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041 - Book 4 Chapter XIII · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: Book four, Chapter thirteen of Last Days of Pompeii. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Ben Wilford. Last Days of
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  Speaker 1: Pompeii by Edward G. Bullwart Lytton Book four, Chapter thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen, The slave consults the oracle. They who blind
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  Speaker 1: themselves in the blind may fool two new prisoners made
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  Speaker 1: in one night. Impatiently not yet awaited the arrival of
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  Speaker 1: the no less anxious Socia, fortifying his courage by plentiful
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  Speaker 1: quotations of a better liquor than that provided for the demon,
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  Speaker 1: the credulous spinistrant stole into the blind girl's chamber. Well
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  Speaker 1: Sosia art Thou prepared, hast thou the bowl of pure
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  Speaker 1: water verily, Yes, but I tremble a little. You are
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  Speaker 1: sure I shall not see the demon. I have heard
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  Speaker 1: that these gentlemen are by no means of a handsome
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  Speaker 1: person or a civil demeanor. Be assured, and hast thou
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  Speaker 1: left the garden gate gently open. Yes, and placed some
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  Speaker 1: beautiful nuts and apples on a little table close by.
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  Speaker 1: That's well. And the gate is open now so that
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  Speaker 1: the demon may pass through it. Surely it is well,
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  Speaker 1: Then open this door there, leave it just Ajar, And
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  Speaker 1: now Sosha, give me the lamp what you will not
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  Speaker 1: extinguish it? No, but I must breathe my spell over
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  Speaker 1: its rays. There is a spirit in fire. Seat thyself.
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  Speaker 1: The slave obeyed, and Nadia, after bending for some moments
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  Speaker 1: silently over the lamp, rose and in a low voice,
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  Speaker 1: chanted the following rude in vocation to the spectra of
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  Speaker 1: the air, loved alike by air and water, I must
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  Speaker 1: be this Leah's daughter to us. Olympian hearts are given
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  Speaker 1: bells that draw the moon from heaven. All that Egypt's
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  Speaker 1: learning wrought, all that perses Magian taught one from song,
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  Speaker 1: or wrung from flowers, or whispered low by fiend, are
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  Speaker 1: hours specter of the fearless air. Hear the blind Thesselian's
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  Speaker 1: prayer by Erictho's art that shed dews of life when
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  Speaker 1: life was fled by lone Ithaca's wise king, who could
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  Speaker 1: wake the crystal spring to the voice of prophecy by
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  Speaker 1: the loss Urdyses summoned from the shadowy throng as the
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  Speaker 1: mused Song's magic song by the Cauchian's awful charm. When
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  Speaker 1: fair haired Jason left her arm, Specter of the airy halls,
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  Speaker 1: one who owns thee duly cause, breathe alone the brimming
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  Speaker 1: bowl and instruct the fearful soul in the shadowy things
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  Speaker 1: that lie dark and dim futurity. Come, thou, demon of
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  Speaker 1: the air, answer to thy Voultuari's prayer. Come, oh Come,
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  Speaker 1: And no God on heaven or Earth, nor the Papean's
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  Speaker 1: Queen of Mirth, not the vivid Lord of Light, nor
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  Speaker 1: the Triple Maid of Night, nor the thunderers self shall
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  Speaker 1: be blessed and honored more than thee. Come, Oh Come.
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  Speaker 1: The Specter is certainly coming, says Sosha. I feel him
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  Speaker 1: running along my hair. Place a bowl of water on
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  Speaker 1: the ground. Now, then give me thy napkin, and let
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  Speaker 1: me fold upon thy face and ice a. That's always
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  Speaker 1: the custom with these charms. Not so tight though gently
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  Speaker 1: gently there thou canst not see see by Jupiter, no
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  Speaker 1: nothing but darkness. Address then to the Specta, whatever question
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  Speaker 1: thou wouldst ask him in a low whispered voice, three times,
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  Speaker 1: If thy question is answered, in the affirmative, thou wilt
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  Speaker 1: hear the water ferment and bubble before the demon breathes
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  Speaker 1: upon it. If in the negative, the water will be
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  Speaker 1: quite silent, but you will not play any trick with
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  Speaker 1: the water. Eh. Let me place the bowl under thy feet,
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  Speaker 1: so now thou wilt perceive that I cannot touch it
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  Speaker 1: without thy knowledge. Very fair? Now, then, O Bacchus, befriend me.
