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023 - Book 3 Chapter VI · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: Book three, chapter six 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 Anne Boulay. Last Days of
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  Speaker 1: Pompeii by Edward G. Bulwer Lytton book three, Chapter six,
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  Speaker 1: The Porter, the Girl and the Gladiator. The door of
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  Speaker 1: Diomed's house stood open and medon. The old slave sat
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  Speaker 1: at the bottom of the steps by which you ascended
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  Speaker 1: to the mansion. That luxurious mansion of the rich merchant
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  Speaker 1: of Pompeii is still to be seen, just without the
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  Speaker 1: gates of the city. At the commencement of the Street
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  Speaker 1: of Tombs, it was a gay neighborhood, despite the dead
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  Speaker 1: on the opposite side. But at some yards nearer the
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  Speaker 1: gate was a spacious hostelry at which those brought by
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  Speaker 1: business or by pleasure to Pompeii often stopped to refresh themselves.
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  Speaker 1: In the space before the entrance of the inn now
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  Speaker 1: stood wagons and carts and chariots, some just arrived, some
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  Speaker 1: just quitting. In all the bustle of an animated and
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  Speaker 1: popular resort of public entertainment. Before the door, some farmers,
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  Speaker 1: seated on a bench by a small circular table, were
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  Speaker 1: talking over their morning cups on the affairs of their calling.
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  Speaker 1: On the side of the door itself was painted gaily
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  Speaker 1: and freshly the eternal sign of the Chequers. By the
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  Speaker 1: roof of the inn stretched a terrace, on which some females,
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  Speaker 1: wives of the farmers above mentioned, were some seated, some
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  Speaker 1: leaning over the railing and conversing with their friends. Below,
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  Speaker 1: in a deep recess, at a little distance was a
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  Speaker 1: covered seat in which some two or three poorer travelers
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  Speaker 1: were resting themselves and shaking the dust from their garments.
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  Speaker 1: On the other sides stretched a wide space, originally the
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  Speaker 1: burial ground of a more ancient race than the present
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  Speaker 1: desidends of Pompeii, and now converted into a eustrenum, or
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  Speaker 1: place for the burning of the dead. Above this rose
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  Speaker 1: the terraces of a gay villa, half hid by trees.
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  Speaker 1: The tombs themselves, with their graceful and varied shapes, the
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  Speaker 1: flowers in the foliage that surrounded them, made no melancholy
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  Speaker 1: feature in the prospect. Hard by the gate of the city,
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  Speaker 1: in a small niche stood the still form of the
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  Speaker 1: well disciplined Roman sentry, the sun shining brightly on his
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  Speaker 1: polished crest, and the lance on which he leaned. The
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  Speaker 1: gate itself was divided into three arches, the center one
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  Speaker 1: for vehicles, the others for foot passengers, and on either
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  Speaker 1: side rose the massive walls which girt the city, composed, patched,
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  Speaker 1: repaired at a thousand different epochs, according as war time
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  Speaker 1: or the earthquake had shattered that vain protection. At frequent
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  Speaker 1: intervals rose square towers, whose summits broke in a picturesque
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  Speaker 1: rudeness the regular line of the wall, and contrasted well
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  Speaker 1: with the modern buildings, gleaming whitely by the curving road,
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  Speaker 1: which in that direction leads from Pompeii to Herculaneum, wound
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  Speaker 1: out of sight amidst hanging vines, above which found the
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  Speaker 1: sullen majesty of Vesuvius. Hast thou heard the news, old maiden, said,
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  Speaker 1: a young woman with a picture in her hand, as
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  Speaker 1: she paused by Diomed's door to gossip a moment with
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  Speaker 1: the slave ere she repaired to the neighboring inn to
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  Speaker 1: fill the vessel and coquette with the travelers news. What news,
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  Speaker 1: said the slave, raising his eyes moodily from the ground.
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  Speaker 1: Why there passed through the gate this morning? No doubt
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  Speaker 1: ere thou wert well awake? Such a visitor to Pompeii, aye,
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  Speaker 1: said the slave indifferently. Yes, a present from the noble Pomponianus.
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  Speaker 1: A present, I thought, thou sayest a visitor. It is
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  Speaker 1: both visitor and present. Know o, dull and stupid that
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  Speaker 1: it is a most beautiful young tiger for our approaching
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  Speaker 1: games in the amphitheater. Hear you that, Meaden, Oh what pleasure?
