oath demanded of him, and afterwards confeſſed with a kind of complacency in the thing, and a ſincerity which ſufficiently argued he was not ſorry for what he had done, that it was not violence which obliged him to deſiſt from his enterpriſe.