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  Speaker 1: Thou knowest that I have always loved THEE better than
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  Speaker 1: all the other gods, and I will dedicate to THEE
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  Speaker 1: that silver cup I stole last year from the burly
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  Speaker 1: carptor butler. If thou wilt but befriend me with this
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  Speaker 1: water loving demon, and thou, O Spirit, listen and hear me,
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  Speaker 1: shall I be enabled to purchase my freedom next year?
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  Speaker 1: Thou knowest, for as thou livest in the air, the
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  Speaker 1: birds have doubtless acquainted THEE with every secret of this house.
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  Speaker 1: Thou knowest that I have felted and pilfert all that I,
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  Speaker 1: honestly that is safely could lay finger upon for the
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  Speaker 1: last three years. And I yet want two thousand sstresses
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  Speaker 1: of the full sum. Shall I be able, O good Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: to make up the deficiency in the course of this year. Speak, ah,
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  Speaker 1: does the water bubble know all this as still as
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  Speaker 1: a tune? Well? Then, if not this year, in two years, ah,
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  Speaker 1: I hear something. The demon is crashing at the door.
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  Speaker 1: He'll be here presently in two years, my good fellow,
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  Speaker 1: come now, two. That's a very reasonable time. What dumb still?
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  Speaker 1: Two years and a half? Three? Four? Ill fortunate to you, friend, demon.
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  Speaker 1: You are not a lady, that's clear, or you would
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  Speaker 1: not keep silent so long? Five six, sixty years, and
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  Speaker 1: may Pluto seize you. I'll ask no more, And Sosha,
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  Speaker 1: in a rage, kicked down the water over his legs.
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  Speaker 1: He then, after much firmly and more cursing, man I
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  Speaker 1: managed to extricate his head from the napkin in which
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  Speaker 1: it was completely folded, stared round and discovered that he
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  Speaker 1: was in the dark. What ho, Nadia, The lamp is gone, Ah,
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  Speaker 1: traitress an thou art gone too, But I'll catch thee
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  Speaker 1: Thou shalt smart for this? The slave groped his way
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  Speaker 1: to the door. It was bolted from without. He was
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  Speaker 1: a prisoner instead of Nadia. What could he do? He
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  Speaker 1: did not dare to knock loud to call out, least
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  Speaker 1: Arbaces should overhear him and discover how he had been duped.
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  Speaker 1: And Nadia, meanwhile, had probably already gained the garden gate
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  Speaker 1: and was fast on her escape. But thought he she
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  Speaker 1: will go home, or at least be somewhere in the
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  Speaker 1: city tomorrow at dawn, when the slaves are at work
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  Speaker 1: in the prestile, I can make myself heard. Then I
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  Speaker 1: can go forth and seek her. I shall be sure
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  Speaker 1: to find and bring her back before Arbaces knows a
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  Speaker 1: word of the matter. Ah, that's the best plan, little traitress.
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  Speaker 1: My fingers itch at thee and to leave only a
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  Speaker 1: bowl of water too, Had it been wined, it would
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  Speaker 1: have been some comfort. While Sosia, thus entrapped, was lamenting
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  Speaker 1: his fate and revolving his scheme to repossess himself of Nadia.
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  Speaker 1: The blind girl, with that singular precision and dexterious rapidity
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  Speaker 1: of motion which we have before observed was peculiar to her,
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  Speaker 1: had passed lightly along the prestile, threaded the opposite passages
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  Speaker 1: that led into the garden, and with a beating heart,
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  Speaker 1: was about to proceed towards the gate, when she suddenly
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  Speaker 1: heard the sound of approaching steps, and distinguished the dreaded
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  Speaker 1: voice of Arbacest himself. She paused for a moment in
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  Speaker 1: doubt and terror. Then suddenly it flashed across her recollection
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  Speaker 1: that there was another passage which was little used except
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  Speaker 1: for the admission of the fair partakers of the Egyptian
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  Speaker 1: secret revels of which wound along the basement of that
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  Speaker 1: massive fabric, towards the door, which also communicated with the garden.
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  Speaker 1: By good fortune, it might be opened. At that thought,
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  Speaker 1: she hastily retraced her steps, descended the narrow stairs at
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  Speaker 1: the right, and was soon in the terance of the passage,
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  Speaker 1: alas the door at the entrance was closed and secured.
