For six days the Goths held the metropolis; then, reeling in intoxication, encumbered with spoil, and dragging after them their captives,――the young men to groom their horses; the maidens, daughters of Roman senators and nobles, to till their harems,――they rioted along the Appian Way, and surged over all Southern Italy, giving loose to every depraved desire. It is thus that God punishes guilty nations. Though sentence against an evil work may not be speedily executed, the hour of recompense is sure to come. For four years the whole of the south of Italy was subject to the barbarians. Roman philosophers had long argued that it was right for the stronger nations to enslave the weaker. The Goths were now the stronger, and the Romans the weaker; and the Romans were compelled to drain to the dregs the cup which their own hands had mingled. Men of senatorial dignity, and matrons of illustrious birth, became the menial servants of half-naked savages. These burly barbarians stretched their hairy limbs beneath the shade of palm-trees; and young men and maidens born in palaces washed their feet, and presented them Falernian wine in golden goblets. While Alaric was thus ravaging Italy, the Emperor Honorius was ignominiously besieged behind the walls of Ravenna. The old Roman empire had so far crumbled away, that Italy alone remained even nominally subject to the emperor. Even large portions of Italy were in the hands of the foe. Persia, Egypt, Turkey, Germany, France, Spain, England, all overrun by barbarians, became the cradles of those monarchies which are flourishing or decaying in those regions at the present day. Alaric the Goth was one of the most remarkable of men. His native ferocity was strangely mitigated by profound respect for Christianity. Many of the Gothic soldiers had also, at least nominally, adopted the Christian faith. When Rome was taken by storm, Alaric exhorted his soldiers to respect the churches as inviolable sanctuaries. A Goth burst into the house of an aged woman who had devoted herself to the service of the Church. Upon his demanding her gold and silver, she conducted him to a closet of massive plate. “These,” said she, “are consecrated vessels belonging to the Church of St. Peter. If you touch them, the sacrilegious deed will remain upon your conscience.” The barbarian was overawed, and sent a messenger to inform the king of the treasure he had discovered. Alaric sent an order that the sacred vessels should be immediately transported, under guard, to the church of the apostle. “From the extremity, perhaps, of the Quirinal Hill to the distant quarters of the Vatican, a numerous detachment of Goths, marching in order of battle through the principal streets, protected with glittering arms the long train of their devout companions, who bore aloft on their heads the sacred vessels of gold and silver; and the martial shouts of the barbarians were mingled with the sound of religious psalmody.”[190]