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  Speaker 1: I declare, I shall not sleep a wink till I
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  Speaker 1: see it. They say it has such a roar, poor fool,
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  Speaker 1: said Meaden, sadly and cynically fool me, No, fool, old
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  Speaker 1: cur it is a pretty thing, a tiger, especially if
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  Speaker 1: we could but find somebody for him to eat. We
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  Speaker 1: have now a lion and a tiger. Only consider that, Meaden,
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  Speaker 1: and for want of two good criminals, perhaps we shall
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  Speaker 1: be forced to see them eat each other by the bye.
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  Speaker 1: Your son is a gladiator, a handsome man and a
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  Speaker 1: strong Can you not persuade him to fight the tiger? Do? Now?
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  Speaker 1: You would oblige me mightily? Nay? You would be a
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  Speaker 1: benefactor to the whole town. Bah Bah, said the slave,
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  Speaker 1: with great asperity. Think of thine own danger. Ere thou
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  Speaker 1: thus press of my poor boy's death, my own de
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  Speaker 1: said the girl, frightened and looking hastily around avert. The
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  Speaker 1: omen let thy words fall on thine own head, and
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  Speaker 1: the girl, as she spoke, touched a talisman suspended round
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  Speaker 1: her neck. Thine own danger? What danger threatens me? Had
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  Speaker 1: the earthquake but a few nights since? No warning? Said meaden,
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  Speaker 1: Has it not a voice? Did it not say to us?
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  Speaker 1: All prepare for death? The end of all things is
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  Speaker 1: at hand, bah stuff, said the young woman, settling the
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  Speaker 1: folds of her tunic. Now thou talkest as they say?
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  Speaker 1: The Nazarenes talked, methinks thou art one of them. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I can prat with thee gray croaker. No more thou
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  Speaker 1: growest worse and worse. Balet, Oh, Hercules, send us a
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  Speaker 1: man for the lion, and another for the tiger. Ho
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  Speaker 1: Ho for the merry, merry show with a forest of
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  Speaker 1: faces in every row. Lo the swordsman bold as the
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  Speaker 1: son of Ala sweep side by side, or the hushed aerena.
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  Speaker 1: Talk while you may you will hold your breath when
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  Speaker 1: they meet in the grasp of the glowing death tramp tramp,
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  Speaker 1: how gaily they go, ho, ho for the merry, merry,
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  Speaker 1: show chanting in a silver and clear voice this feminine ditty,
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  Speaker 1: and holding up her tunic from the dusty road, the
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  Speaker 1: young woman stepped lightly across the crowded hostelry, My poor son,
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  Speaker 1: said the slave half aloud. Is it for things like
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  Speaker 1: this thou art to be butchered? Oh, faith of Christ?
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  Speaker 1: I could worship THEE in all sincerity, were it but
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  Speaker 1: for the horror which Thou inspirest for these bloody lists.
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  Speaker 1: The old man's head sank dejectedly on his breast. He
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  Speaker 1: remained silent and absorbed, but every now and then, with
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  Speaker 1: the corner of his sleeve he wiped his eyes. His
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  Speaker 1: heart was with his son. He did not see the
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  Speaker 1: figure that now approached from the gate with a quick
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  Speaker 1: step and a somewhat fierce and reckless gait and carriage.
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  Speaker 1: He did not lift his eyes till the figure passed
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  Speaker 1: opposite the place where he sat, and with a soft
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  Speaker 1: voice addressed him by the name of father, my boy,
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  Speaker 1: my leiden. Is it indeed, thou said the old man joyfully. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: thou wert present to my thoughts. I am glad to
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  Speaker 1: hear it, my father, said the gladiator, respectfully, touching the
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  Speaker 1: knees and the beard of the slave. And soon may
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  Speaker 1: I be always present with thee not in thought only, yes,
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  Speaker 1: my son, but not in this world, replied the slave, mournfully.
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  Speaker 1: Talk not thus o, my sire, look cheerfully, for I
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  Speaker 1: feel so. I am sure that I shall win the day,
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  Speaker 1: and then the gold I gain buys thy freedom. Oh father,
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  Speaker 1: It was but a few days since that I was
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  Speaker 1: taunted by one two whom I would gladly have undeceived,
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  Speaker 1: for he is more generous than the rest of his equals.
