walls of Rome, but he did not attempt to break in, waiting
till the Romans should be starved out. When they had come to terrible
distress, they offered to ransom their city. He asked a monstrous sum,
which they refused, telling him what hosts there were of them, and that
he might yet find them dangerous. "The thicker the hay, the easier to
mow," said the Goth. "What will you leave us then?" they asked. "Your
lives," was the answer.

The ransom the wretched Romans agreed to pay was 5000 pounds' weight of
gold and 30,000 of silver, 4000 silk robes, 3000 pieces of scarlet
cloth, and 3000 pounds of pepper. They stripped the roof of the temple
in the Capitol, and melted down the images of the old gods to raise the
sum, and Alaric drew off his men; but he came again the next year,
blocked up Ostia, and starved them faster. This time he brought a man
named Attalus, whom he ordered them to admit as Emperor, and they did
so; but as the governor of Africa would send no corn while this man
reigned, the people rose and drove him out, and thus for the third time
brought Alaric down on them. The gates were opened to him at night, and
he entered Rome on the 24th of August, 410, exactly eight hundred years
after the sack of Rome by Brennus.

[Illustration: ALARIC'S BURIAL.]

Alaric did not wish to ruin and destroy the grand old city, nor to
massacre the inhabitants; but his Goths were thirsty for the spoil he
had kept them from so long, and he gave them leave to plunder for six
days, but not to kill, nor to do any harm to the churches. A set of
wild, furious men could not, of course, be kept in by these orders, and
terrible misfortunes befell many unhappy families; but the mischief done
was much less than could have been expected, and the great churches of
St. Peter and St. Paul were unhurt. One old lady named Marcella, a
friend of St. Jerome, was beaten to make her show where her treasures
were; but when at last her tormentors came to believe that she had spent
her all on charity, they led her to the shelter of the church with her
friends, soon to die of what she had undergone. After twelve days,
however, Alaric drew off his forces, leaving Rome to shift for itself.
Bishop Innocent was at Ravenna, where he had gone to ask help from the
Emperor; but Honorius knew and cared so little that when he was told
Rome was lost, he only thought of his favorite hen whose name was Rome,
and said, "That cannot be, for I have just fed her."

Ala