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027 - Book 3 Chapter X · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: Book three, chapter ten 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 ten.
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  Speaker 1: The Lord of the Burning Belt and his minion Fate
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  Speaker 1: writes her prophecy in read letters, but who shall read them?
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  Speaker 1: Our bases had tarried only till the cessation of the
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  Speaker 1: tempest allowed him, under cover of night to seek the
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  Speaker 1: saga of Vesuvius, borne by those of his trust, your slaves,
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  Speaker 1: in whom, in all more secret expeditions he was accustomed
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  Speaker 1: to confide. He lay extended along his litter, and resigning
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  Speaker 1: his sanguine heart to the contemplation of vengeance, gratified and loved,
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  Speaker 1: possessed the slaves in so short a journey moved very
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  Speaker 1: little slower than the ordinary pace of mules, and our
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  Speaker 1: bases soon arrived at the commencement of a narrow path
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  Speaker 1: which the lovers had not been fortunate enough to discover,
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  Speaker 1: but which, skirting the thick vines, led at once to
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  Speaker 1: the habitation of the witch. Here he rested the litter,
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  Speaker 1: and bidding his slaves conceal themselves and the vehicle among
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  Speaker 1: the vines from the observation of any chance passenger, he
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  Speaker 1: mounted alone, with steps still feeble but supported by a
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  Speaker 1: long staff, the drear and sharp ascent. Not a drop
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  Speaker 1: of rain fell from the tranquil heaven, but the moisture
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  Speaker 1: dripped mournfully from the laden boughs of the vine, and
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  Speaker 1: now and then collected in tiny pools in the crevices
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  Speaker 1: and hollows of the rocky way. Strange passions, these, for
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  Speaker 1: a philosopher, thought, our bases that lead one like me,
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  Speaker 1: just new from the bed of death, and lapped even
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  Speaker 1: in health amidst the roses of luxury across such nocturnal
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  Speaker 1: paths as this. But passion and vengeance, treading to their goal,
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  Speaker 1: can make an elysium of a tartarus, high, clear and melancholy,
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  Speaker 1: shone the moon above the road of that dark wayfarer,
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  Speaker 1: glossing herself in every pool that lay before him, and
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  Speaker 1: sleeping in shadow along the sloping mount he saw before
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  Speaker 1: him the same light that had guided the steps of
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  Speaker 1: his intended victims. But no longer contrasted by the blackened clouds,
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  Speaker 1: it shone less redly clear. He paused, as at length
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  Speaker 1: he approached the mouth of the cavern to recover breath,
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  Speaker 1: and then, with his wonted, collected and stately mien, he
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  Speaker 1: crossed the unhallowed threshold. The fox sprang up at the
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  Speaker 1: ingress of this newcomer, and by a long howl announced
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  Speaker 1: another visitor to his mistress. The witch had resumed her
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  Speaker 1: seat and her aspect of grave like and grim repose.
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  Speaker 1: By her feet. Upon a bed of dry weeds which
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  Speaker 1: half covered it, lay the wounded snake. But the quick
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  Speaker 1: eye of the Egyptian caught its scales glittering in the
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  Speaker 1: reflected light of the opposite fire, as it writhed, now contracting,
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  Speaker 1: now lengthening its folds in pain and unsated anger. Down, slave,
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  Speaker 1: said the witch as before to the fox, and as
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  Speaker 1: before the animal dropped to the ground. Mute but vigilant, rise,
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  Speaker 1: servant of Knox and Erebus, said ar Basis commandingly, a
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  Speaker 1: superior in thine art, salutes thee rise and welcome him.
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  Speaker 1: At these words, the hag turned her gaze upon the
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  Speaker 1: Egyptian's towering form and dark features, She looked long and
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  Speaker 1: fixedly upon him, as he stood before her in his
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  Speaker 1: oriental robe and folded arms, and steadfast and haughty brow.
