o declare seriously to me, that you never heard the
project of Saturninus for reducing imperceptibly the diurnal allowance
of provisions? Or the recommendation of Emilianus, that the people
should be kept from thinking on the dangers and extremities which now
threaten them, by being provided incessantly with public amusements at
the theatres and hippodromes? Do you really mean that you are
indifferent to the horrors of our present situation? By the souls of
the Apostles, Vetranio, I begin to think that you do not believe in the
Goths!'

'I have already told you that private affairs occupy me at present, to
the exclusion of public,' said Vetranio impatiently. 'Debate as you
choose--approve what projects you will--I withdraw myself from
interference in your deliberations!'

'This,' murmured the repulsed Prefect in soliloquy, as he mechanically
resumed his place at the refreshment table, 'this is the very end and
climax of all calamities! Now, when advice and assistance are more
precious than jewels in my estimation, I receive neither! I gain from
none, the wise and saving counsels which, as chief magistrate of this
Imperial City, it is my right to demand from all; and the man on whom I
most depended is the man who fails me most! Yet hear me, oh Vetranio,
once again,' he continued, addressing the Senator, 'if our perils
beyond the walls affect you not, there is a weighty matter that has
been settled within them, which must move you. After you had quitted
the Senate, Serena, the widow of Stilicho, was accused, as her husband
was accused before her, of secret and treasonable correspondence with
the Goths; and has been condemned, as her husband was condemned, to
suffer the penalty of death. I myself discerned no evidence to convict
her; but the populace cried out, in universal frenzy, that she was
guilty, that she should die; and that the barbarians, when they heard
of the punishment inflicted on their secret adherent, would retire in
dismay from Rome. This also was a moot point of argument, on which I
vainly endeavoured to decide; but the Senate and the people were wiser
than I; and Serena was condemned to be strangled to-morrow by the
public executioner. She was a woman of good report before this time,
and is the adopted mother of the Emperor. It is now doubted by many
whether Stilicho, her husband, was ever guilty of the correspondence
with the Goths, of which he was accused; and I, on my part, doubt much
t