both expedient and easy to
recall them peremptorily to their duties. In addition to this motive
for seeking the interior of the palace, the servants of the Senate had
another errand to perform there. The widely rumoured determination of
Vetranio and his associates to destroy themselves by fire, in the
frenzy of a last debauch--disbelieved or disregarded while the more
imminent perils of the city were under consideration--became a source
of some apprehension and anxiety to the acting members of the Roman
council, now that their minds were freed from part of the
responsibility which had weighed on them, by their resolution to treat
for peace.

Accordingly, the persons now sent into the palace were charged with the
duty of frustrating its destruction, if such an act had been really
contemplated, as well as the duty of recalling its inmates to their
appointed places in the Senate-house. How far they were enabled, at
the time of their entrance into the banqueting-hall, to accomplish
their double mission, the reader is well able to calculate. They found
Vetranio still in the place which he had occupied since Antonina had
quitted him. Startled by their approach from the stupor which had
hitherto weighed on his faculties, the desperation of his purpose
returned; he made an effort to tear from its place the lamp which still
feebly burned, and to fire the pile in defiance of all opposition. But
his strength, already taxed to the utmost, failed him. Uttering
impotent threats of resistance and revenge, he fell, swooning and
helpless, into the arms of the officers of the Senate who held him
back. One of them was immediately dismissed, while his companions
remained in the palace, to communicate with the leaders of the assembly
outside. His report concluded, the two ambassadors moved slowly onward,
separating themselves from the procession which had accompanied them,
and followed only by a few chosen attendants--a mournful and a degraded
embassy, sent forth by the people who had once imposed their dominion,
their customs, and even their language, on the Eastern and Western
worlds, to bargain with the barbarians whom their fathers had enslaved
for the purchase of a disgraceful peace.

On the departure of the ambassadors, all the spectators still capable
of the effort repaired to the Forum to await their return, and were
joined there by members of the populace from other parts of the city.
It was known that the first intimat