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  Speaker 1: Who art thou? She said at last, that callest thyself
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  Speaker 1: greater in art than the Saga of the Burning Fields
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  Speaker 1: and the daughter of the parish Etrurian race. I am, he, answered,
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  Speaker 1: ar basis from whom all cultivators of magic, from north
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  Speaker 1: to south, from east to west, from the Ganges and
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  Speaker 1: the Nile to the vales of Thessaly and the shores
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  Speaker 1: of the Yellow Tyber have stooped to learn. There is
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  Speaker 1: but one such man in these places, answered the witch,
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  Speaker 1: whom the men of the outer world, unknowing his loftier
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  Speaker 1: attributes and more secret fame, call our bases the Egyptian
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  Speaker 1: to us of a higher nature and deeper knowledge. His
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  Speaker 1: rightful appellation is Hermes of the burning girdle. Look again,
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  Speaker 1: returned our basis, I am he. As he spoke, he
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  Speaker 1: drew aside his robe and revealed a censure, seemingly of fire,
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  Speaker 1: that burned round his waist, clasped in the center by
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  Speaker 1: a plate, whereupon was engraven some sign, apparently vague and unintelligible,
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  Speaker 1: but which was evidently not unknown to the saga. She
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  Speaker 1: rose hastily and threw herself at the feet of our vases.
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  Speaker 1: I have seen, then, said she, in a voice of
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  Speaker 1: deep humility. The Lord of the mighty Girdle vouchsafed my homage. Rise,
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  Speaker 1: said the Egyptian, I have need of thee so, saying,
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  Speaker 1: he placed himself on the same log of wood on
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  Speaker 1: which Ione had rested before, and motion to the witch
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  Speaker 1: to resume her seat. Thou sayest, said he, as she obeyed,
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  Speaker 1: that thou art a daughter of the ancient Etrurian tribes.
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  Speaker 1: The mighty walls of those rock built cities yet frown
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  Speaker 1: above the robber race that hath seized upon their ancient reign.
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  Speaker 1: Partly came those tribes from Greece. Partly were they exiles
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  Speaker 1: from a more burning and primeval soil. In either case,
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  Speaker 1: Thou art of Egyptian lineage, for the Grecian masters of
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  Speaker 1: the Aboriginal Helat were among the restless sons whom the
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  Speaker 1: Nile banished from her bosom. Equally, then, o saga, thy
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  Speaker 1: descent is from ancestors that swore allegiance to mine own
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  Speaker 1: by birth and by knowledge, art Thou the subject of
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  Speaker 1: our bases. Hear me then, and obey. The witch bowed
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  Speaker 1: her head. Whatever art we possess in sorcery continued our bases,
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  Speaker 1: we are sometimes driven to natural means to attain our object.
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  Speaker 1: The ring and the crystal, and the ashes and the
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  Speaker 1: herbs do not give unerring divinations. Neither do the higher
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  Speaker 1: mysteries of the moon yield even the possessor of the
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  Speaker 1: girdle a dispensation from the necessity of employing ever and
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  Speaker 1: anon human measures for a human object. Mark me, then,
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  Speaker 1: thou art deeply skilled methinks in the secrets of the
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  Speaker 1: more deadly herbs. Thou knowest those which arrest life, which
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  Speaker 1: burn and scorch the soul from out her citadel, or
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  Speaker 1: freeze the channels of young blood into that ice which
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  Speaker 1: no sun can melt. Do I overrate thy skill, speak
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  Speaker 1: and truly mighty hermes. Such lore is indeed mine own
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  Speaker 1: deign to look at these ghostly and corpselike features. They
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  Speaker 1: have waned from the hues of life, merely by watching
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  Speaker 1: over the rank herbs which simmer night and day in
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  Speaker 1: yon cauldron. The Egyptian moved his seat from so unblessed
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  Speaker 1: and so unhealthful a vicinity. As the witch spoke, it
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  Speaker 1: is well, he said, thou hast learned that maxim of
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  Speaker 1: all the deeper knowledge which saith despise the body to
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  Speaker 1: make wise the mind. But to thy task. There cometh
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  Speaker 1: to thee by tomorrow's starlight, a vain maiden seeking of
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  Speaker 1: Thine art, a love charm to fascinate from another, the
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  Speaker 1: eyes that should utter, but soft tails to her own
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  Speaker 1: instead of thy filters. Give the maiden one of thy
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  Speaker 1: most powerful poisons. Let the lover breathe his vows to
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  Speaker 1: the shades. The witch trembled from head to foot. Oh, pardon, pardon,
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  Speaker 1: dread master, said she falteringly. But this I dare not.
