as to
the sentence, they did not see how they could help him, but that they
would contribute to whatsoever fine should be set upon him. Not able to
endure so great an indignity, he resolved in his anger to leave the city
and go into exile; and so, having taken leave of his wife and son, he
went silently to the gate of the city, and, there stopping and turning
round, stretched out his hands to the Capitol, and prayed to the gods,
that if, without any fault of his own, but merely through the malice and
violence of the people, he was driven out into banishment, the Romans
might quickly repent of it; and that all mankind might witness their
need for the assistance, and desire for the return, of Camillus.

And there is not a Roman but believes that immediately upon the prayers
of Camillus a sudden judgment followed, and that he received a revenge
for the injustice done unto him, which was very remarkable, and noised
over the whole world: such a punishment visited the city of Rome, an era
of such loss and danger and disgrace so quickly succeeded; whether it
thus fell out by fortune, or it be the office of god not to see injured
virtue go unavenged.

The first token that seemed to threaten some mischief to ensure was the
death of the censor Julius; for the Romans have a religious reverence
for the office of a censor, and esteem it sacred. The second was, that,
just before Camillus went into exile, Marcus Caedicius, a person of no
great distinction, nor of the rank of senator, but esteemed a good and
respectable man, reported to the military tribunes a thing worthy their
consideration: that, going along the night before in the street called
the New Way, and being called by somebody in a loud voice, he turned
about, but could see no one, but heard a voice greater than human, which
said these words, "Go, Marcus Caedicius, and early in the morning tell
the military tribunes that they are shortly to expect the Gauls." But
the tribunes made a mock and sport with the story, and a little after
came Camillus's banishment.

The Gauls are of the Celtic race, and are reported to have been
compelled by their numbers to leave their country, which was
insufficient to sustain them all, and to have gone in search of other
homes. And being, many thousands of them, young men able to bear
arms, and carrying with them a still greater number of women and young
children, some of them, passing the Riphaean mountains, fell upon
the Northern Ocean,