up a station,
therefore, between Rome and the river Anio, sending scouts about the
walls and the gates of the city who should learn what the enemy purposed
to do in the great extremity whereunto they had been brought.

CHAPTER XIV. ~~ THE STORY OF ROME AND THE GAULS (continued).

Meanwhile the city was full of weeping and wailing, for none thought
that they who had fled to Veii were yet alive, or that any had been
saved from the battle, save such as were already come back to Rome. But
when tidings were brought that the Gauls were close at hand, sorrow
gave place to fear. And now the Gauls were seen to move backwards and
forwards before the walls, and there was heard the sound of shouting and
of the barbarous music that this people use. And still the inhabitants
expected till an attack should be made upon the city. At first they
thought that this would be done at the first coming of the enemy; but
afterwards believed that it would be delayed until nightfall, that the
terror might be increased by the darkness. Nevertheless all men bore
themselves bravely, and altogether unlike to them who had turned their
backs in such shameful fashion at the river Allia. For since there was
no hope that the city should be defended by the small number that yet
remained, it was resolved that all the young men that could bear arms,
together with such of the Senators as had strength sufficient for
war, should go up with their wives and children to the Citadel and the
Capitol, where stores of arms and corn having been collected, they
might defend the gods of Rome and the honour of the State. Also it was
determined that the priests of Quirinus, and the virgins of Vesta
with him, should carry away far from peril of fire and sword all that
appertained to the gods, that their worship might not be interrupted so
long as any should be left to perform it. For they said, "If the citadel
and the Capitol, wherein are the dwellings of the Gods, and the Senate,
which is the council of the State, and the youth that are of an age to
carry arms, survive the destruction that hangs over the city, it is but
a small matter that the aged should perish." And that the common people
might bear their fate with the more willingness, the old men of
the nobles that had been honoured in former days with triumphs and
consulships affirmed that they would meet death together with the rest;
neither would they burden the scanty stores of the fighting men with
bodies