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039 - Book 4 Chapter XI · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: Book four, chapter eleven of Last Days upon Pay. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Ben Wilfrid Last Days upon
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  Speaker 1: Pay by Edward G. Bolwert Lytton Book four, Chapter eleven,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven. Naughty affects the Sorceress when the Thessalonian found
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  Speaker 1: that Arbaces returned to her no more. When she was
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  Speaker 1: left hour after hour to all the torture of that
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  Speaker 1: miserable suspense, which was rendered by blindness doubly intolerable, she began,
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  Speaker 1: with outstretched arms to fail around her prison for some
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  Speaker 1: channel of escape, and, finding the only inchant secure, she
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  Speaker 1: called aloud and with the vehemence of a temper naturally
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  Speaker 1: violent and now sharpened by impatient agony. O Girl, said
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  Speaker 1: the slave and attendants, opening the door, Art thou bit
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  Speaker 1: by a scorpion? Or thinkest thou that we are dying
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  Speaker 1: of silence here and only to be preserved like the
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  Speaker 1: infant Jupiter by a hullaballoo? Where is thy master? And
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  Speaker 1: wherefore am I caged here? I won't air in liberty
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  Speaker 1: let me go forth alas little one. Hast thou not
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  Speaker 1: seen enough of Arbacest to know that his will is imperial?
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  Speaker 1: He has ordered thee to be caged, and caged Thou art,
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  Speaker 1: and I am thy keeper. Thou canst not have air
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  Speaker 1: in liberty, but thou mayst have what are much better things?
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  Speaker 1: Food and wine? Proth Jupiter cried the girl, bringing her hands,
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  Speaker 1: And why am I thus imprisoned? What can the great
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  Speaker 1: Arbaces want with so poor a thing as I? That
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  Speaker 1: I know not unless it be to a tent on
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  Speaker 1: thy new mistress, who has been brought hither this day?
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  Speaker 1: What he own here? Yes, poor lady, she liked it.
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  Speaker 1: Little I fear. Yet by the temple of Castor, Arbaces
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  Speaker 1: is a gallant man to the women. Thy lady is
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  Speaker 1: his ward. Thou knowest wilt thou take me to her?
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  Speaker 1: She is ill, frantic with rage and spite. Besides, I
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  Speaker 1: have no orders to do so, and I never think
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  Speaker 1: for myself. When Arbaces made me slave of these chambers,
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  Speaker 1: he said, I have but one lesson to give thee
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  Speaker 1: while thou servest me. Thou must have neither ears, eyes
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  Speaker 1: nor thought. Thou must be but one quality obedience but
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  Speaker 1: what harm is there incient Yon that I know not?
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  Speaker 1: But if thou wantest a companion, I am willing to
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  Speaker 1: talk to thee little one, for I am solitary enough
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  Speaker 1: in my dull cubiculum. And by the way thou art Thessolian,
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  Speaker 1: knowest thou not some cunning amusement of knife and shears,
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  Speaker 1: some pretty trick of telling fortunes, as most of thy
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  Speaker 1: race do in order to pass the time, tush slave,
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  Speaker 1: hold thy peace? Or if thou wilt speak, what hast
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  Speaker 1: thou heard of the state of Glaucus? Why my master
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  Speaker 1: has gone to Athenian trial? Glaucus will smart for it?
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  Speaker 1: For what the murder of the priest aposiitis Ha, said Noadia,
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  Speaker 1: pressing her hand to her forehead. Something of this I
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  Speaker 1: have indeed heard, but understand not yet. Who will dare
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  Speaker 1: to touch the hair of his head? That will the lion?
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  Speaker 1: I fear averting God's What wickedness dost thou utter? Why
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  Speaker 1: only that if he be found guilty, the lion, or
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  Speaker 1: may be the tiger, will be his executioner. Naughtia leaped
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  Speaker 1: up as if an arrow had entered her heart. She
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  Speaker 1: uttered a piercing scream, then Falling before the feet of
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  Speaker 1: the slave, she cried in a tone that melted even
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  Speaker 1: his rude heart. AH tell me thou justice, thou utterest
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  Speaker 1: not the truth? Speak speak why by my faith, blind girl,
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  Speaker 1: I know nothing of the law. It may not be
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  Speaker 1: so bad as I say, But Arbaces is his accuser,
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  Speaker 1: and the people desire a victim for the arena cheer thee.
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  Speaker 1: But what has the fate of the Athenian to do
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  Speaker 1: with thine? No matter, no matter he has been kind
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  Speaker 1: to me. Thou knowest not then what they will do?
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  Speaker 1: Arbaces his accuser? O fate the people? The people? Ah,
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  Speaker 1: they can look upon his face? Who will be cruel
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  Speaker 1: to the Athenian? Yet was not love itself cruel to him?
