This
assembly of persons stopped opposite Vetranio's palace; and then such
members of the mob who watched them as were not yet entirely abandoned
by hope, heard the inspiring news that the procession they beheld was a
procession of peace, and that the two men who headed it were the
Spaniard, Basilius, a governor of a province, and Johannes, the chief of
the Imperial notaries--appointed ambassadors to conclude a treaty with
the Goths.
As this intelligence reached them, men who had before appeared incapable
of the slightest movement now rose painfully, yet resolutely, to their
feet, and crowded round the two ambassadors as round two angels
descended to deliver them from bondage and death. Meanwhile, some
officers of the Senate, finding the front gates of the palace closed
against them, proceeded to the garden entrance at the back of the
building, to obtain admission to its owner. The absence of Vetranio and
his friends from the deliberations of the government had been attributed
to their disgust at the obstinate and unavailing resistance offered to
the Goths.
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