Reports had been vaguely spread of a secret
conspiracy between some of the principal of the slaves and certain
chosen ruffians of the populace, to murder all the inmates of the
palace, seize on its treasures, and, opening the city gates to the
Goths, escape with their booty during the confusion of the pillage of
Rome. Nothing had as yet been positively discovered; but the few
attendants who kept ominously apart from the rest were unanimously
suspected by their fellows, who now watched them over their wine-cups
with anxious eyes. Different as was the scene among the slaves still
left in the palace from the scene among the people dispersed in the
street, the one was nevertheless in its own degree as gloomily
suggestive of some great impending calamity as the other.
The grand banqueting-hall of the palace, prepared though it now was for
festivity, wore a changed and melancholy aspect.
The massive tables still ran down the whole length of the noble room,
surrounded by luxurious couches, as in former days, but not a vestige of
food appeared upon their glittering surfaces.
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