Ch. 23 - The Last Efforts of the Besieged - Page 2

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 intimation of the result of the embassy would be
given from this place; and in the eagerness of their anxiety to hear it,
in the painful intensity of their final hopes of deliverance, even death
itself seemed for a while to be arrested in its fatal progress through
the ranks of the besieged.

In silence and apprehension they counted the tardy moments of delay, and
watched with sickening gaze the shadows lessening and lessening, as the
sun gradually rose in the heavens to the meridian point.

At length, after an absence that appeared of endless duration, the two
ambassadors re-entered Rome. Neither of them spoke as they hurriedly
passed through the