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  Speaker 1: While she was yet assuring herself that it was indeed locked,
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  Speaker 1: she heard behind her the voice of Calenus, and a
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  Speaker 1: moment after that of Arbaces in a low reply. She
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  Speaker 1: could not stay there. They were probably passing through that
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  Speaker 1: very door. She sprang onward and felt herself in the
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  Speaker 1: unknown ground. The air grew damp and chill. This reassured her.
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  Speaker 1: She thought she might be among the cellars of the
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  Speaker 1: luxurious mansion, or at least in some rude spot not
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  Speaker 1: likely to be visited by its haughty lord. When again
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  Speaker 1: her quick ear caught steps and the sound of voices.
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  Speaker 1: On on, she hurried, extending her arms, which now frequently
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  Speaker 1: encountered pillars of thick and massive form. With attact doubled
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  Speaker 1: in acuteness by her fear, she escaped these pearls, and
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  Speaker 1: continuing her way, the air growing more and more damp
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  Speaker 1: as she proceeded. Yet still as she ever and anon
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  Speaker 1: paused for breath, she heard the advancing steps in the
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  Speaker 1: indistinct murmur of voices. At length, she was abruptly stopped
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  Speaker 1: by a wall that seemed the limit of her path.
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  Speaker 1: Was there no spot in which she could hide, no apertures,
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  Speaker 1: no cavity, there was none. She stopped and wrung her
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  Speaker 1: hands in despair, then again, nerved as the voices near
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  Speaker 1: upon her, she hurried on by the side of the wall,
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  Speaker 1: and coming suddenly against one of the sharp buttresses that
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  Speaker 1: here and there jutted boldly. Forth she fell to the ground.
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  Speaker 1: Though much bruised, her senses did not leave her. She
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  Speaker 1: uttered no cry, Nay, she hailed the accident that had
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  Speaker 1: led her to something like a screen, and creeping close
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  Speaker 1: up to the angle formed by the buttress, so so
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  Speaker 1: that on one side at least she was sheltered from view.
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  Speaker 1: She gathered her slight and small form into the smallest
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  Speaker 1: compass and breathlessly awaited her fate. Meanwhile, Arbaces and the
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  Speaker 1: priests were taking their way to that secret chamber whose
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  Speaker 1: stores were so vaulted by the Egyptians. They were in
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  Speaker 1: a vast, subterranean atrium or hall. The low roof was
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  Speaker 1: supported by short, thick pillars of an architecture far remote
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  Speaker 1: from the Grecian graces of that luxuriant period. The single
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  Speaker 1: and pale lamp which Arbaces bore shed but an imperfect
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  Speaker 1: ray over the bare and rugged walls, in which the
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  Speaker 1: huge stones without cement were fitted curiously and uncouthly into
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  Speaker 1: each other. The disturbed reptiles glared dearly on the intruders,
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  Speaker 1: and then crept into the shadow of the walls. Callinus
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  Speaker 1: shivered as he looked around and breathed the damp, unwholesome air.
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  Speaker 1: Yet said Arbaces with a smile, perceiving his shudder, it
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  Speaker 1: is these rude bones that furnished the luxuries of the
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  Speaker 1: hall above. They are like the laborers of the world.
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  Speaker 1: We despise their ruggedness yet they feed the very pride
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  Speaker 1: that disdains them, And whither it goes yon dim gallery
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  Speaker 1: to the left, asked Calenus. In this depth of gloom,
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  Speaker 1: it seemed with that limit, as if winding into hades.
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  Speaker 1: On the contrary, it does but conduct to the upper rooms,
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  Speaker 1: answered Arbaces carelessly. It is to the rights that we
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  Speaker 1: steer to our born. The hall, like many in the
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  Speaker 1: more habital regions of Pompeii, branched off at the extremities
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  Speaker 1: into two wings or passages, the length of which, not
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  Speaker 1: really great, was to the eye considerably exaggerated by the
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  Speaker 1: sudden gloom against which the lamp so faintly struggled. To
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  Speaker 1: the right of these allay, the two comrades now directed
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  Speaker 1: their steps. The gay glaucus will be lodged tomorrow in
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  Speaker 1: apartments not much drier and far less spacious than this,
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  Speaker 1: said Calenus, as they passed by the very spot, where
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  Speaker 1: completely wrapped in the shadow of the broad projectorr buttress
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  Speaker 1: coward the Thessilian aye. But then he will have dry
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  Speaker 1: room and ample enough in the arena on the following day.