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  Speaker 1: The law in these cities is sharp and vigilant. They
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  Speaker 1: will seize, they will slay me. For what purpose? Then,
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  Speaker 1: thy herbs and thy potions vain saga, said ar Vasis, sneeringly.
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  Speaker 1: The witch hid her loathsome face with her hands. Oh
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  Speaker 1: years ago, she said, in a voice unlike her usual tones.
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  Speaker 1: So plaintive was it, and so soft I was not
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  Speaker 1: the thing that I am. Now I loved. I fancy
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  Speaker 1: myself beloved. And what connection hath thy love? Witch? With
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  Speaker 1: my commands, said our basis impestuously. Patience resumed the witch patience.
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  Speaker 1: I implore you, I loved another and less fair than I. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: by Nemesis, less fair allured from me my chosen I
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  Speaker 1: was of that dark Etrurian tribe to whom most of
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  Speaker 1: all were known the secrets of the Gloomier magic. My
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  Speaker 1: mother was herself a saga. She shared the resentment of
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  Speaker 1: her child. From her hands I received the potion that
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  Speaker 1: was to restore me his love, and from her also
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  Speaker 1: the poison that was to destroy my rival. Oh, crush me,
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  Speaker 1: dread walls. My trembling hands mistook the files. My lover
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  Speaker 1: fell indeed at my feet, but dead, dead dead. Since then,
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  Speaker 1: what has been life to me? I became suddenly old.
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  Speaker 1: I devoted myself to the sorceries of my race. Still,
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  Speaker 1: by an irresistible impulse, I curse myself with an awful penance.
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  Speaker 1: Still I seek the most noxious herbs. Still I concoct
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  Speaker 1: the poisons. Still I imagine that I am to give
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  Speaker 1: them to my hated rival. Still I pour them into
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  Speaker 1: the file. Still I fancy that they shall blast her
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  Speaker 1: beauty to the dust. Still I wake and see the
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  Speaker 1: quivering body the foaming lips, the gazing eyes of my
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  Speaker 1: allus murdered, and by me the skeleton frame of the
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  Speaker 1: witch shook beneath strong convulsions. Our basies gazed upon her
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  Speaker 1: with a curious, though contemptuous eye. And this foul thing
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  Speaker 1: has yet human emotions, thought he. Still she cowers over
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  Speaker 1: the ashes of the same fire that consumes our bases.
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  Speaker 1: Such are we all? Mystic is the tie of those
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  Speaker 1: mortal passions that unite the greatest and the least. He
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  Speaker 1: did not reply till she had somewhat recovered herself, and
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  Speaker 1: now sat rocking to and fro in her seat, with
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  Speaker 1: glassy eyes fixed on the opposite flame, and large tears
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  Speaker 1: rolling down her livid cheeks. A grievous tail is thine
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  Speaker 1: in truth, said our basis. But these emotions are fit
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  Speaker 1: only for our youth. Age should harden our hearts to
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  Speaker 1: all things but ourselves. As every year adds a scale
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  Speaker 1: to the shellfish, so should each year wall and encrust
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  Speaker 1: the heart. Think of these frenzies no more, And now
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  Speaker 1: listen to me again. By the revenge that was dear
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  Speaker 1: to thee, I command thee to obey me. It is
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  Speaker 1: for vengeance that I seek thee. This youth, whom I
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  Speaker 1: would sweep from my path, has crossed me despite my spells.
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  Speaker 1: This thing of purple embroidery, of smiles and glances, soulless
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  Speaker 1: and mindless, with no charm but that of beauty. A
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  Speaker 1: cursed be it, this insect, this Glaucus. I tell thee
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  Speaker 1: by Orchis and by Nemesis, he must die. And working
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  Speaker 1: himself up at every word, the Egyptian, forgetful of his debility,
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  Speaker 1: of his strange companion, of everything but his own vindictive rage,
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  Speaker 1: strode with large and rapid steps the gloomy cavern Glaucus.
