But at Rome some of the barbarians passing by chance near the
place at which Pontius by night had got into the Capitol, spied in
several places marks of feet and hands, where he had laid hold and
clambered, and places where the plants that grew to the rock had
been rubbed off, and the earth had slipped, and went accordingly
and reported it to the king, who, coming in person, and viewing
it, for the present said nothing, but in the evening, picking out
such of the Gauls as were nimblest of body, and by living in the
mountains were accustomed to climb, he said to them, "The enemy
themselves have shown us a way how to come at them; where it was
easy for one man to get up, it will not be hard for many, one
after another; nay, when many shall undertake it, they will be aid
and strength to each other. Rewards and honors shall be bestowed
on every man as he shall acquit himself."
When the king had thus spoken, the Gauls cheerfully undertook to
perform it, and in the dead of night a good party of them
together, with great silence, began to climb the rock, clinging to
the precipitous and difficult ascent, which yet upon trial offered
a way to them, and proved less difficult than they had expected.
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