time when he had been exiled
from the Temple, the Pagan's faculties had, unconsciously to himself,
acted solely in reference to the daring design which it was the
business of his whole existence to entertain. Influenced, therefore,
by this obliquity of moral feeling, he had scarcely reflected on the
discovery that he had just made at the base of the city wall, ere his
mind instantly reverted to the ambitious meditations which had occupied
it in the morning; and the next moment, the first dawning conception of
a bold and perilous project began to absorb his restless thoughts.

He reflected on the peculiarities and position of the wall before him.
Although the widest and most important of the rents which he had
observed in it, existed too near the rampart to be reached without the
assistance of a ladder, there were others as low as the ground, which
he knew, by the result of the trial he had already made, might be
successfully and immensely widened by the most ordinary exertion and
perseverance. The interior of the wall, if judged by the condition of
the surface, could offer no insuperable obstacles to an attempt at
penetration so partial as to be limited to a height and width of a few
feet. The ramparts, from their position between two guard-houses,
would be unencumbered by an inquisitive populace. The sentinel, within
the limits of whose allotted watch it happened to fall, would, when
night came on, be the only human being likely to pass the spot; and at
such an hour his attention must necessarily be fixed--in the
circumstances under which the city was now placed--on the prospect
beyond, rather than on the ground below and behind him. It seemed,
therefore, almost a matter of certainty, that a cautious man, labouring
under cover of the night, might pursue whatever investigations he
pleased at the base of the wall.

He examined the ground where he now stood. Nothing could be more
lonely than its present appearance. The private gardens on the hill
above it shut out all communication from that quarter. It could only
be approached by the foot-path that ran round the Pincian Mount, and
along the base of the walls. In the state of affairs now existing in
the city, it was not probable that any one would seek this solitary
place, whence nothing could be seen, and where little could be heard,
in preference to mixing with the spirit-stirring confusion in the
streets, or observing the Gothic encampment from such position