But just then, from the west, in the direction of the Aurelian Gate, was heard a terrible, all-overpowering cry. "Woe! woe! all is lost! The Goths are upon us! The city is taken!" Cethegus turned pale, and looked behind him. Kallistratos galloped up, blood flowing from his face and neck. "Cethegus," he cried, "all is over! The barbarians are in Rome! The wall is forced!" "Where?" asked the Prefect, in a hollow voice. "At the Mausoleum!" "Oh, my general!" cried Lucius, "I warned you!" "That is Witichis!" said Cethegus, closing his eyes as if in pain. "How do you know it?" asked Kallistratos, astonished. "Enough! I do know it." It was a fearful moment for the Prefect. He was obliged to confess to himself that, recklessly following his plan for the ruin of Belisarius, he had for a short period neglected Rome. He ground his teeth. "Cethegus has exposed the Mausoleum! Cethegus has ruined Rome!" cried Bessas, at the head of the body-guard. "And Cethegus will save Rome!" cried the Prefect, raising himself in his saddle. "Follow me, Isaurians and legionaries!" "And Belisarius?" whispered Syphax. "He may enter. First Rome; then the rest! Follow me!" And Cethegus galloped off the same way that he had come. Only a few mounted men could keep up with him; his foot-soldiers and Isaurians followed at a run. CHAPTER XII. At the same time a pause ensued before the Tiburtinian Gate. A messenger had recalled the Gothic horsemen from the useless fight. They were to send all the men they could dispose of as fast as possible round the city to the Aurelian Gate, through which their comrades had just entered the city; there the greatest available force was necessary. The horsemen, turning to the left, galloped towards the gate which had now become the centre of the struggle; but their own foot-soldiers, storming the five gates which lay between--the Porta Clausa, the Nomentanian, Salarian, Pincian, and Flaminian Gates--blocked their progress so long, that they arrived too late for the result of the attack upon the Mausoleum. We recollect the position of this favourite resort of the Prefect. Opposite the Vatican Hill, at about a stone's throw from the Aurelian Gate, with which it was connected by side walls, and protected everywhere, except on the south, where ran the river, by new fortifications, towered the "Moles Hadriani," an immense round tower of the firmest masonry. A sort of court surrounded the principal building. On the south, before the first and outer wall of defence, flowed the Tiber. The ramparts of this outer wall, and the court and battlements of the inner wall, were usually occupied by the Isaurians, whom, in an evil hour, the Prefect had withdrawn in order to carry out his plot against Belisarius. On the parapet of the inner wall stood the numerous statues of marble and bronze, which had been raised to the number of three hundred by the gift of Kallistratos.