atest available force was
necessary.

The horsemen, turning to the left, galloped towards the gate which had
now become the centre of the struggle; but their own foot-soldiers,
storming the five gates which lay between--the Porta Clausa, the
Nomentanian, Salarian, Pincian, and Flaminian Gates--blocked their
progress so long, that they arrived too late for the result of the
attack upon the Mausoleum.

We recollect the position of this favourite resort of the Prefect.
Opposite the Vatican Hill, at about a stone's throw from the Aurelian
Gate, with which it was connected by side walls, and protected
everywhere, except on the south, where ran the river, by new
fortifications, towered the "Moles Hadriani," an immense round tower of
the firmest masonry.

A sort of court surrounded the principal building. On the south, before
the first and outer wall of defence, flowed the Tiber. The ramparts of
this outer wall, and the court and battlements of the inner wall, were
usually occupied by the Isaurians, whom, in an evil hour, the Prefect
had withdrawn in order to carry out his plot against Belisarius.

On the parapet of the inner wall stood the numerous statues of marble
and bronze, which had been raised to the number of three hundred by the
gift of Kallistratos.

The King of the Goths had chosen for himself a position far back in the
middle of the wide semicircle which his army had drawn around the city
to the west. He had stationed himself upon the "field of Nero," on the
right bank of the Tiber, between the Pancratian (old Aurelian) and the
(new) Aurelian Gates, a post usually occupied by Earl Markja, of
Mediolanum.

Witichis founded his plan upon the fact that the general storming of
all the gates would necessarily disperse the forces of the besieged;
and as soon as some part of the ramparts should be more than usually
exposed by the withdrawal of its defenders, he intended to make use of
the circumstance, and attack at that point.

With this view, he had quietly remained immovable far behind the
storming columns.

He had given orders to his leaders to call him at once should a gap in
the line of defence be observed.

He had waited long--very long.

He had had to bear many a word of impatience from his troops, who were
forced to remain idle while their comrades were advancing on all sides.
Long, long they waited for a messenger to call them into action.

At last the King himself was the first to notice that the