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  Speaker 1: Sayest thou, mighty master, said the witch abruptly, and her
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  Speaker 1: dim eye glared at the name with all that fierce resentment,
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  Speaker 1: at the memory of small affronts so common amongst the
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  Speaker 1: solitary and the shun aye. So he is called. But
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  Speaker 1: what matters the name? Let it not be heard as
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  Speaker 1: that of a living man. Three days from this date,
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  Speaker 1: hear me, said the witch, breaking from a short reverie
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  Speaker 1: into which she was plunged. After this last sentence of
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  Speaker 1: the Egyptian, hear me, I am thy thing, and thy slave,
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  Speaker 1: spare me if I give to the maiden. Thou speakest
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  Speaker 1: of that which would destroy the life of Glaucus, I
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  Speaker 1: shall be surely detect the dead, ever find avengers, nay
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  Speaker 1: dread man. If thy visit to me be tracked, If
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  Speaker 1: thy hatred to Glaucus be known, thou mayest have need
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  Speaker 1: of thy Arch's magic to protect thyself. Ha said our
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  Speaker 1: bases stopping suddenly short, and as a proof of that
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  Speaker 1: blindness with which passion darkens the eyes even of the
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  Speaker 1: most acute. This was the first time when the wrist
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  Speaker 1: that he himself ran by this method of vengeance had
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  Speaker 1: occurred to a mind ordinarily weary in circumspect. But continued
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  Speaker 1: the witch, If instead of that which arrests the heart,
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  Speaker 1: I give that which shall sear and blast the brain,
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  Speaker 1: which shall make him who quafs it unfit for the
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  Speaker 1: uses and career of life, an abject, raving, benighted thing,
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  Speaker 1: smiting sense to driveling youth to dottage. Will not thy
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  Speaker 1: vengeance be equally sated, thy object equally attained? O Witch,
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  Speaker 1: no longer the servant, but the sister, the equal of
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  Speaker 1: our bases. How much brighter is woman's wit, even in
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  Speaker 1: vengeance than ours, How much more exquisite than death is
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  Speaker 1: such a doom, And continued the hag, gloating over her
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  Speaker 1: fell scheme. In this is but little danger. For by
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand methods which men forbear to seek, can our
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  Speaker 1: victim become mad? He may have been among the vines
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  Speaker 1: and seen a nymph, or the vine itself may have
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  Speaker 1: had the same effect. Ha ha. They never inquire too
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  Speaker 1: scrupulously into these matters in which the gods may be agents,
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  Speaker 1: and let the worst arrive. Let it be known that
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  Speaker 1: it is a love charm. Why madness is a common
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  Speaker 1: effect of filters, and even the fair she that gave
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  Speaker 1: it finds indulgence in the excuse. Mighty hermes have I
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  Speaker 1: ministered to thee cunningly? Thou shalt have twenty years longer date.
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  Speaker 1: For this returned our bases, I will write anew the
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  Speaker 1: epic of thy fate on the face of the pale stars.
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  Speaker 1: Thou shalt not serve in vain the master of the
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  Speaker 1: flaming belt. And here Saga carve THEE out by these
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  Speaker 1: golden tools a warmer cell in this dreary cavern. One
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  Speaker 1: service to me shall countervail a thousand divinations by sieve
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  Speaker 1: and shears to the gaping rustics, so saying, he cast
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  Speaker 1: upon the floor a heavy purse, which clinked not unmusically,
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  Speaker 1: to the ear of the hag, who loved the consciousness
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  Speaker 1: of possessing the means to purchase comforts. She disdained farewell, said,
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  Speaker 1: our basies fail not outwatch the stars in concocting thy beverage.
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  Speaker 1: Thou shalt lord it over thy sisters at the walnut tree,
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  Speaker 1: when thou tellest them thy patron and thy friend is
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  Speaker 1: Hermes the Egyptian. Tomorrow night we meet again. He stayed
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  Speaker 1: not to hear the valediction or the thanks of the witch.
