Volume Iii Part 25 (1/2)
CHAPTER XII.
Meanwhile the Prefect had left the river and gone in the direction of the Capitol.
He pa.s.sed the Porta Trigemina and arrived at the Forum Boarium.
Before the Temple of Ja.n.u.s he met with a crowd of people by which he was detained for a short time.
In spite of his wound he had made such haste that Lucius and Syphax could scarcely follow. They had repeatedly lost sight of him. Only now did they overtake him.
He now tried to go through the Porta Carmentalis, and thus gain the back of the Capitol.
But he found the gate already occupied by numerous Goths. Amongst them was Wachis. He recognised the Prefect from a distance.
”Revenge for Rauthgundis!” he cried.
A heavy stone struck the Prefect's helmless head. He turned and fled.
He now remembered that there was a sinking of the wall not far from the gate. He determined to climb it at that place.
As he neared it, the flames from the Capitol again shot high into the air.
Three men sprang over the wall just in front of him. They were Isaurians. They recognised him.
”Fly, general! The Capitol is lost! Teja, the black Gothic devil!”
”Did he--did Teja kindle the fire?”
”No; we ourselves set a wooden bulwark, which the barbarians had taken, on fire. The Goths do all they can to extinguish the flames.”
”The barbarians save the Capitol!” said Cethegus bitterly, and supported himself upon a spear which was handed to him by one of the mercenaries.
”I must get to my house.”
And he turned to the right, the shortest way to the princ.i.p.al entrance to his house.
”O master, that way is dangerous!” cried one of the Isaurians. ”The Goths will soon be there. I heard the Black Earl ask repeatedly after you. He was seeking you everywhere upon the Capitol. He will now seek you in your house.”
”I _must_ once more go to my house!”
But he had scarcely gone a few steps, when a troop of Goths and Romans, carrying torches and firebrands, came towards him from the city.
The foremost, who were Romans, recognised him.
”The Prefect!”
”The destroyer of Rome!”
”He has set the Capitol on fire! Down with him!”