fully the illustrious travellers moved through the
crowd around them to the city gate; and thence, amid incessant shouts
of applause, raised with imposing unanimity of lung, and wrought up to
the most distracting discordancy of noise, Vetranio and his lively
companion departed in triumph for Rome.

* * * * *

A few days after this event the citizens were again assembled at the
same place and hour--probably to witness another patrician
departure--when their ears were assailed by the unexpected sound
produced by the call to arms, which was followed immediately by the
closing of the city gates. They had scarcely asked each other the
meaning of these unusual occurrences, when a peasant, half frantic with
terror, rushed into the square, shouting out the terrible intelligence
that the Goths were in sight!

The courtiers heard the news, and starting from a luxurious repast,
hurried to the palace windows to behold the portentous spectacle. For
the remainder of the evening the banqueting tables were unapproached by
the guests.

The wretched emperor was surprised among his poultry by that dreaded
intelligence. He, too, hastened to the windows, and looking forth, saw
the army of avengers passing in contempt his solitary fortress, and
moving swiftly onward towards defenceless Rome. Long after the
darkness had hidden the masses of that mighty multitude from his eyes,
did he remain staring helplessly upon the fading landscape, in a stupor
of astonishment and dread; and, for the first time since he had
possessed them, his flocks of fowls were left for that night unattended
by their master's hand.

CHAPTER 3.

ROME.

The perusal of the title to this chapter will, we fear, excite emotions
of apprehension, rather than of curiosity, in the breasts of
experienced readers. They will doubtless imagine that it is portentous
of long rhapsodies on those wonders of antiquity, the description of
which has long become absolutely nauseous to them by incessant
iteration. They will foresee wailings over the Palace of the Caesars,
and meditations among the arches of the Colosseum, loading a long
series of weary paragraphs to the very chapter's end; and,
considerately anxious to spare their attention a task from which it
recoils, they will unanimously hurry past the dreaded desert of
conventional reflection, to alight on the first oasis that may present
itself, whether it be formed by a new division of th