CHAPTER VII.

IN WHICH THE READER LEARNS THE CONDITION OF GLAUCUS. FRIENDSHIP TESTED.-ENMITY SOFTENED.LOVE THE SAME; -BECAUSE THE ONE LOVING IS BLIND!

THE night was somewhat advanced, and the gay loungingplaces of the Pompeians were still crowded. You might observe in the countenances of the various idlers a more earnest expression than usual. They talked in large knots and groups, as if they sought by numbers to divide the half-painful, half-pleasurable anxiety which belonged to the subject on which they conversed:-it was a subject of life and death.

A young man passed briskly by the graceful portico of the temple of Fortune-so briskly, indeed, that he came with no slight force full against the rotund and comely form of that respectable citizen, Diomed, who was retiring homeward to his suburban villa.

"Hallo!" groaned the merchant, recovering with some difficulty his equilibrium; "have you no eyes? or do you think I have no feeling? By Jupiter! you have well-nigh driven out the divine particle; such another shock, and my soul will be in Hades!"

"Ah, Diomed! is it you? Forgive my inadvertence. I was absorbed in thinking of the reverses of life. Our poor friend, Glaucus, eh? who could have guessed it?"

"Well, but tell me, Clodius, is he really to be tried by the senate?"

"Yes; they say the crime is of so extraordinary a nature, that the senate itself must adjudge it; and so the lictors are to induct him* formally."

* Plin. Ep. ii. 11, 12; v. 4, 13.

"He has been accused publicly then?"

"To be sure; where have you been not to hear that?" "Why, I have only just returned from Neapolis, whither I went on business the very morning after his crime ;shocking, and at my house the same night that it happened!"

SO

"There is no doubt of his guilt," said Clodius, shrugging his shoulders; "and as these crimes take precedence of all little undignified peccadilloes, they will hasten to finish the sentence previous to the games.'

"The games! Good gods!" replied Diomed, with a slight shudder; "can they adjudge him to the beasts?so young, so rich!"

"True; but then he is a Greek. Had he been a Roman, it would have been a thousand pities. These foreigners can be borne with in their prosperity; but in adversity we must not forget that they are in reality slaves. However, we of the upper classes are always tenderhearted; and he would certainly get off tolerably well if he were left to us; for, between ourselves, what is a paltry priest of Isis? what Isis herself? But the common people are superstitious; they clamour for the blood of the sacrilegious one. It is dangerous not to give way to public opinion."

"And the blasphemer-the Christian, or Nazarene, or whatever else he be called?"

"Oh, poor dog! if he will sacrifice to Cybele or Isis, he will be pardoned—if not, the tiger has him. At least, so I suppose; but the trial will decide. We talk while the urn's still empty. And the Greek may yet escape the deadly of his own alphabet. But enough of this gloomy subject. How is the fair Julia?"

"Well, I fancy."

"Commend me to her. But hark! the door yonder creaks on its hinges; it is the house of the prætor. Who comes forth? By Pollux! it is the Egyptian! What can he want with our official friend?"

"Some conference touching the murder, doubtless,"

* e, the initial of búvaros (Death), the condemning letter of the Greeks, as C was of the Romans.

replied Diomed; "but what was supposed to be the inducement to the crime? Glaucus was to have married the priest's sister."

"Yes, some say Apæcides refused the alliance. It might have been a sudden quarrel. Glaucus was evidently inebriate-nay, so much so as to have been quite insensible when taken up, and I hear is still delirious--whether with wine, terror, remorse, the Furies, or the Bacchanals, I cannot say."

"Poor fellow ! - he has good counsel ?"

"The best Caius Pollio, an eloquent fellow enough. Pollio has been hiring all the poor gentlemen and wellborn spendthrifts of Pompeii to dress shabbily and sneak about, swearing their friendship to Glaucus (who would not have spoken to them to be made emperor! —I will do him justice, he was a gentleman in his choice of acquaintance), and trying to melt the stony citizens into pity. But it won't do; Isis is mightily popular just at this moment." And, by the by, I have some merchandise at Alexandria. Yes, Isis ought to be protected."

