re
from Rome they had mechanically preserved some regularity in their
progress, but now they hurried onward without distinction of place or
discipline of march--senators, guards, plebeians, all were huddled
together in the disorderly equality of a mob.

Not one of them, in their new-born security, marked the ruined building
on the high-road; not one of them observed the closely-robed figure
that stole out from it to join them in their rear; and then, with
stealthy footstep and shrouded face, soon mingled in the thickest of
their ranks. The attention of the ambassadors was still engrossed by
their forebodings of failure in collecting the ransom; the eyes of the
people were fixed only on the Pincian Gate; their ears were open to no
sounds but their own ejaculations of delight. Not one disguised
stranger only, but many, might now have joined them in their tumultuous
progress, alike unquestioned and unobserved.

So they hastily re-entered the city, where thousands of heavy eyes were
strained to look on them, and thousands of attentive ears drank in
their joyful news from the Gothic camp. Then were heard in all
directions the sounds of hysterical weeping and idiotic laughter, the
low groans of the weak who died victims of their sudden transport, and
the confused outbursts of the strong who had survived all extremities,
and at last beheld their deliverance in view.

Still silent and serious, the ambassadors now slowly penetrated the
throng on their way back to the Forum; and as they proceeded the crowd
gradually dispersed on either side of them. Enemies, friends, and
strangers, all whom the ruthless famine had hitherto separated in
interests and sympathies, were now united together as one family, by
the expectation of speedy relief.

But there was one among the assembly that was now separating who stood
alone in her unrevealed emotions, amid the rejoicing thousands around
her. The women and children in the throng, as, preoccupied by their
own feeling, they unheedfully passed her by, saw not the eager,
ferocious attention in her eyes, as she watched them steadily till they
were out of sight. Within their gates the stranger and the enemy
waited for the treacherous darkness of night, and waited unobserved.
Where she had first stood when the thick crowd hemmed her in, there she
still continued to stand after they slowly moved past her and space
grew free.

Yet beneath this outward calm and silence lurked the wildest