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042 - Book 4 Chapter XIV · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: Book four, Chapter fourteen 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. Recording by Ben Wilford. Last Days of
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  Speaker 1: Pompeii by Edward G. Bullward Lytton, Book four, Chapter fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, nadya accost Calenus, What words of terra yet
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  Speaker 1: of hope had na yet overheard? The next day Glaucus
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  Speaker 1: was to be condemned if there lived one who could
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  Speaker 1: save him and adjudge Arbaces to his doom, And that
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  Speaker 1: one breathed within a few steps of her hiding place.
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  Speaker 1: She called his cries and shrieks, his imprecations, his prayers,
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  Speaker 1: though they fell choked and muffled on her ear. He
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  Speaker 1: was imprisoned, but she knew the secret of his cell.
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  Speaker 1: Could she but escape? Could she but seek the praetor
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  Speaker 1: who might yet in time be given to light and
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  Speaker 1: preserve the Athenian. Her emotions almost stifled her, her brain reeled.
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  Speaker 1: She felt her sense give way, But by a violent effort,
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  Speaker 1: she mastered herself, and after listening intently for several minutes
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  Speaker 1: till she was convinced that Arbaces had left the space
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  Speaker 1: to solitude in herself. She crept on as her ear
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  Speaker 1: guided her to the very door that had closed upon Calenus.
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  Speaker 1: Here she more distinctly caught his accidents of terror and despair.
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  Speaker 1: Thrice she attempted to speak, and thrice her voice failed
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  Speaker 1: to penetrate the folds of the heavy door. At length,
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  Speaker 1: finding the lock, she applied her lips to its small aperture,
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  Speaker 1: and the prisoner distinctly heard a soft tone breathe his name.
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  Speaker 1: His blood curdled, his hair stood on end that awful solitude.
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  Speaker 1: What mysterious and preternatural being could penetrate? Who's there? He
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  Speaker 1: cried in new alarm. What specter, what dread larva calls
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  Speaker 1: upon the lost coleen? Priest, replied the Thessolian, unknown to Arbaces,
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  Speaker 1: I have been, by the permission of the gods, a
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  Speaker 1: witness to this perfidy. If I myself can escape from
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  Speaker 1: these walls, I may save thee. But let thy voice
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  Speaker 1: reach my ear through this narrow passage and answer what
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  Speaker 1: I ask, Ah blessed spirit, said the priest, exultingly, and
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  Speaker 1: obeying the suggestion of naughtiet save thee and I will
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  Speaker 1: sell the very cups on the altar to pay thy kindness.
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  Speaker 1: I want not thy gold, I want thy secret. Did
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  Speaker 1: I hear aright? Canst thou save the Athenian Glaucus from
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  Speaker 1: the charge against his life? I can? I can? Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: may the furious blast of foul Egyptian has Arbaces snared
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  Speaker 1: me thus and left me to starve and rot? They
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  Speaker 1: accused the Athenian of murder? Canst thou disprove the accusation?
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  Speaker 1: Only free me? And the proudest had of Pompey is
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  Speaker 1: not more safe than his. I saw them deed done.
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  Speaker 1: I saw Arbaces strike the blow. I can convict the
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  Speaker 1: true murder and acquit the innocent man. But if I perish,
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  Speaker 1: he dies? Also? Dost thou interest thyself for him? Oh,
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  Speaker 1: blessed stranger. In my heart is the urn which condemned
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  Speaker 1: for frees him? An thou wilt give full evidence of
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  Speaker 1: what thou knowest? Will oh where hell at my feet? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: revenge on the false Egyptian. Revenge, revenge, revenge, As through
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  Speaker 1: his ground teeth Calenus streaked forth these last words. Not
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  Speaker 1: I felt that, in his worst passions was her certainty
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  Speaker 1: of his justice to the Athenian. Her heart beat was
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  Speaker 1: it to be her proud destiny, to preserve her idolized
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  Speaker 1: her adored enough, said she the powers that conducted me
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  Speaker 1: hither will carry me through all. Yes, I feel that
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  Speaker 1: I shall deliver thee Wait impatience and hope. But be cautious,
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  Speaker 1: be prudence which straininger. Attempt not to appeal to arbaces
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  Speaker 1: he is marble. Seek to praetor say what thou knowest
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  Speaker 1: obtain his writ of search. Bring soldiers and smiths of cunning.
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  Speaker 1: These locks are wondrous, strong time flies. I may starve,
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  Speaker 1: starve if you are not quick, go go yet stay.
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  Speaker 1: It is horrible to be alone. The air is like
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  Speaker 1: a channel, and the scorpius ha and the pale larvae. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: stay stay, Nay, says Nadia, terrified by the terror of
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  Speaker 1: the priest and anxious to confer with herself. Nay, for
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  Speaker 1: thy sake, I must depart, take hope for thy companion. Farewell,
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  Speaker 1: so saying, she glided away and felt with extended arms
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  Speaker 1: along the pillared space until she had gained the further
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  Speaker 1: end of the hall, in the mouth of the passage
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  Speaker 1: that led to the upper air. But there she paused.
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  Speaker 1: She felt that it would be more safe to wait
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  Speaker 1: awhile till the night was so far blended with the
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  Speaker 1: morning that the whole house would be buried in sleep,
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  Speaker 1: and so that she might quit it unobserved. She therefore
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  Speaker 1: once more laid herself down and counted the weary moments.
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  Speaker 1: In her sanguine heart, joy was the predominant emotion. Glaucus
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  Speaker 1: was in deadly peril, but she could save him. In
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  Speaker 1: the book four, chapter fourteen, recording by Ben Wilford of Jackson, Tennessee,