It was as if they walked in a city of the dead.

In the darkness, like weird phantoms, rose the tall columns and pediments of the deserted buildings.

From nowhere twinkled the ray of lamp.

Dim against the sky-line the outlines of the Capitoline and its shrines were now and then visible, when the night seemed for an instant to grow less dark.
They were close to the Atrium Vestae.

All was quiet.