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  Speaker 1: With a quick step, he passed into the moonlit air
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  Speaker 1: and hastened down the mountain. The witch, who followed his
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  Speaker 1: steps to the threshold, stood at the entrance of the cavern,
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  Speaker 1: gazing fixedly on his receding form, And as the sad
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  Speaker 1: moonlight streamed over her shadowy form and deathlike face emerging
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  Speaker 1: from the dismal rocks, it seemed as if one gifted
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  Speaker 1: indeed by supernatural magic, had escaped from the dreary orcus,
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  Speaker 1: and the foremost of its ghostly throng stood at its
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  Speaker 1: black portals, vainly summoning his return, or vainly sighing to
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  Speaker 1: rejoin him. The hag, then, slowly re entering the cave, groaningly,
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  Speaker 1: picked up the heavy purse, took the lamp from its stand, and,
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  Speaker 1: passing to the remotest depth of her cell, a black
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  Speaker 1: and abrupt passage which was not visible save at a
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  Speaker 1: near approach, closed round as it was, with jutting and
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  Speaker 1: sharp crags, yawned before her. She went several yards along
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  Speaker 1: this gloomy path, which sloped gradually downwards, as if towards
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  Speaker 1: the bowels of the earth, and lifting a stone, deposited
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  Speaker 1: her treasure in a hole beneath which, as the lamp
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  Speaker 1: pierced its secrets, seemed already to contain coins of various value,
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  Speaker 1: wrung from the credulity or gratitude of her visitors. I
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  Speaker 1: love to look at you, she said, apostrophising the monies,
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  Speaker 1: for when I see you, I feel that I am
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  Speaker 1: indeed of power, and I am to have twenty years
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  Speaker 1: longer life to increase your store, O thou, great hermes.
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  Speaker 1: She replaced the stone and continued her path onward for
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  Speaker 1: some paces, when she stopped before a deep, irregular fissure
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  Speaker 1: in the earth. Here as she bent, strange rumbling, hoarse
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  Speaker 1: and distant sounds might be heard, while ever and anon
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  Speaker 1: with a loud and grating noise, which to use a
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  Speaker 1: homely but faithful simile, seemed to resemble the grinding of
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  Speaker 1: steel upon wheels. Volumes of streaming and dark smoke issued
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  Speaker 1: forth and rushed spiraling along the cavern. The shades are
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  Speaker 1: noisier than their wont, said the hag, shaking her gray
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  Speaker 1: locks and looking into the cavity. She beheld far down
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  Speaker 1: glimpses of a long streak of light, intensely but darkly red. Strange,
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  Speaker 1: she said, shrinking back. It is only within the last
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  Speaker 1: two days that dull, deep light hath been visible. What
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  Speaker 1: can it portend? The fox, who had attended the steps
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  Speaker 1: of his fell mistress, uttered a dismal howl and ran,
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  Speaker 1: cowering back to the inner cave. A cold shuddering seized
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  Speaker 1: the hag herself at the cry of the animal, which
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  Speaker 1: causeless as it seemed, the superstitions of the time. Considered
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  Speaker 1: deeply ominous, she muttered her placatory charm and tottered back
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  Speaker 1: into her cavern, where, amidst her herbs, and incantations. She
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  Speaker 1: prepared to execute the orders of the Egyptian. He called me, Doddard,
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  Speaker 1: said she, as the smoke curled from the hissing cauldron,
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  Speaker 1: when the jaws drop, and the grinders fall, and the
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  Speaker 1: heart scarce beats, it is a pitiable thing to dote.
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  Speaker 1: But when she added, with a savage and exulting grin,
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  Speaker 1: the young and the beautiful and the strong are suddenly
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  Speaker 1: smitten into idiocy. Ah, that is terrible, burn, flame simmer,
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  Speaker 1: herb swelter toad. I curse him, and he shall be cursed.
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  Speaker 1: On that night, and at the same hour which witnessed
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  Speaker 1: the dark and unholy interview between Arbassies and the Saga,
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  Speaker 1: Apacides was baptized. End of Book three, chapter ten,