They fawned like dogs upon the
ambassadors, and even upon the ferocious Goths. On their departure from
Rome they had mechanically preserved some regularity in their progress,
but now they hurried onward without distinction of place or discipline
of march--senators, guards, plebeians, all were huddled together in the
disorderly equality of a mob.
Not one of them, in their new-born security, marked the ruined building
on the high-road; not one of them observed the closely-robed figure that
stole out from it to join them in their rear; and then, with stealthy
footstep and shrouded face, soon mingled in the thickest of their ranks.
The attention of the ambassadors was still engrossed by their
forebodings of failure in collecting the ransom; the eyes of the people
were fixed only on the Pincian Gate; their ears were open to no sounds
but their own ejaculations of delight. Not one disguised stranger only,
but many, might now have joined them in their tumultuous progress, alike
unquestioned and unobserved.
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