What could be the cause of this delay in the assault; of this ominous tranquillity on the ramparts above him?
Had the impetuosity of the Goths suddenly vanished at the sight of Rome?
Had negotiations for peace been organised with the first appearance of the invaders?
He listened again.

No sounds caught his ear differing in character from those he had just heard.
Though besieged, the city was evidently--from some mysterious cause--not even threatened by an assault.
Suddenly there appeared from a little pathway near him, which led round the base of the wall, a woman preceded by a child, who called to her impatiently, as he ran on, 'Hasten, mother, hasten! There is no crowd here.

Yonder is the Gate.

We shall have a noble view of the Goths!' There was something in the address of the child to the woman that gave Ulpius a suspicion, even then, of the discovery that flushed upon him soon after.

He rose and followed them.