tion.

And, as if at a signal, the women and children, with uplifted hands,
threw themselves on their knees; while all the armed inhabitants raised
their weapons threateningly, and many a spear was hurled at the
Prefect. They were the very weapons which he himself had given to the
people.

"They are dogs--no Romans!" exclaimed Cethegus, with disdainful fury,
and turned his horse. "To the Capitol!"

And his horse, with a sudden leap, cleared the row of kneeling and
screaming women. Through a shower of darts which the Romans now sent
after him galloped the Prefect, riding down the few who had courage
enough to try to stop him.

His crimson crest soon disappeared in the distance.

His companions galloped swiftly after him. The lance-bearers on foot
retreated in good order, now and then turning and levelling their
spears. Thus they reached the lofty bulwark which, held by Marcus
Licinius, protected the ascent to the Capitol, and the way to the
Prefect's house.

"What next? Shall we pursue?" the citizens asked the King.

"No--stay. Let all the gates be opened. Wagons laden with meat, bread,
and wine stand ready in the camp. Let them be brought into all parts of
the city. Feed the people of Rome for three whole days. My Goths shall
keep watch to prevent excess."

"And the Prefect?" asked Duke Guntharis.

"Cornelius Cethegus, the ex-Prefect of Rome, will not escape the
vengeance of God," cried Totila, turning away.

"And not mine!" cried the shepherd-boy.

"And not mine!" said Teja, and galloped after the King.

CHAPTER X.

Most of the quarters of the city of Rome had now fallen into the hands
of the enemy.

Cethegus was in possession of that part of the city which extended on
the right bank of the Tiber from the Mausoleum of Hadrian in the north
to the Porta Portuensis in the south, near which were situated the two
bolts across the river.

On the left bank the Prefect held only the small but dominating quarter
west of the Forum Romanum, of which the Capitol formed the centre. This
quarter was enclosed by walls and high bulwarks which stretched from
the shore of the Tiber at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, and round
the hill eastwards, to the Forum of Trajan in the north; while at the
back and westwards from the Capitol, they passed between the Circus
Flaminius and the Theatre of Marcellus (abandoning the first and
enclosing the last), and ended at the Fabrician Bridg