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  Speaker 1: And to think, continued Arbaces, slowly and very deliberately. To
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  Speaker 1: think that a word of thine could save him and
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  Speaker 1: consign Arbaces to his doom. That word shall never be spoken,
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  Speaker 1: said Calenus. Right, my Calenus, it shall never returned Arbaces family,
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  Speaker 1: leaning his arm on the priest's shoulder, and now halt.
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  Speaker 1: We are at the door. The light trembled against a
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  Speaker 1: small door, deep set in the wall and guarded strongly
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  Speaker 1: by the many placed and bindings of the iron that
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  Speaker 1: intersected the rough and dark wood. From his girdle, Arbaces
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  Speaker 1: now drew a small ring holding three or four short
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  Speaker 1: but strong keys. Oh hal beat the gripping heart of
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  Speaker 1: Calenus as he heard the rusty war's growl, as if
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  Speaker 1: resenting the omission to the treasures they guarded. Enter, my friend,
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  Speaker 1: said Arbaces, while I hold the lamp on high, that
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  Speaker 1: thou mayst glut thine eyes on the yellow heap. The
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  Speaker 1: impatient Calenus did not wait to be twice invited. He
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  Speaker 1: hastened towards the aperture, scarce as he crossed the threshold,
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  Speaker 1: than the strong hand of Arbaces plunged him forwards. The
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  Speaker 1: word shall never be spoken, said the Egyptian with a loud,
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  Speaker 1: exuberant laugh, and closed the door upon the priest Calenus
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  Speaker 1: had been precipitated down several steps, but not feeling at
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  Speaker 1: the moment the pain of his fall, he sprung up
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  Speaker 1: again to the door, and, beating at it fiercely with
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  Speaker 1: his clenched fist, he cried aloud in what seemed more
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  Speaker 1: a beast's howl than a human voice. So keen was
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  Speaker 1: his agony in despair, Oh release me, release me. I
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  Speaker 1: will ask no gold. The words but imperfectly penetrated the
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  Speaker 1: massive door, and Arbaces again laughed, then, stamping his foot violently, rejoined,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps to give vent to his long stifled passions, all
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  Speaker 1: the gold of thou media cried, he will not buy
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  Speaker 1: thee a crust of bread. Starve wretch, Thy dying groans
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  Speaker 1: will never awake even the echo of these vast halls,
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  Speaker 1: nor will the error ever reveal, as thou knowest in
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  Speaker 1: thy desperate famine, thy flesh from thy bones that so
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  Speaker 1: perish is the man who threatened and could have undone Arbaces, farewell,
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  Speaker 1: O pity, mercy in human villain? Was it for this?
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  Speaker 1: The rest of the sense was lost to the ear
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  Speaker 1: of Arbaces. As he passed backward along the dim hall,
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  Speaker 1: A toad plump and bloated, lay unmoving before his path.
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  Speaker 1: The rays of the lamp fell upon its unshaped hiddiness
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  Speaker 1: and red upward eye arbaces turned aside that he might
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  Speaker 1: not harm it. Thou art loathsome and obscene, he muttered.
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  Speaker 1: But thou canst not injure me. Therefore thou art safe
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  Speaker 1: in my path. The cries of Calenus dulled and choked
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  Speaker 1: by a barrier that confined him, yet faintly reached to
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  Speaker 1: ear the Egyptian. He paused and listened intently. This is unfortunate,
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  Speaker 1: thought he for I cannot sail till that voice is
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  Speaker 1: dumb forever. My stores and treasures lie not in Yon dungeon,
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  Speaker 1: it is true. But in the obsct wind, my slaves,
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  Speaker 1: as they moved them, must not hear his voice. But
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  Speaker 1: what fear of that? In three days, if he still
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  Speaker 1: survived his accents by my father's beard must be weak enough.
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  Speaker 1: Then no, they could not pierce even through this tomb.
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  Speaker 1: By isis it is cold? I longed for a deep
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  Speaker 1: drop of the spiced Pallernian. With that, the remorseless Egyptian
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  Speaker 1: drew his gown closer around him and resalt the upper
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  Speaker 1: air in the book four, Chapter thirteen. Recording by Ben
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  Speaker 1: Wilfrid of Jackson, Tennessee s