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038 - Book 4 Chapter X · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: Book four, Chapter ten of Last Days upon Pay. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recording 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. Bullward Lytton, Book four, Chapter ten,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten. What becomes of Nadia in the house of
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  Speaker 1: Arbaces the Egyptian fields compassion for Glaucus. Compassion is often
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  Speaker 1: a very useless visitor to the guilty. It will be
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  Speaker 1: remembered that, at the command of Arbaces, Nadia followed the
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  Speaker 1: Egyptian to his home, and, conversing there with her, he
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  Speaker 1: learned from the confession of her despair and remorse, that
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  Speaker 1: her hand, and not Julius, had administered to Glaucus the
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  Speaker 1: fatal potion. At another time, the Egyptian might have conceded
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  Speaker 1: the philosophical interest in sounding the depths and origin of
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  Speaker 1: the strange and absorbing passion which, in blindness and in
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  Speaker 1: slavery this singular girl had dared to cherish. But at
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  Speaker 1: present he spared no thought from himself, as after her confession,
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  Speaker 1: the poor Nadia threw herself on her knees before him
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  Speaker 1: and besought him to restore the health and save the
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  Speaker 1: life of Glaucus. For in her youth and ignorance, she
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  Speaker 1: imagined the dark magician, all powerful to affect both Arbaces
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  Speaker 1: with unheeding ears. Was noting only the new expediency of
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  Speaker 1: detaining Nadia a present until the trial and fate of
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  Speaker 1: Glaucus were decided. For if, when he judged her merely
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  Speaker 1: the accomplice of Julia in obtaining the filter, he had
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  Speaker 1: felt it was dangerous to the full success of his
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  Speaker 1: vengeance to allow her to be at large, to appear,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps as a witness, to avow the manner in which
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  Speaker 1: the sense of Glaucus had been darkened. And thus, when
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  Speaker 1: indulgence to the crime of which he was accused, how
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  Speaker 1: much more was she likely to volunteer her testimony when
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  Speaker 1: she herself had administered the draft, and, inspired by love,
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  Speaker 1: would be only anxious, at any expense of shame, to
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  Speaker 1: retrieve her error and preserve her beloved. Besides, how unworthy
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  Speaker 1: of the rank and repute of Arbaces to be implicated
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  Speaker 1: in the disgrace of pandering to the passion of Julia
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  Speaker 1: and assisting in the unholy rites of the Saga of Vesuvius.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing less, indeed, than his desire to induce Glaucus to
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  Speaker 1: own the murder of a Pacidas as a policy evidently
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  Speaker 1: the best both for his own permanent safety and his
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  Speaker 1: successful suit with the own, could ever have led him
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  Speaker 1: to contemplate the confession of Julia. As for Nadia, who
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  Speaker 1: was necessarily cut off by her blindness from much of
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge of active life, and who a slave and
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  Speaker 1: a stranger, was naturally ignorant of the peerils of the
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  Speaker 1: Roman law, she thought rather of the illness and delirium
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  Speaker 1: of her Athenians, than the crime of which she had
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  Speaker 1: vaguely heard him accused, or the chances of the impending trial.
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  Speaker 1: Poor wretch that she was, whom none addressed, none cared for.
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  Speaker 1: What did she know of the senate and the sentence,
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  Speaker 1: the hazard of the law, the ferocity of the people,
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  Speaker 1: the arena, and the lions den She was accustomed only
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  Speaker 1: to associate with the thought of Glaucus everything that was
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  Speaker 1: prosperous and lofty. She could not imagine that any peril,
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  Speaker 1: save from the madness of her love, could menace that
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  Speaker 1: sacred head he seemed to her set apart for the
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  Speaker 1: blessing of life. She only had disturbed the current of
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  Speaker 1: his felicity. She knew, not, she dreamed, not that the stream,
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  Speaker 1: once so bright, was dashing on to darkness and to death.
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  Speaker 1: It was therefore, to restore the brain that she had marred,
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  Speaker 1: to save the life that she had endangered, that she
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  Speaker 1: implored the assistance of the great Egyptian daughter, said Arbaces,
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  Speaker 1: waking from his reverie, thou must rest here. It does
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  Speaker 1: not meet for thee to wander along the streets and
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  Speaker 1: be spurned from the threshold by the rude feet of slaves.
