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053 - Book 5 Chapter VIII · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: Book five, Chapter eight 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. Last Days of Pompeii by Edward G.
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  Speaker 1: Bulverard Lytton, Book five, Chapter eight Arbece's encounters Glaucus and Yone,
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  Speaker 1: advancing as men grow for escape in a dungeon. Yone
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  Speaker 1: and her lover continued their uncertain way. At the moment
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  Speaker 1: when the volcanic lightnings lingered over the streets, they were
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  Speaker 1: enabled by that awful light to steer and guide their progress.
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  Speaker 1: Yet little did the view it presented to them cheer
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  Speaker 1: or encourage their path. In parts where the ashes lay
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  Speaker 1: dry and uncom mixed with the boiling torrents cast upward
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  Speaker 1: from the mountain at capricious intervals, the surface of the
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  Speaker 1: earth presented alepros and ghastly white. In other places, cinder
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  Speaker 1: and rock lay matted in heaps, from beneath which emerged
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  Speaker 1: the half head limbs of some crushed and mangled fugitive.
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  Speaker 1: The groans of the dying were broken by wild shrieks
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  Speaker 1: of women's terror. Now near now distant, which, when heard
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  Speaker 1: in the utter darkness, were rendered doubly appalling by the
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  Speaker 1: crushing sense of helplessness and the uncertainty of the perils. Around.
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  Speaker 1: And clear and distinct through all were the mighty and
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  Speaker 1: various noises from the fatal mountain, its rushing winds, its
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  Speaker 1: whirling torrents, and from time to time the burst and
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  Speaker 1: roar of some more fury and fierce explosion. And ever
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  Speaker 1: as the winds swept howling along the street, they bore
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  Speaker 1: sharp streams of burning dust and such sickening and poisonous
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  Speaker 1: vapors as took away for the endstant breast unconsciousness, followed
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  Speaker 1: by a rapid revulsion of the arrested blood, and a
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  Speaker 1: tingling sensation of agony, trembling through every nerve and fiber
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  Speaker 1: of the frame. O Glaucus, my beloved, my own, Take
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  Speaker 1: me to thy arms, one embrace, Let me feel thy
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  Speaker 1: arms around me, and in that embrace let me die.
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  Speaker 1: I can no more for my sake, for my life.
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  Speaker 1: Courage Yet, sweet Yonne, my life is linked with thine.
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  Speaker 1: And see torches this way, Lo, how they brave the wind,
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  Speaker 1: ha they live through the storm, doubtless fugitives to the sea.
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  Speaker 1: We will join them, as if to aid and ranimate
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  Speaker 1: the lovers. The winds and showers came to a sudden pause.
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  Speaker 1: The atmosphere was profoundly still. The mountains seemed at rest,
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  Speaker 1: gathering perhaps fresh fury for its next burst. The torch
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  Speaker 1: bearers moved quickly on. We are nearing the sea, said
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  Speaker 1: in a calm voice the person at their head. Liberty
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  Speaker 1: and wells to each slave who survives this day, courage,
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  Speaker 1: I tell you that the gods themselves have assured me
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  Speaker 1: of deliverance. On redly and steadily, the torches flushed full
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  Speaker 1: on the eyes of Glaucus and Yone, who lay trembling
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  Speaker 1: and exhausted on his bosom. Several slaves were bearing by
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  Speaker 1: the light, panniers and coffers, heavily laden in front of them.
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  Speaker 1: A drawn sword in his hand towered the lofty form
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  Speaker 1: of Arbaces by my father's cried the Egyptian fate smiles
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  Speaker 1: upon me, even through these horrors, and amidst the dreadest
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  Speaker 1: aspects of woe and death, bodes me happiness and love.
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  Speaker 1: Away Greek, I claim my word, yone, traitor and murderer,
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  Speaker 1: cried Glaucus, glaring upon his foe. Nemesis has guided thee
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  Speaker 1: to my remains. I just sacrificed to the shades of
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  Speaker 1: hades that now seemed loose on Earth. Approach touch, but
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  Speaker 1: the hand of yone, and their weapons shall be as reed.
