[19]
but when
the thoughts of my country, of your dangers, of this city, of all those shrines and temples
which we see around us, of the infant children, and matrons, and virgins of the city occurred
to me, and when those hostile and fatal torches destined for the entire conflagration of the
whole city, when the arms which had been collected, when the slaughter and blood of the
citizens, when the ashes of my country began to present themselves to my eyes, and to excite
my feelings by the recollection, then I resisted him, then I resisted not only that enemy of
his country, that parricide himself, but I withstood also his relations the Marcelli, father
and son, one of whom was regarded by me with the respect due to a parent, and the other with
the affection which one feels towards a son. And I thought that I could not, without being
guilty of the very greatest wickedness, defend in their companion the same crimes which I had
chastised in the case of others, when I knew him to be guilty.
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