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  Speaker 1: I have compassion on thy soft crime. I will do
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  Speaker 1: all to remedy it. Wait here patiently for some days,
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  Speaker 1: and Glaucus shall be restored. So saying, and without waiting
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  Speaker 1: for her reply, he hastened from the room, drew the
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  Speaker 1: bolt across the door, and consigned the care and wants
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  Speaker 1: of his prisoner to the slave who had the charge
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  Speaker 1: of that part of the mansion alone. Then and musingly,
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  Speaker 1: he waited the morning light, and with it repaired as
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  Speaker 1: we have seen, to possess himself for the person of Yon.
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  Speaker 1: His primary object with respect to the unfortunate Neopolitan was,
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  Speaker 1: as which he had really stated to Claudius viz. To
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  Speaker 1: prevent her enter resting herself actively in the trial of Glaucus,
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  Speaker 1: and also to guard against her accusing him, which she
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  Speaker 1: would doubtless have done of his former act of perfidy
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  Speaker 1: and violence towards her, his ward, denouncing his causes for
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  Speaker 1: vengeance against Glaucus, unveiling the hypocrisy of his character, and
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  Speaker 1: casting any doubt upon his ferocity in the charge which
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  Speaker 1: he had made against the Athenian. Not till he had
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  Speaker 1: encountered her that morning, not till he had heard her
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  Speaker 1: loud denunciations, was he aware that he had also another
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  Speaker 1: danger to apprehend in her suspicion of his crime. He
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  Speaker 1: hugged himself now at the thought that these ends were
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  Speaker 1: affected that one at once. The object of his passion
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  Speaker 1: and his fear was in his power. He believed more
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  Speaker 1: than ever the flattering promises of the stars. And when
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  Speaker 1: he sought in in that chamber, in the inmost recesses
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  Speaker 1: of his mysterious mansion to which he had consigned her,
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  Speaker 1: when he found her over powered by blow upon blow,
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  Speaker 1: in passing from fit to fit, from violence to torpor,
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  Speaker 1: in all the alienations of hysterical disease, he thought more
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  Speaker 1: of the loveliness which no frenzy could distort than of
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  Speaker 1: the woe which he had brought upon her. In that
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  Speaker 1: sanguine vanity common to men who through life have been
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  Speaker 1: invariably successful, whether in fortune or love, he flattered himself
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  Speaker 1: that when Glaucus had perished, when his name was solemnly
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  Speaker 1: blackened by the award of a legal judgment, his title
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  Speaker 1: to her love forever forfeited by condemnation to death for
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  Speaker 1: the murder of her own brother, her affection would be
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  Speaker 1: changed to horror, And that his tenderness and his passion,
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  Speaker 1: assisted by all the arts with which he well knew
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  Speaker 1: how to dazzle women's imagination, might elect him to that
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  Speaker 1: throne in her heart from which his rival would be
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  Speaker 1: so awfully expelled. This was his hope. But should it fail,
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  Speaker 1: his unholy and fervid passion whispered the worst. Now she
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  Speaker 1: is in my power, Yet withal he felt it uneasiness
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  Speaker 1: and apprehension which attended upon the chance of detection, even
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  Speaker 1: when the criminal is insensible to the voice of conscience,
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  Speaker 1: that vague terror of the consequences of crime, which is
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  Speaker 1: often mistaken for remorse at the crime itself. The buoyant
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  Speaker 1: air of Campania weighed heavily upon his breast. He longed
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  Speaker 1: to hurry from the scene, where danger might not sleep
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  Speaker 1: eternally with the dead. And having owned now in his possession,
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  Speaker 1: he secret resolved, as soon as he had witnessed the
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  Speaker 1: last agony of his rival, to transport his wealth and
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  Speaker 1: her the costly treasure of awe to some distant shore. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: said he, striding to and fro his solitary chamber. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: the law that gave me the person of my ward
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  Speaker 1: gives me the possession of my bride. Far across the
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  Speaker 1: broad main, where we sweep on our search after novel
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  Speaker 1: luxuries and in experienced pleasures. Cheered by my stars, supported
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  Speaker 1: by the omens of my soul, we will penetrate to
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  Speaker 1: those vast and glorious worlds which my wisdom tells me
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  Speaker 1: lie yet untracked in the recesses of the circling sea.