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  Speaker 1: So saying her head drooped upon her bosom, she sunk
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  Speaker 1: into silence. Scalding tears flowed down her cheeks, and all
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  Speaker 1: the kindly efforts of the slave were unable either to
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  Speaker 1: console her or distract the absorption of her reverie. When
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  Speaker 1: his household cares obliged the ministrant to leave her room,
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  Speaker 1: Naughtya began to recollect her thoughts. Arbaces was the accuser
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  Speaker 1: of Glaucus. Arbaces had imprisoned her. Here was not that
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  Speaker 1: a proof that her liberty might be serviceable to Glaucus. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: she was evidently inveigled into some snare. She was contributing
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  Speaker 1: to the destruction of her beloved. Oh, how she panted
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  Speaker 1: for release. Fortunately for her suffering, all sense of pain
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  Speaker 1: became merged in the desire of escape. As she began
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  Speaker 1: to revolve the impossibility of deliverance, she grew calm and thoughtful.
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  Speaker 1: She possessed much of the craft of her sex, and
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  Speaker 1: it had been increased in her breast by her early servitude.
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  Speaker 1: What slave was ever destitute of cunning? She resolved to
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  Speaker 1: practice upon her keeper, and, calling sutenly to mind his
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  Speaker 1: superstitious query as to her Thessallanian art, she hoped, by
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  Speaker 1: that handle, to work out some method of release. These
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  Speaker 1: talts occupied her mind during the rest of the day
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  Speaker 1: in the long hours of night, and accordingly, when Socia
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  Speaker 1: visited her the following morning, she hastened to divert his
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  Speaker 1: garrulity into that channel in which it had before evinced
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  Speaker 1: a natural disposition to flow. She was aware, however, that
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  Speaker 1: her only chance of escape was at night, and accordingly
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  Speaker 1: she was obliged with a bitter pang at the delay
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  Speaker 1: to defer till then her purposed attempt the night said,
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  Speaker 1: she is the sole time in which we can well
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  Speaker 1: decipher the decrees of fate. Then is thou must seek me?
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  Speaker 1: But what desires thou to learn? By pollux? I should
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  Speaker 1: like to know as much as my master, But that
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  Speaker 1: is not to be expected. Let me know at least
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  Speaker 1: whether I shall save enough to purchase my freedom, or
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  Speaker 1: whether this Egyptian will give it me for nothing. He
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  Speaker 1: does such generous things sometimes. Next, supposing that be true,
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  Speaker 1: shall I possess myself of that snug Tibernia among the Myropolia,
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  Speaker 1: which I have long had in my eye? Tis a
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  Speaker 1: genteel trade that of a perfumer, and suits a retired
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  Speaker 1: slave who has something of a gentleman about him. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: So you would have precise answers to those questions. There
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  Speaker 1: are various ways of satisfying you. There is a lithomentilla,
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  Speaker 1: or speaking stone, which answers your prayer with an infant's voice.
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  Speaker 1: But then we have not that precious stone with us.
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  Speaker 1: Costly it is and rare. Then there is the gastromantia,
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  Speaker 1: whereby the demon cast pale and deadly images upon the
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  Speaker 1: water prophetic of the future. But this art requires also
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  Speaker 1: glasses of a peculiar fashion to contain the consecrated liquid,
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  Speaker 1: which we have not. I think, therefore, that the simplest
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  Speaker 1: method of satisfying your desire would be by the magic
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  Speaker 1: of air. I trust, said Sosia tremulously, that there is
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  Speaker 1: nothing very frightful in the operation. I have no love
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  Speaker 1: for apparitions. Fear not thous wilt see nothing. Thou wilt
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  Speaker 1: only hear by the bubbling of water whether or not
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  Speaker 1: thy suit prosperous. First, then be sure, from the rising
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  Speaker 1: of the evening star that thou leavest the garden gate
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  Speaker 1: somewhat open, so that the demon may feel himself invited
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  Speaker 1: to enter therein, and place fruits and water near the
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  Speaker 1: gate as a sign of hospitality. Then, three hours after
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  Speaker 1: twilight come here will a bowl of the coldest and
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  Speaker 1: purest water, And thou shalt learn all according to the
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  Speaker 1: Thessalian lower my mother taught me. But forget not the
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  Speaker 1: garden gate. All rest upon that it must be open
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  Speaker 1: when you come, and for three hours previously. Trust me,
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  Speaker 1: replied the unsuspecting Sosia, I know what a gentleman's feeling
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  Speaker 1: are when a door is shut in his face, as
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  Speaker 1: the cook shops has been in mine many a day.
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  Speaker 1: And I know also that a person of respectability, as
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  Speaker 1: a demon, of course, is cannot but be pleased, on
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  Speaker 1: the other hand, with any little mark of courteous hospitality. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: pretty one, here is a morning's meal. But what of
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  Speaker 1: the trial? Oh, the lawyers are still at it, talk talk,
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  Speaker 1: It will last over all tomorrow tomorrow. You are sure
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  Speaker 1: of that, so I hear, and he owned by packist.
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  Speaker 1: She must be tolerably well, for she was strong enough
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  Speaker 1: to make my master's stamped bitey's lip. This morning I
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  Speaker 1: saw him quit her apartment with a brow like a thunderstorm.
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  Speaker 1: Lodgees she near this, No in the upper apartments. But
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  Speaker 1: I must not stay prating here longer Veil in the
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  Speaker 1: book four, chapter eleven, recording by Ben Wilfrid of Jackson, Tennessee,