ce.

And besides, it was feared that after the death of this King, who,
during his lifetime--with the single exception of the last contest with
the Emperor and the Senate, when Boethius and Symmachus bled--had
protected the Italians from the harshness and violence of his people--a
new rule of severity and oppression would commence on the part of the
Goths.

And, finally, another and more noble influence was at work; the
personality of this hero-King had been so grand, so majestic, that even
those who had often wished for the destruction of himself and his
kingdom, could not--at the moment when this luminary was about to be
extinguished--revel in a feeling of malicious joy, and were unable to
overcome a deep depression.

So, since early morning--when servants from the palace had been seen
rushing in all directions, and special messengers hurrying to the
houses of the most distinguished Goths and Romans--the town had been in
a state of great excitement.

Men stood together by pairs or in groups in the streets, squares and
baths, questioning or imparting to each other what they knew; trying to
detain some person of importance who came from the palace, and talking
of the grave consequences of the approaching catastrophe. Women and
children, urged by curiosity, crouched on the thresholds of the houses.

As the day advanced, even the populations of the nearest towns and
villages--principally consisting of sorrowing Goths--streamed into the
gates of the city to hear the news.

The counsellors of the King, pre-eminently the pretorian prefect,
Cassiodorus, who earned great praise for preserving order in those
days, had foreseen this excitement, and perhaps expected something
worse.

At midnight all the entrances to the palace had been closed, and
guarded by Goths. In the Forum Honorum, before the palace, a troop of
cavalry had been placed. On the broad marble steps that led up to the
grand colonnade of the principal entrance, lay, in picturesque groups,
strong companies of Gothic foot-soldiers, armed with shield and spear.

Only there, according to the order of Cassiodorus, could admittance
be gained to the palace, and only the two leaders of the
infantry--Cyprian, the Roman, and Witichis, the Goth, were allowed to
grant permission to enter.

It was to the first of these persons that Cethegus applied.

As he took the well-known way to the King's apartments, he found all
the Goths and Romans whose rank or importance