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  Speaker 1: There may this heart, possessed of love, grow once more
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  Speaker 1: alive to ambition. There, amongst nations, uncrushed by the Roman yoke,
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  Speaker 1: and to whose ear the name of Rome has not
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  Speaker 1: yet been waffled, I may found an empower and transplt
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  Speaker 1: my ancestral creed, renewing the ashes of the dead, theban
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  Speaker 1: rule continuing and yet grander shores the dynasty of my
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  Speaker 1: crown fathers, and waking in the noble heart of Ion
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  Speaker 1: the grateful consciousness that she shares the lot of one who,
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  Speaker 1: far from the aged rottenness of this slavish civilization, restores
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  Speaker 1: the primal elements of greatness and unites in one mighty
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  Speaker 1: soul the attributes of the prophet and the king. From
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  Speaker 1: this exultant soliloquy, Arbacus was awakened to attend the trial
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  Speaker 1: of the Athenian. The worn and pallid cheek of his
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  Speaker 1: victim touched him less than the firmness of his nerves
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  Speaker 1: in the dauntlessness of his brow. For Arbaces was one
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  Speaker 1: who had little pity for what was unfortunate, but a
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  Speaker 1: strong sympathy for what was bold. The congenialities that bind
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  Speaker 1: us to others, ever assimilate to the qualities of our
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  Speaker 1: own nature. The hero weeps less at the reverses of
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  Speaker 1: his enemy than at the fortitude with which he bears them.
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  Speaker 1: All of us are human, and Arbaces, criminal as he was,
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  Speaker 1: had his share of our common feelings and our mother
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  Speaker 1: Clay had he but obtained from Glaucus, the written confession
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  Speaker 1: of his crime, which would, better than even the judgment
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  Speaker 1: of others, have lost him with Eon and removed from
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  Speaker 1: Arbaces the chance of future detection. The Egyptian would have
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  Speaker 1: strained every nerve to save his rival. Even now his
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  Speaker 1: hatred was over, his desire of revenge was slack. He
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  Speaker 1: crushed his prey not in inanity, but as an obstacle
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  Speaker 1: in his path. Yet was he not the less resolved,
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  Speaker 1: the less crafty and persevering in the course he pursued
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  Speaker 1: for the destruction of one whose doom was to become
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  Speaker 1: necessary through the attainment of his object. And while with
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  Speaker 1: apparent reluctance and compassion he gave against Glaucus the evidence
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  Speaker 1: which condemned him, he secretly, and through the medium of
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  Speaker 1: the priesthood, fomented that popular indignation which made an effectual
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  Speaker 1: obstacle to the pity of the Senate. He had sought Julia,
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  Speaker 1: he had detailed to her the confession of Nadia. He
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  Speaker 1: had easily therefore lulled any scruple of conscience which might
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  Speaker 1: have led her to extenuate the offense of Glaucus by
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  Speaker 1: avowing her share in his frenzy. And the more readily,
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  Speaker 1: for her vain heart had loved the fame and the
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  Speaker 1: prosperity of Glaucus, not glaucusm She felt no affection for
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  Speaker 1: a disgraced man. Nay, she almost rejoiced in the disgrace
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  Speaker 1: that humbled the hated ion. If Glaucus could not be
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  Speaker 1: her slave, neither could he be the adorer of her rival.
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  Speaker 1: This was sufficient consolation for any regret at his fate.
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  Speaker 1: Volatile and fickle. She began again to be moved by
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  Speaker 1: the sudden and earnest suit of Clodius, and was not
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  Speaker 1: willing to hazard the loss of an alliance with that
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  Speaker 1: base but high born noble by any public exposure of
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  Speaker 1: her past weakness and immodest passion for another. All things
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  Speaker 1: then smiled upon Arbaces, all things frowned upon the Athenian.
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  Speaker 1: In the Book four, Chapter ten, recording by Ben Wilford
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  Speaker 1: of Jackson, Tennessee,