... awful threshold, and with vain deceits Sought to dissuade the chieftain from his zeal To learn the future. ' What this hope,' she cried, Roman, that moves thy breast to know the fates? 'Long has Parnassus and its silent cleft 'Stifled the god; perhaps the breath divine 'Has left its ancient gorge and through the world 'Wanders in devious paths; or else the fane, 'Consumed to ashes by barbarian ...