But many of the senators and other brave men, both nobles and plebeians, instead of running away from the city went up to the Capitol, fastened the gates, and made ready for a siege. The Capitol was the most sacred part of the city. It contained splendid statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and, as you know, the famous Sibylline Books.

Some old men who had been consuls resolved to remain in the city and wait for the Gauls to come. They thought that if the Gauls should kill them they would then be satisfied and would spare the city. So the patriotic old men dressed themselves in their finest robes and sat in chairs in the Forum, each with an ivory staff in his right hand.

When the Gauls reached the city there was no one to oppose them. They marched on to the Forum and found the old men, with long white beards, sitting in their chairs, so still that they looked like statues. A Gaul went up to one of them and pulled his beard to see if he were a living person. Instantly the old man raised his staff and struck the barbarian in the face. The Gauls then fell upon the patriots and killed them. Then they began to plunder.

After destroying the greater part of the city the Gauls turned their attention to the Capitol. The rock on which it was built was high and steep.

Brennus led his soldiers up the hill, but the Romans in the Capitol rushed down the narrow road and after a few minutes of brave fighting drove them back. The Gauls made another attempt, but it was no more successful than the first.

Brennus saw that the Romans could not be driven from the Capitol. He therefore decided to starve them out. He put a strong guard at the entrance, so that the Romans could not come out to get food. For weeks the Capitol was thus besieged, but its faithful defenders held out manfully.

Meanwhile the people who had fled from Rome took courage again. They gathered at the city of Veii and organized a strong army to fight the Gauls. But they wanted a commander, and then they thought of Camillus. All agreed that he would be the right man to be their general. So they resolved to send for him, but first they thought they must have the approval of the Senate. Here was a difficulty. How could a messenger get to the Senate while the Gauls were around the Capitol? This puzzled them for a good while, but at last a young man named volunteered to carry a message to the Capitol.

So on a very dark night Pontius left Veii and swam down the Tiber until he reached the Capitoline Hill. Then he went on shore and crept up the hill as far as the great rock. The Gauls had put no guard there, for they thought no one could climb the rock because it was so steep.

By great efforts Pontius managed to climb up. Several times he was near falling. But by clinging to the vines and bushes that grew on the rock he came to the top at last. His countrymen in the Capitol were delighted to see him. They were also very glad when they heard about the army at Veii, and the Senate at once approved of the proposal about Camillus. It was agreed not only to make him general, but to make him dictator. Then Cominius went down the rock and the hill by the way he had come up and hastened off to Veii.

So shortly after midnight, when they thought that the Romans would be fast asleep, a party of Gauls began cautiously and silently to clamber up the steep rock. Some placed their shields across their shoulders for others to stand upon, and in this way they supported one another, until at last some of them made their way very near to the top and one got just to the edge of a balcony of the Capitol. No one within the building heard them, not even the watch-dogs.

But at that moment there was a loud cackling of geese. These birds were thought to be favorite birds of the goddess Juno. Many were kept in the Capitol, and some of them happened just then to be at the side the Gauls were climbing up. The movements of the climbers, quiet though they were, disturbed the geese and they began to cackle and flap their wings.

The noise aroused Marcus Manlius from his sleep. He sprang from his bed, seized his sword and shield, and ran to the balcony. There he saw a Gaul climbing on to the parapet and others scrambling up behind. Marcus rushed upon him, struck him in the face with his shield, and tumbled him headlong down the rock.

As the Gaul fell he knocked down some of his companions who were climbing behind him. The geese still kept up their loud cackling, and soon all the Romans were awakened and came quickly to the assistance of Marcus. The Gauls were hurled back as they mounted the rock, and in a few minutes all who had come up were dashed down the steep cliff and killed. Thus the Capitol was saved by the cackling of geese. For his brave action on this occasion Marcus Manlius was honored by being called Marcus

So the Senate resolved to give the thousand pounds of gold to the Gauls, and an officer named was sent with some lictors to deliver it to Brennus. But the gold had to be weighed and the Gauls attempted to cheat the Romans by using false weights. When Sulpitius complained of this, Brennus took off his sword and threw it, belt and all, into one of the scales, and when Sulpitius asked what that meant Brennus answered:

"What should it mean but woe to the conquered?"

At that moment Camillus appeared at the gates with his army. He soon learned what was going on. Quickly he marched to the spot and ordered the lictors to take the gold out of the scale and carry it back to the Roman treasury. Then he turned to Brennus and addressing him in a stern voice said:

"We Romans defend our country, not with gold, but with steel."

Immediately there was a battle, and the Gauls were defeated and driven out of the city. Next day there was another battle a few miles from Rome, and the Gauls were again defeated and thousands of them slain.

Camillus then returned to Rome at the head of his victorious army. The people received him with shouts of joy and for several days they had celebrations in his honor. They called him the second Romulus, meaning that he was the second founder of the city. They also called him the

In the old Roman stories Curtius is much praised as a patriot and hero. The people thought he had saved his country from some great evil, which they believed would have happened to it if the hole in the Forum had not been closed up.