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  Speaker 1: He is not Roman, he is of Athens. By him,
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  Speaker 1: I was taunted with the lust of gain when I
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  Speaker 1: demanded what sum was the prize of victory? Alas he
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  Speaker 1: knew little of the soul of Leiden, my boy, My boy,
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  Speaker 1: said the old slave, As slowly ascending the steps, he
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  Speaker 1: conducted his son to his own little chamber, communicating with
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  Speaker 1: the entrance hall, which in this villa was the peristyle,
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  Speaker 1: not the atrium. You may see it now. It is
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  Speaker 1: the third floor to the right on entering the first
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  Speaker 1: door conducts to the staircase. The second is but a
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  Speaker 1: false recess, in which there stood a statue of bronze. Generous, affectionate,
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  Speaker 1: pious are thy motives, said Meaden, when they were thus
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  Speaker 1: secured from observation. Thy deed itself is guilt. Thou art
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  Speaker 1: to risk thy blood for thy father's freedom. That might
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  Speaker 1: be forgiven. But the prize of victory is the blood
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  Speaker 1: of another. Oh, that is a deadly sin. No object
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  Speaker 1: can purify it forbear forbearer. Rather would I be a
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  Speaker 1: slave forever than purchase liberty on such terms? Hush, my father,
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  Speaker 1: replied Leidon, somewhat impatiently. Thou hast picked up in this
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  Speaker 1: new creek of thine, of which I pray THEE not
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  Speaker 1: to speak to me, For the gods that gave me
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  Speaker 1: strength denied me wisdom. And I understand not one word
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  Speaker 1: of what Thou often preachest to me. Thou hast picked up.
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  Speaker 1: I say, in this new creed some singular fantasies of
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  Speaker 1: right and wrong. Pardon me if I offend THEE? But
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  Speaker 1: reflect against whom shall I contend? Oh? Couldst thou know
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  Speaker 1: those wretches with whom for thy sake, I assort thou
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  Speaker 1: wouldst think I purified earth by removing one of them,
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  Speaker 1: beasts whose very lips drop blood. Things all savage, undisciplined
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  Speaker 1: in their very courage, ferocious, heartless, senseless. No tie of
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  Speaker 1: life can bind them. They know not fear, it is true,
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  Speaker 1: but neither know they gratitude, nor charity, nor love. They
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  Speaker 1: are made but for their own career. To slaughter without pity,
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  Speaker 1: to die without dread. Can thy gods, whosoever they be
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  Speaker 1: look with wrath on a conflict, with such as these,
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  Speaker 1: and in such a cause, O, my Father, wherever the
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  Speaker 1: powers above gaze down on the earth, they behold no
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  Speaker 1: duties so sacred, so sanctifying as the sacrifice offered to
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  Speaker 1: an aged parent by the piety of a grateful son.
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  Speaker 1: The poor old slave, himself, deprived of the lights of knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: and only late a convert to the Christian faith, knew
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  Speaker 1: not with what arguments to enlighten an ignorance at once
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  Speaker 1: so dark and yet so beautiful in its error. His
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  Speaker 1: first impulse was to throw himself on his son's breast,
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  Speaker 1: his next to start away, to wring his hands, and
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  Speaker 1: in the attempt to reprove his broken voice lost itself
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  Speaker 1: in weeping, and if resumed leyden If thy deity methinkst
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  Speaker 1: thou wilt own but one be indeed that benevolent and
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  Speaker 1: pitying power which thou assertest him to be, he will
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  Speaker 1: know also that thy very faith in him first confirmed
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  Speaker 1: me in that determination. Thou blamest, how what mean you
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  Speaker 1: said the slave? Why thou knowest that I sold in
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  Speaker 1: my childhood as a slave, was set free at Rome
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  Speaker 1: by the will of my master, whom I had been
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  Speaker 1: fortunate enough to please. I hastened to Pompey to see THEE.
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  Speaker 1: I found THEE already aged and infirm under the yoke
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  Speaker 1: of a capricious and pampered lord. Thou hast lately adopted
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  Speaker 1: this new faith, and its adoption made thy slavery doubly
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  Speaker 1: painful to THEE. It took away all the softening charm
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  Speaker 1: of custom, which reconciles us so often to the worst.
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  Speaker 1: Didst thou not complain to me that thou wert compelled
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  Speaker 1: to offices that were not odious to THEE as a slave,
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  Speaker 1: but guilty as a Nazarene. Didst thou not tell me
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  Speaker 1: that thy soul shook with remorse, when thou wert compelled
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  Speaker 1: to place even a crumb of cake before the leres
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  Speaker 1: that watch over Yon Impluvium, that thy soul was torn
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  Speaker 1: by a perpetual struggle. Didst thou not tell me that,
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  Speaker 1: even by pouring wine before the threshold and calling on
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  Speaker 1: the name of some Grecian deity, thou didst fear that
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  Speaker 1: thou wert incurring penalties worse than those of ten Telus,
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  Speaker 1: an eternity of tortures more terrible than those of the
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  Speaker 1: Tartarian fields. Didst thou not tell me this? I wondered.
