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032 - Book 4 Chapter IV · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: Book four, Chapter four 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 Ruth Golding Last Days of
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  Speaker 1: Pompeii by Edward G. Bulwer lytton Book four, Chapter four.
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  Speaker 1: The story halts for a moment at an episode. Restless
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  Speaker 1: and anxious episodes consumed the day. In wandering through the
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  Speaker 1: most sequestered walks in the vicinity of the city, the
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  Speaker 1: sun was slowly setting as he paused beside a lonely
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  Speaker 1: part of the sanus ere, yet it wound amidst the
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  Speaker 1: evidences of luxury and power. Only through openings in the
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  Speaker 1: woods and vines were caught glimpses of the white and
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  Speaker 1: gleaming city in which was her In the distance, no din,
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  Speaker 1: no sound, nor busiest hum of men. Amidst the green
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  Speaker 1: banks crept the lizard and the grasshopper. And here and
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  Speaker 1: there in the break, some solitary bird burst into sudden song,
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  Speaker 1: as suddenly stifled. There was deep calm around, but not
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  Speaker 1: the calm of night. The air still breathed of the
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  Speaker 1: freshness and life of day. The grass still moved to
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  Speaker 1: the stir of the insect horde, and on the opposite bank,
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  Speaker 1: the graceful and white capella passed browsing through the herbage,
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  Speaker 1: and paused at the wave to drink. As the pisides
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  Speaker 1: stood musingly gazing upon the waters, he heard beside him
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  Speaker 1: the low bark of a dog. Be still, poor friend,
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  Speaker 1: said a voice at hand, the strangest deap palms, not
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  Speaker 1: thy master. The convert recognized the voice, and turning, he
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  Speaker 1: beheld the old, mysterious man whom he had seen in
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  Speaker 1: the congregation of the Nazarenes. The old man was sitting
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  Speaker 1: upon a fragment of stone covered with ancient mosses. Beside
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  Speaker 1: him were his staff and scrip. At his feet lay
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  Speaker 1: a small shaggy dog, the companion in how many a pilgrimage.
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  Speaker 1: Perilous and strange. The face of the old man was
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  Speaker 1: as balm to the excited spirit of the neophyight. He approached, and,
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  Speaker 1: craving his blessing, sat down beside him. Thou art provided
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  Speaker 1: us for a journey, Father, said he wilt thou leave.
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  Speaker 1: As yet, my son, replied the old man. The days
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  Speaker 1: in store for me on earth are few and scanty.
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  Speaker 1: I employ them as becomes me, traveling from place to place,
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  Speaker 1: comforting those whom God has gathered together in his name,
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  Speaker 1: and proclaiming the glory of his son, as testified to
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  Speaker 1: his servant. Thou hast looked, They tell me on the
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  Speaker 1: face of Christ, and the face revived me from the dead.
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  Speaker 1: No young proselyte to the true faith that I am
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  Speaker 1: he of whom thou readest in the scroll of the Apostle.
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  Speaker 1: In the far Judea and in the city of Name,
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  Speaker 1: there dwelt a widow, humble of spirit and sad of heart,
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  Speaker 1: for of all the ties of life, one son alone
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  Speaker 1: was spared to her, and she loved him with a
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  Speaker 1: melancholy love, for he was the likeness of the lost.
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  Speaker 1: And the sun died, the reed on which she leaned
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  Speaker 1: was broken, the oil was dryed up. In the widow's cruise,
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  Speaker 1: they bore the dead upon his bier, and near the
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  Speaker 1: gate of the city where the crowd were gathered, there
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  Speaker 1: came a silence over the sounds of woe, for the
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  Speaker 1: Son of God was passing by. The mother who followed
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  Speaker 1: the bier wept not noisily, but all who looked upon her,
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  Speaker 1: saw that her heart was crushed, and the Lord pitied her.
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  Speaker 1: And he touched the bier and said, I say unto
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  Speaker 1: thee arise. And the dead man woke and looked upon
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  Speaker 1: the face of the Lord. Oh, that calm and solemn brow,
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  Speaker 1: that unutterable smile, that careworn and sorrowful face lighted up
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  Speaker 1: with a god's benignity. It chased away the shadows of
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  Speaker 1: the grave. I rose, I spoke, I was living, and
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  Speaker 1: in my mother's arms. Yes, I am the dead revived.
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  Speaker 1: The people shouted, the funeral horns rung forth merrily. There
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  Speaker 1: was a cry God has visited his people. I heard them,
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  Speaker 1: not I felt, I saw nothing but the face of
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  Speaker 1: the Redeemer. The old man paused, deeply moved, and the
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  Speaker 1: youth felt his blood creep and his hair stir. He
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  Speaker 1: was in the presence of one who had known the
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  Speaker 1: mystery of death till that time, renewed the widow's son.
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  Speaker 1: I had been as other men, thoughtless, not abandoned, taking
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  Speaker 1: no heed, but of the things of love and life. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: I had inclined to the gloomy faith of the earth Sadducee,
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  Speaker 1: but raised from the dead from awful and desert dreams
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  Speaker 1: that these lips never dare reveal. Recalled upon earth to
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  Speaker 1: testify the powers of Heaven, once more mortal, the witness
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  Speaker 1: of immortality. I drew a new being from the grave,
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  Speaker 1: Oh faded O lost Jerusalem, him from whom came my life.
