Miscellanies in Prose and Verse

"The truth of this I will now prove to you. Under that subverter of so many cities, fortifications were thrown down by the battering-ram, lofty turrets were laid low, and formed a heap equal to the highest citadel, but no engines could be found capable of shaking a well-established soul. I have just now escaped from the ruins of my house, and from burnings everywhere resplendent, I fled through flames, and through blood. What has been the destiny of my daughters, whether worse than that of the public, I know not. I alone, old, and seeing everything about me hostile, nevertheless profess that my estate is entire and safe; I hold, I possess whatever I have of mine. There is no reason you should believe that I am vanquished, and that you are the victor. Your fortune has conquered my fortune. With respect to those fallen concerns, and which change their master, where they are I know not; but with respect to my own concerns, they are with me, they will be with me; for I indeed possess all that is mine entire and undefiled. Do not therefore ask me what I have lost, but interrogate those who weep and lament; who for the sake of their money opposed their naked bodies to drawn swords, and who fled from the enemy with a burdened bosom."