The
news passed from mouth to mouth. There was enough in the prospect of
beholding the burning palace and the drunken suicide of its desperate
guests to animate even the stagnant curiosity of a famishing mob.
On the appointed evening the people dragged their weary limbs from all
quarters of the city towards the Pincian Hill. Many of them died on the
way; many lost their resolution to proceed to the end of their journey,
and took shelter sullenly in the empty houses on the road; many found
opportunities for plunder and crime as they proceeded, which tempted
them from their destination; but many persevered in their purpose--the
living dragging the dying along with them, the desperate driving the
cowardly before them in malignant sport, until they gained the palace
gates. It was by their voices, as they reached her ear from the street,
that the fast-sinking faculties of Antonina had been startled, though
not revived; and there, on the broad pavement, lay these citizens of a
fallen city--a congregation of pestilence and crime--a starving and an
awful band!
The moon, brightened by the increasing darkness, now clearly illuminated
the street, and revealed, in a narrow space, a various and impressive
scene.
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