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054 - Book 5 Chapter IX · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: Book five, Chapter nine of Last Days of Pompeii. 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. Last Days of Pompeii by Edward G.
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  Speaker 1: Bulverard Lutten, Book five, Chapter nine, The Despair of the Lovers,
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  Speaker 1: the condition of the multitude. Glaucus turned in gratitude, but
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  Speaker 1: in air caught you one once more in his arms,
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  Speaker 1: and fled along the street that was yet intensely luminous.
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  Speaker 1: But suddenly a duller shade fell over the air. Instinctively
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  Speaker 1: he turned to the mountain and beheld one of the
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  Speaker 1: two gigantic crests into which the summit had been divided,
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  Speaker 1: rocked and wavered to and fro, and then, with the
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  Speaker 1: sound the ninety of which no language can describe, it
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  Speaker 1: fell from its burning base, rushed an avalanche of fire
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  Speaker 1: down the sides of the mountain. At the same instant
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  Speaker 1: gushed forth a volume of blackest smoke, rolling on over air,
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  Speaker 1: sea and earth. Another and another, and another, shower of ashes,
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  Speaker 1: far more profuse than before, scattered fresh desolation along the streets.
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  Speaker 1: Darkness once more wrapped them as a whale, and Glaucus,
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  Speaker 1: his bald heart, at last quelled and despairing, sank beneath
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  Speaker 1: the cover of an arch and clasping Yona to his heart,
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  Speaker 1: a bride on that couch of ruin, resigned himself to die. Meanwhile, Media,
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  Speaker 1: when separated by the strong from Glaucus and Yone, had
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  Speaker 1: in vain, endeavored to regain them. In vain, she raised
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  Speaker 1: the plaintive cry so peculiar to the blind, it was
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  Speaker 1: lost amidst the southern shrieks of more selfish terror. Again
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  Speaker 1: and again she returned to the spot where they had
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  Speaker 1: been divided, to find her companions gone to seize every fugitive,
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  Speaker 1: to inquire of Glaucus, to be dashed aside in the
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  Speaker 1: impatience of distraction, who in that hour spared one thought
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  Speaker 1: to his neighbor. Perhaps in scenes of universal horror, nothing
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  Speaker 1: is more horrid than the unnatural selfishness, say and gender.
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  Speaker 1: At length, it occurred to Nydia that, as it had
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  Speaker 1: been resolved to seek the seashore for escape, their most
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  Speaker 1: probable chance of rejoining her companions would be to persevere
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  Speaker 1: in that direction, guiding her steps then by the stuff
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  Speaker 1: which she always carried. She continued with incredible dexterity to
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  Speaker 1: avoid the messes of ruin that encumbered the path, to
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  Speaker 1: thread the streets and un erroicly. So blessed now was
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  Speaker 1: that accustomed darkness, so afflicting in ordinary life, to take
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  Speaker 1: the nearest direction to the sea side. Poor girl, her
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  Speaker 1: carriage was beautiful to behold, and fate seemed to favor
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  Speaker 1: one so helpless. The boiling torrents touched her, knot save
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  Speaker 1: by the general rain which accompanied them. The huge fragments
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  Speaker 1: of scoria shivered the pavement before and beside her, but
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  Speaker 1: spared that frail form, And when the lesser ashes fell
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  Speaker 1: over her, she shook them away with a slight armor,
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  Speaker 1: and doubtlessly resumed her course, weak, exposed it, fearless, supported,
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  Speaker 1: but by one wish. She was a very emblem of sea,
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  Speaker 1: her in her wanderings of hope, walking through the volley
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  Speaker 1: of the shadow of the soul, itself, lone but undaunted
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  Speaker 1: amidst the dangers and the snares of life. Her path was, however,
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  Speaker 1: constantly impeded by the crowds that now grew roped amidst
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  Speaker 1: the gloom now fled in the temporary glare of the
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  Speaker 1: lightnings across the scene, and at length a group of
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  Speaker 1: torch bearers rushing full against her. She was thrown down
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  Speaker 1: with some violence. What said the voice of one of
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  Speaker 1: the party, Is this the brave blind girl by Bacchus.
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  Speaker 1: She must not be left here to die up, my Tessalian,
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  Speaker 1: So so are you hurt? That's well? Come along with us,
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  Speaker 1: We are for the shore. Oh sollast As a divoice,
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  Speaker 1: the gods be thanked Glaucus, Glaucus, Glaucus, have ye seen
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  Speaker 1: him not I? He is doubtless out of the city
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  Speaker 1: by this time. The gods who saved him from the
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  Speaker 1: lion will save him from the burning mountain. As the
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  Speaker 1: kindly epicure thus encouraged Ndia, he drew her along with
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  Speaker 1: him towards the sea, heeding not her passionate entreaties that
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  Speaker 1: he would linger yet a while to search for Glaucus.
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  Speaker 1: And still as the accent of despair, she continued to
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  Speaker 1: shriek out that beloved name, which, amidst all the roar
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  Speaker 1: of the convulsed elements, kept alive a music at her heart.