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  Speaker 1: I beheld adjudged to the agonized and deparching death. Far
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  Speaker 1: in the mighty crowd. I saw the light rest and
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  Speaker 1: glimmer over the cross. I heard the hooting mob. I
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  Speaker 1: cried aloud, I raved, I threatened, None heeded me. I
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  Speaker 1: was lost in the whirl and the roar of thousands.
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  Speaker 1: But even then, in my agony and his own methought,
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  Speaker 1: the glazing eye of the Son of Man sought me out.
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  Speaker 1: His lips smiled as when it conquered death. It hushed me,
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  Speaker 1: and I became calm. He who had defied the grave
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  Speaker 1: for another? What was the grave to him? The sun
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  Speaker 1: shone aslant the pale and powerful features, and then died away.
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  Speaker 1: Darkness fell over the earth. How long it endured? I
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  Speaker 1: know not. A loud cry came through the gloom, a
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  Speaker 1: sharp and bitter cry, and all was silent. But who
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  Speaker 1: shall tell the terrors of the night I walked along
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  Speaker 1: the city. The earth reeled to and fro, and the
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  Speaker 1: houses trembled to their base. The living had deserted the streets,
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  Speaker 1: but not the dead. Through the gloom, I saw them glide,
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  Speaker 1: the dim and ghastly shapes in the cerements of the grave,
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  Speaker 1: with horror and woe and warning on their unmoving lips
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  Speaker 1: and lightless eyes. They swept by me. As I passed,
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  Speaker 1: they glared upon me. I had been their brother, and
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  Speaker 1: they bowed their heads in recognition. They had risen to
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  Speaker 1: tell the living that the dead can rise again. The
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  Speaker 1: old man paused, and when he resumed, it was in
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  Speaker 1: a calmer tone. From that night I resigned all earthly
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  Speaker 1: thought but that of serving him. A preacher and a pilgrim.
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  Speaker 1: I have traversed the remotest corners of the earth, proclaiming
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  Speaker 1: his divinity and bringing new converts to his fold. I
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  Speaker 1: come as the wind, and as the wind depart, sowing
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  Speaker 1: as the wind sows the seeds that enriched the world.
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  Speaker 1: Sun on earth, we shall meet no more. Forget not
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  Speaker 1: this hour, what are the pleasures and the pomps of life?
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  Speaker 1: As the lamp shines, so life glitters for an hour
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  Speaker 1: but the soul's light is the star that burns forever
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  Speaker 1: in the heart of inimitable space. It was then that
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  Speaker 1: their conversation fell upon the general and sublime doctrines of immortality.
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  Speaker 1: It soothed and elevated the young mind of the convert,
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  Speaker 1: which yet clung to many of the damps and shadows
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  Speaker 1: of that cell of faith which he had so lately left.
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  Speaker 1: It was the air of heaven breathing on the prisoner
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  Speaker 1: released at last. There was a strong and marked distinction
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  Speaker 1: between the Christianity of the old man and that of Olynthus,
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  Speaker 1: that of the first was more soft, more gentle, more divine.
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  Speaker 1: The heroism of olynthus had something in it fierce and intolerant.
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  Speaker 1: It was necessary to the part he was destined to play.
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  Speaker 1: It had in it more of the courage of the
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  Speaker 1: martyr than the charity of the saint. It aroused, it excited,
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  Speaker 1: It nerved, rather than subdued and softened. But the whole
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  Speaker 1: heart of that divine old man was bathed in love.
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  Speaker 1: The smile of the deity had burned away from it
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  Speaker 1: the leaven of earthlier and coarser passions, and left to
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  Speaker 1: the energy of the hero all the meekness of the child.
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  Speaker 1: And now now said he, rising at length, as the
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  Speaker 1: sun's last ray died in the west. Now, in the
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  Speaker 1: cool of twilight, I pursue my way towards the Imperial Rome.
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  Speaker 1: There yet dwell some holy men who like me have
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  Speaker 1: beheld the face of Christ. And then would I see
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  Speaker 1: before I die? But the night is chill for thine age,
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  Speaker 1: my father, and the way is long, and the robber
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  Speaker 1: haunts it rest de till to morrow, Kind son, What
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  Speaker 1: is there in this script to tempt? The robber? And
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  Speaker 1: the night and the solitude? These make the ladder round
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  Speaker 1: which angels cluster, and beneath which my spirit can dream
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  Speaker 1: of God? O none can know what the pilgrim feels
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  Speaker 1: as he walks on his holy course, nursing no fear
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  Speaker 1: and dreading no danger, for God is with him. He
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  Speaker 1: hears the wind's murmur glad tidings. The woods sleep in
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  Speaker 1: the shadow of almighty wings. The stars are the scriptures
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  Speaker 1: of heaven, the tokens of love, and the witnesses of immortality.
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  Speaker 1: Night is the Pilgrim's day. With these words, the old
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  Speaker 1: man pressed apisodes to his breast, and taking up his
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  Speaker 1: staff and scrip, the dog bounded cheerily before him, and
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  Speaker 1: with slow steps and downcast eyes, he went his way.
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  Speaker 1: The convert stood watching his bended form till the trees
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  Speaker 1: shut the last glimpse from his view, and then as
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  Speaker 1: the stars broke forth, he woke from the musings with
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  Speaker 1: a start, reminded of his appointment with O Linsus. End
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  Speaker 1: of Book four, Chapter four,