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  Speaker 1: I will tear the limb for a limb. Suddenly, as
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  Speaker 1: he spoke, the place became lighted with an intense and
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  Speaker 1: lurid glow, bright and gigantic. Through the darkness which closed
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  Speaker 1: around it, Like the wall to Hell, the mountain shone
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  Speaker 1: a pile of fire. Its summit seemed driven in two,
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  Speaker 1: or rather above its surface, there seemed to rise two
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  Speaker 1: monster shapes, each confronting each as demons contending for a world.
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  Speaker 1: These were of one deep, blood red hue of fire,
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  Speaker 1: which lighted up the whole atmosphere far and wide. But
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  Speaker 1: below the nether part of the mountain was still dark
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  Speaker 1: and shrouded, save in three places down which flowed serpentine
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  Speaker 1: and irregular rivers of the molten lava, darkly red through
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  Speaker 1: the profound gloom of their banks. They flowed slowly on
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  Speaker 1: as towards the devoted city. Over the broadest there seemed
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  Speaker 1: to spring a cracked, a stupendous arch from which as
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  Speaker 1: from the jaws of hell, gushed the sources of the
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  Speaker 1: sudden flegeton, and through the stilled air was heard the
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  Speaker 1: rattling of the fragments of rock, hurtling one upon another
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  Speaker 1: as they were brown down the fiery cataracts, darkening for
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  Speaker 1: one instant the spot or they fell and suffused the
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  Speaker 1: next in the burnished hues of a flood along which
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  Speaker 1: they floated. The slaves shrieked aloud, uncovering hid their faces.
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  Speaker 1: The Egyptian himself stood transfixed to the spot, the glow
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  Speaker 1: lighting up his commanding features and jeweled robes. High behind
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  Speaker 1: him rose a tall column that supported the bronze statue
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  Speaker 1: of Augustus, and the imperial image seemed changed to a
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  Speaker 1: shape of fire, with his left hand circled round the
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  Speaker 1: form of Yone, with his right arm raised in menace
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  Speaker 1: and grasping the stilus, which was to have been his
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  Speaker 1: weapon in the arena, and which he still fortunately bore
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  Speaker 1: about him, with his brow net his lips apart, the
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  Speaker 1: wroths and menace of human passions arrested as by a
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  Speaker 1: charm upon his features, Glaucus fronted the Egyptian arbaces, turned
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  Speaker 1: his eyes from the mountain. They rested on the form
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  Speaker 1: of Glaucus. He paused a moment. Why, he muttered, should
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  Speaker 1: I hesitate? Did not the stars foretell? The only crisis
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  Speaker 1: of imminent peril to which I was subjected? Is not
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  Speaker 1: that peril passed? The soul cried, he aloud, can brave
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  Speaker 1: the wreck of worlds and the wroth of imaginary gods?
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  Speaker 1: By that soul will I conquer to the last advanced slaves.
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  Speaker 1: Athenian resists me, and thy blood be on thine own head.
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  Speaker 1: Thus then I regained yone. He advanced one step. It
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  Speaker 1: was his last on earth. The ground shook beneath him
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  Speaker 1: with a convulsion that cast all around upon its surface.
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  Speaker 1: A simultaneous crash resounded through the city, as down toppled
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  Speaker 1: many a roof and pillar. The lightning, as if caught
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  Speaker 1: by the metal, lingered an instant on the imperial statue,
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  Speaker 1: then shivered bronze and column. Down fell the ruin, echoing
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  Speaker 1: along the street and roving the solid pavement where it crashed.
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  Speaker 1: The prophecy of the stars was fulfilled. The sound the
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  Speaker 1: shock stunned the Athenian for several moments. When he recovered,
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  Speaker 1: the light still illuminated the scene, the earth still slid
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  Speaker 1: and trembled. Beneath Yonne lay senseless on the ground. But
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  Speaker 1: he saw her not yet. His eyes were fixed upon
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  Speaker 1: a ghastly face that seemed to emerge without limbs or trunk,
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  Speaker 1: from the huge fragments of the scattered column, a face
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  Speaker 1: of unutterable pain, agony, and despair. The eyes shut and
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  Speaker 1: opened rapidly, as if scands were not yet fled. The
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  Speaker 1: lips quivered and grinned. Then sudden stillness and darkness fell
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  Speaker 1: over the features, yet retaining that aspect of horror, never
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  Speaker 1: to be forgotten. So perished the wise magician, the Great
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  Speaker 1: arbaces the hermes of the Burning Belt, the last of
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  Speaker 1: the Royalty of Egypt. End of Book five, Chapter eight,