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  Speaker 1: The sudden illumination, the bursts of the floods of lava,
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  Speaker 1: and the earthquake which we have already described, chanced when
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  Speaker 1: Sallust and his party had just gained the direct path
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  Speaker 1: leading from the city to the port, and here they
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  Speaker 1: were arrested by an immense crowd, more than half the
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  Speaker 1: population of the city. They spread along the field without
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  Speaker 1: the walls, thousands upon thousands, uncertain whither to fly. The
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  Speaker 1: sea had retired far from the shore, and they who
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  Speaker 1: had fled to it had been so terrified by the
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  Speaker 1: agitation and preternatural shrinking of the element, the gasping forms
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  Speaker 1: of the unc sea things which the waves had left
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  Speaker 1: upon the sand, and by the sound of the huge
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  Speaker 1: stones cast from the mountain into the deep, that they
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  Speaker 1: had returned again to the land as presenting the less
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  Speaker 1: frightful aspect of the two. Thus the two streams of
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  Speaker 1: human beings, the one seaward, the other from the sea,
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  Speaker 1: had met together, feeling a sad comfort in numbers, arrested
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  Speaker 1: in despair and doubt. The world is to be destroyed
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  Speaker 1: by fire, said an old man in long loose robes,
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  Speaker 1: a philosopher of the Stoic school. Stoic and Epicurean wisdom
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  Speaker 1: have alike agreed in this prediction, and the hour is come. Yea,
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  Speaker 1: the hour is come, cried a loud voice, solemn but
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  Speaker 1: not fearful. Those around turned in dismay. The voice came
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  Speaker 1: from above them. It was the voice of Olinstos, who,
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  Speaker 1: surrounded by his Christian friends, stood upon an abrupt eminence
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  Speaker 1: on which the old Greek colonists had raised a temple
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  Speaker 1: to Apollo, now time worn and half in ruin. As
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  Speaker 1: he spoke, there came that sudden illumination which had heralded
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  Speaker 1: the death of Arbacees, and glowing over that mighty multitude
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  Speaker 1: aved crouching breathless. Never on earth had the faces of
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  Speaker 1: men seemed so haggard, Never had meeting of mortal beings
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  Speaker 1: been so stamped with the horror and sublimity of dread.
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  Speaker 1: Never till the last trumpet sounds shall such meeting be
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  Speaker 1: seen again. And above those the form of Olensos, with
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  Speaker 1: outstretched arm and prophet brow girt with the living fires.
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  Speaker 1: And the crowd knew the face of him they had
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  Speaker 1: doomed to the fangs of the beast, then their victim,
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  Speaker 1: now their warner. And through the stillness again came his
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  Speaker 1: ominous voice, The hour is come. The Christians repeated the cry.
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  Speaker 1: It was caught up. It was echoed from sight to so,
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  Speaker 1: woman and man, childhood and old age repeated, not aloud,
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  Speaker 1: but in a smothered and dreary murmur. The hour is come.
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  Speaker 1: At that moment a wild yell burst through the air, and,
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  Speaker 1: thinking only of escape, whither it knew not, the terrible
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  Speaker 1: tiger of the desert leaped amongst the throng and hurried
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  Speaker 1: through its parted streams. And so came the earthquake, And
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  Speaker 1: so darkness once more fell o'er the earth, And now
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  Speaker 1: new fugitives arrived, grasping the treasures no longer destined for
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  Speaker 1: their lord. The slaves of Arbaces joined the throng. One
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  Speaker 1: only of all their torches yet flickered on. It was
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  Speaker 1: borne by Sosia, and its light falling on the face
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  Speaker 1: of media. He recognized the Scythalian. What a wails thy liberty? Now,
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  Speaker 1: blind girl, said the slave, who art thou canst tell
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  Speaker 1: me of Glaucus? Aye? I saw him, but a few
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  Speaker 1: minutes since blessed be a head where crouched beneath the
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  Speaker 1: arch of the forum, dead or dying, gone to rejoin Arbaces,
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  Speaker 1: who is no more? Nydia uttered, not a word. She
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  Speaker 1: slid from the side of Sallust Silently. She glided through
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  Speaker 1: stows behind her and retraced her steps to the city.
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  Speaker 1: She gained the forum the arch. She stooped down. She
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  Speaker 1: felt round. She called on the name of Glaucus. A
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  Speaker 1: weak voice answered, Oh, callson me is it the voice
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  Speaker 1: of the Shadi is lo? I am prepared, arise, follow me,
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  Speaker 1: take my hand, Glaucus, thou shalt be saved in wonder
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  Speaker 1: and sudden hope. Glaucus arose, Nidia, still Ah, those then
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  Speaker 1: are safe. The tender joy of his voice the heart
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  Speaker 1: of the portessalian, and she blessed him for his thought
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  Speaker 1: of her. Half leading, half carrying yone. Glaucus followed his
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  Speaker 1: guide with admirable discretion. She avoided the pass which led
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  Speaker 1: to the crowd she had just quitted, and by another
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  Speaker 1: route sowed the shore. After many pauses and incredible perseverance,
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  Speaker 1: they gained the sea and joined a group who boulders,
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  Speaker 1: and the rest resolved to hazard any peril rather than
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  Speaker 1: continue in such a scene in darkness, They put forth
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  Speaker 1: to sea. But as they cleared the land and caught
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  Speaker 1: new aspects of the mountain, its channels of molten fire
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  Speaker 1: threw a partial redness over the waves. Utterly exhausted and
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  Speaker 1: worn out, Yone slept on the breast of Glaucus, and
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  Speaker 1: Nidia lay at his feet. Meanwhile, the showers of dust
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  Speaker 1: and ashes, still borne aloft, fell into the wave and
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  Speaker 1: scattered their snows over the deck. Far and wide. Borne
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  Speaker 1: by the winds, those showers descended upon the remotest climes,
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  Speaker 1: startling even the swarthy African, and whirled along the antique
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  Speaker 1: soil of Syria and of Egypt. Dion Cassius, end of
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  Speaker 1: Book five, Chapter nine,