o the alternate and conflicting dominion of the two
masters, Love and Duty, he at once regretted Antonina, and yet clung
mechanically to his old obedience to those tyrannic requirements of
nation and name, which had occasioned her loss.

Oppressed by his varying emotions, destitute alike of consolation and
advice, the very inaction of his present position sensibly depressed
him. He rose impatiently, and buckling on his weapons, sought to
escape from his thoughts, by abandoning the scene under the influence
of which they had been first aroused. Turning his back upon the city,
he directed his steps at random, through the complicated labyrinth of
streets, composing the extent of the deserted suburbs.

After he had passed through the dwellings comprised in the occupation
of the Gothic lines, and had gained those situated nearer to the
desolate country beyond, the scene around him became impressive enough
to have absorbed the attention of any man not wholly occupied by other
and more important objects of contemplation.

The loneliness he now beheld on all sides, was not the loneliness of
ruin--the buildings near him were in perfect repair; it was not the
loneliness of pestilence--there were no corpses strewn over the
untrodden pavements of the streets; it was not the loneliness of
seclusion--there were no barred windows, and few closed doors; it was a
solitude of human annihilation. The open halls were unapproached; the
benches before the wine-shops were unoccupied; remains of gaudy
household wares still stood on the counters of the street booths,
watched by none, bought by none; particles of bread and meat
(treasures, fated to become soon of greater value than silver and gold,
to beleaguered Rome) rotted here in the open air, like garbage upon
dunghills; children's toys, women's ornaments, purses, money,
love-tokens, precious manuscripts, lay scattered hither and thither in
the public ways, dropped and abandoned by their different owners, in
the hurry of their sudden and universal flight. Every deserted street
was eloquent of darling projects desperately resigned, of valued
labours miserably deserted, of delighting enjoyments irretrievably
lost. The place was forsaken even by those household gods of rich and
poor, its domestic animals. They had either followed their owners into
the city, or strayed, unhindered and unwatched, into the country
beyond. Mansion, bath, and circus, displayed their gaudy pomp and
luxurio