The Last Days of Pompeii
Page 51
Chapter VIII
ARBACES ENCOUNTERS GLAUCUS AND IONE.
ADVANCING, as men grope for escape in a dungeon, Ione and her lovercontinued their uncertain way. At the moments when the volcaniclightnings lingered over the streets, they were enabled, by that awfullight, to steer and guide their progress: yet, little did the view itpresented to them cheer or encourage their path. In parts, where theashes lay dry and uncommixed with the boiling torrents, cast upward fromthe mountain at capricious intervals, the surface of the earth presenteda leprous and ghastly white. In other places, cinder and rock laymatted in heaps, from beneath which emerged the half-hid limbs of somecrushed and mangled fugitive. The groans of the dying were broken bywild shrieks of women's terror--now near, now distant--which, when heardin the utter darkness, were rendered doubly appalling by the crushingsense of helplessness and the uncertainty of the perils around; andclear and distinct through all were the mighty and various noises fromthe Fatal Mountain; its rushing winds; its whirling torrents; and, fromtime to time, the burst and roar of some more fiery and fierceexplosion. And ever as the winds swept howling along the street, theybore sharp streams of burning dust, and such sickening and poisonousvapors, as took away, for the instant, breath and consciousness,followed by a rapid revulsion of the arrested blood, and a tinglingsensation of agony trembling through every nerve and fibre of the frame.
'Oh, Glaucus! my beloved! my own!--take me to thy arms! One embrace!let me feel thy arms around me--and in that embrace let me die--I can nomore!'
'For my sake, for my life--courage, yet, sweet Ione--my life is linkedwith thine: and see--torches--this way! Lo! how they brave the Wind!Ha! they live through the storm--doubtless, fugitives to the sea! wewill join them.'
As if to aid and reanimate the lovers, the winds and showers came to asudden pause; the atmosphere was profoundly still--the mountain seemedat rest, gathering, perhaps, fresh fury for its next burst; thetorch-bearers moved quickly on. 'We are nearing the sea,' said, in acalm voice, the person at their head. 'Liberty and wealth to each slavewho survives this day! Courage! I tell you that the gods themselveshave assured me of deliverance. On!'
Redly and steadily the torches flashed full on the eyes of Glaucus andIone, who lay trembling and exhausted on his bosom. Several slaves werebearing, by the light, panniers and coffers, heavily laden; in front ofthem--a drawn sword in his hand--towered the lofty form of Arbaces.
'By my fathers!' cried the Egyptian, 'Fate smiles upon me even throughthese horrors, and, amidst the dreadest aspects of woe and death, bodesme happiness and love. Away, Greek! I claim my ward, Ione!'
'Traitor and murderer!' cried Glaucus, glaring upon his foe, 'Nemesishath guided thee to my revenge!--a just sacrifice to the shades ofHades, that now seem loosed on earth. Approach--touch but the hand ofIone, and thy weapon shall be as a reed--I will tear thee limb fromlimb!'
Suddenly, as he spoke, the place became lighted with an intense andlurid glow. Bright and gigantic through the darkness, which closedaround it like the walls of hell, the mountain shone--a pile of fire!Its summit seemed riven in two; or rather, above its surface thereseemed to rise two monster shapes, each confronting each, as Demonscontending for a world. These were of one deep blood-red hue of fire,which lighted up the whole atmosphere far and wide; but, below, thenether part of the mountain was still dark and shrouded, save in threeplaces, adown which flowed, serpentine and irregular, rivers of themolten lava. Darkly red through the profound gloom of their banks, theyflowed slowly on, as towards the devoted city. Over the broadest thereseemed to spring a cragged and stupendous arch, from which, as from thejaws of hell, gushed the sources of the sudden Phlegethon. And throughthe stilled air was heard the rattling of the fragments of rock,hurtling one upon another as they were borne down the fierycataracts--darkening, for one instant, the spot where they fell, andsuffused the next, in the burnished hues of the flood along which theyfloated!
The slaves shrieked aloud, and, cowering, hid their faces. The Egyptianhimself stood transfixed to the spot, the glow lighting up hiscommanding features and jewelled robes. High behind him rose a tallcolumn that supported the bronze statue of Augustus; and the imperialimage seemed changed to a shape of fire!
With his left hand circled round the form of Ione--with his right armraised in menace, and grasping the stilus which was to have been hisweapon in the arena, and which he still fortunately bore about him, withhis brow knit, his lips apart, the wrath and menace of human passionsarrested as by a charm, upon his features, Glaucus fronted the Egyptian!
Arbaces turned his eyes from the mountain--they rested on the form ofGlaucus! He paused a moment: 'Why,' he muttered, 'should I hesitate?Did not the stars foretell the only crisis of imminent peril to which Iwas subjected?--Is not that peril past?'
'The soul,' cried he aloud, 'can brave the wreck of worlds and the wrathof imaginary gods! By that soul will I conquer to the last! Advance,slaves!--Athenian, resist me, and thy blood be on thine own head! Thus,then, I regain Ione!'
He advanced one step--it was his last on earth! The ground shookbeneath him with a convulsion that cast all around upon its surface. Asimultaneous crash resounded through the city, as down toppled many aroof and pillar!--the lightning, as if caught by the metal, lingered aninstant on the Imperial Statue--then shivered bronze and column! Downfell the ruin, echoing along the street, and riving the solid pavementwhere it crashed!--The prophecy of the stars was fulfilled!
The sound--the shock, stunned the Athenian for several moments. When herecovered, the light still illuminated the scene--the earth still slidand trembled beneath! Ione lay senseless on the ground; but he saw hernot yet--his eyes were fixed upon a ghastly face that seemed to emerge,without limbs or trunk, from the huge fragments of the shatteredcolumn--a face of unutterable pain, agony, and despair! The eyes shutand opened rapidly, as if sense were not yet fled; the lips quivered andgrinned--then sudden stillness and darkness fell over the features, yetretaining that aspect of horror never to be forgotten!
So perished the wise Magician--the great Arbaces--the Hermes of theBurning Belt--the last of the royalty of Egypt!