পাতা:সদগুণ ও বীর্য্যের ইতিহাস.djvu/১৬৭

[ 164 ) He turned round on the pursuing host as they were entering on the bridge, and with his single arm maintained the pass against them. He sought with incomparable skill and valour, laid several of the enemy dead at his feet, and wounded many more. Meanwhile his fellow-soldiers were employed in cutting down the wooden bridge behind him; maintaining the fight till he saw the bridge thus destroyed, he leaped into the Tiber, armed as he was, and swain in safety to the opposite bank, having only received one wound in his thigh. The destruction of the bridge prevented the enemy's entering the city. The name of this patriot and hero was Horatius Cocles. The Consul in gratitude for the service he had performed, proposed to the Roman people, that each of them should give him as much as would maiutain him for a day, and that he should besides, have as much of the public lands as he could compass in one day with a