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  Speaker 1: I could not comprehend, nor by Hercules could I now?
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  Speaker 1: But I was thy son, and my sole task was
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  Speaker 1: to compassionate and to relieve. Could I hear thy groans?
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  Speaker 1: Could I witness thy mysterious horrors, thy constant anguish and
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  Speaker 1: remain inactive? No? By the immortal gods. The thought struck
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  Speaker 1: me like light from Olympus. I had no money, but
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  Speaker 1: I had strength and youth. These were thy gifts. I
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  Speaker 1: could sell these in my turn for thee. I learned
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  Speaker 1: the amounts of thy ransom. I learned that the usual
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  Speaker 1: prize of a victorious gladiator would doubly pay it. I
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  Speaker 1: became a gladiator. I linked myself with those accursed men
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  Speaker 1: scorning loathing. While I joined, I acquired their skill. Blessed
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  Speaker 1: be the lesson it shall teach me to free my father.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that thou couldst hear Olynthus sighed the old man,
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  Speaker 1: more and more affected by the virtue of his son,
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  Speaker 1: but not less strongly convinced of the criminality of his purpose.
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  Speaker 1: I will hear the whole world talk if thou wilt,
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  Speaker 1: answered the gladiator gaily, but not till thou art a
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  Speaker 1: slave no more beneath thy own roof my father. Thou
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  Speaker 1: shalt puzzle this dull brain all day long, aye, and
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  Speaker 1: all night too, if it give THEE pleasure. Oh, such
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  Speaker 1: a spot as I have chalked out for THEE. It
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  Speaker 1: is one of the nine hundred and ninety nine shops
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  Speaker 1: of the old Julia Felix, in the sunny part of
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  Speaker 1: the city, where thou mayst bast before the door in
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  Speaker 1: the day. And I will sell the oil and the
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  Speaker 1: wine for THEE my father, and then please Venus. Or
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  Speaker 1: if it does not please her, since thou lovest not
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  Speaker 1: her name, it is all one to Leiden, then I say,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps thou mayest have a daughter too, to tend thy
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  Speaker 1: gray hairs, and hear shrill voices at thy ye that
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  Speaker 1: shall call thee Leiden's father. Ah, we shall be so happy.
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  Speaker 1: The prize can purchase all cheer thee. Cheer up, my sire,
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  Speaker 1: And now I must away day wares the Lenist awaits me,
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  Speaker 1: Come thy blessing. As Leidon thus spoke, he had already
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  Speaker 1: quitted the dark chamber of his father, and speaking eagerly,
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  Speaker 1: though in a whispered tone, they now stood at the
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  Speaker 1: same place in which we introduced the porter at his post. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: bless thee, Bless thee, my brave boy, said Neden fervently,
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  Speaker 1: and made the great power that reads all hearts see
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  Speaker 1: the nobleness of thine and forgive its error. The tall
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  Speaker 1: shape of the gladiator passed swiftly down the path. The
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  Speaker 1: eyes of the sleigh followed its light but stately steps,
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  Speaker 1: till the last glimpse was gone. And then, sinking once
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  Speaker 1: more on his seat, his eyes again fastened themselves on
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  Speaker 1: the ground, his form mute and unmoving as a thing
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  Speaker 1: of stone. His heart, who in our he happier age,
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  Speaker 1: can even imagine its struggles, its commotion, may I enter,
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  Speaker 1: said a sweet voice, is thy mistress Julia within The
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  Speaker 1: slave mechanically motioned to the visitor to enter, but she
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  Speaker 1: who addressed him could not see the gesture. She repeated
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  Speaker 1: her question timidly, but in a louder voice. Have I
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  Speaker 1: not told thee? Said the slave peevishly. Enter finks, said
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  Speaker 1: the speaker plaintively, and the slave, roused by the tone,
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  Speaker 1: looked up and recognized the blind flower girl sorrow can
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  Speaker 1: sympathize with affliction. He raised himself and guided her steps
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  Speaker 1: to the head of the adjacent staircase by which you
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  Speaker 1: descended to Julia's apartment, where, summoning a female slave, he
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  Speaker 1: consigned her to the charge of the blind girl. End
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  Speaker 1: of Book three, Chapter six