invocated by the inhabitants, who
returned in their danger to the practice of their ancient manner of
worship. So said the men of Tuscany; and such pious resources as those
employed by the people of Neveia did they recommend to the people of
Rome! For my part, I acknowledge to you that I have faith in their
project. The antiquity of our former worship is still venerable in my
eyes. The prayers of the priests of our new religion have wrought no
miraculous interference in our behalf: let us therefore imitate the
example of the inhabitants of Neveia, and by the force of our
invocations hurl the thunders of Jupiter on the barbarian camp! Let us
trust for deliverance to the potent interposition of the gods whom our
fathers worshipped--those gods who now, perhaps, avenge themselves for
our desertion of their temples by our present calamities. I go without
delay to propose to the Bishop Innocentius and to the Senate, the
public performance of solemn ceremonies of sacrifice at the Capitol! I
leave you in the joyful assurance that the gods, appeased by our
returning fidelity to our altars, will not refuse the supernatural
protection which they accorded to the people of a provincial town to
the citizens of Rome!'

No sounds either of applause or disapprobation followed the Prefect's
notable proposal for delivering the city from the besiegers by the
public apostasy of the besieged. As he disappeared from their eyes,
the audience turned away speechless. An universal despair now
overpowered in them even the last energies of discord and crime; they
resigned themselves to their doom with the gloomy indifference of
beings in whom all mortal sensations, all human passions, good or evil,
were extinguished. The Prefect departed on his ill-omened expedition
to propose the practice of Paganism to the bishop of a Christian
church; but no profitable effort for relief was even suggested, either
by the government or the people.

And so this day drew in its turn towards a close--more mournful and
more disastrous, more fraught with peril, misery, and gloom, than the
days that had preceded it.

The next morning dawned, but no preparations for the ceremonies of the
ancient worship appeared at the Capitol. The Senate and the bishop
hesitated to incur the responsibility of authorising a public
restoration of Paganism; the citizens, hopeless of succour, heavenly or
earthly, remained unheedful as the dead of all that passed around them.