"True; so farewell, old gentleman: we shall meet soon; if not, we must have a friendly bet at the amphitheatre. All my calculations are confounded by this cursed misfortune of Glaucus! He had bet on Lydon the gladiator; I must make up my tablets elsewhere.

Vale!"

Leaving the less active Diomed to regain his villa, Clodius strode on, humming a Greek air, and perfuming the night with the odours that steamed from his snowy garments and flowing locks.

"If," thought he, "Glaucus feed the lion, Julia will no longer have a person to love better than me: she will certainly dote on me;—and so, I suppose, I must marry. By the gods! the twelve lines begin to fail- -men look suspiciously at my hand when it rattles the dice. That infernal Sallust insinuates cheating; and if it be discovered that the ivory is cogged, why farewell to the merry supper and the perfumed billet; - Clodius is undone! Better marry, then, while I may, renounce gaming, and push my fortune (or rather the gentle Julia's) at the imperial court."

Thus muttering the schemes of his ambition, if by that

Y

high name the projects of Clodius may be called, the gamester found himself suddenly accosted; he turned and beheld the dark brow of Arbaces.

"Hail, noble Clodius! pardon my interruption; and inform me, I pray you, which is the house of Sallust?"

"It is but a few yards hence, wise Arbaces. But does Sallust entertain to-night?"

"I know not," answered the Egyptian; "nor am I, perhaps, one of those whom he would seek as a boon companion. But thou knowest that his house holds the person of Glaucus, the murderer?”

"Ay! he, good-hearted epicure, believes in the Greek's innocence! You remind me that he has become his surety; and, therefore, till the trial, is responsible for his appearance.* Well, Sallust's house is better than a prison, especially that wretched hole in the forum. But for what can you seek Glaucus?"

"Why, noble Clodius, if we could save him from execution it would be well. The condemnation of the rich is a blow upon society itself. I should like to confer with him-for I hear he has recovered his senses-and ascertain the motives of his crime; they may be so extenuating as to plead in his defence.”

"You are benevolent, Arbaces."

"Benevolence is the duty of one who aspires to wisdom," replied the Egyptian, modestly. "Which way lies Sallust's mansion?"

"I will shew you," said Clodius, "if you will suffer me to accompany you a few steps. But, pray what has become of the poor girl who was to have wed the Athenian the sister of the murdered priest?"

"Alas! well-nigh insane. Sometimes she utters imprecations on the murderer-then suddenly stops shortthen cries, But why curse? Oh, my brother! Glaucus was not thy murderer- never will I believe it!' Then she begins again, and again stops short, and mutters awfully to herself, Yet if it were indeed he?'"

If a criminal could obtain surety (called vades in capital offences), he was not compelled to lie in prison till after sentence.

"Unfortunate Ione!"

"But it is well for her that those solemn cares to the dead which religion enjoins have hitherto greatly absorbed her attention from Glaucus and herself; and, in the dimness of her senses, she scarcely seems aware that Glaucus is apprehended and on the eve of trial. When the funeral rites are performed, her apprehension will return; and then I fear me much, that her friends will be revolted by seeing her run to succour and aid the murderer of her brother!"

"Such scandal should be prevented."

"I trust I have taken precautions to that effect. I am her lawful guardian, and have just succeeded in obtaining permission to escort her, after the burial of Apæcides, to my own house; there, please the gods! she will be

secure.

"You have done well, sage Arbaces. And, now, yonder is the house of Sallust. The gods keep you! Yet, hark you, Arbaces,-why so gloomy and unsocial? Men say you can be gay,-why not let me initiate you into the pleasures of Pompeii?-I flatter myself no one knows them better."

"I thank you, noble Clodius; under your auspices, I might venture, I think, to wear the philyra: but, at my age, I should be an awkward pupil."

"Oh, never fear; I have made converts of fellows of seventy. The rich, too, are never old."

"You flatter me.

you of your promise."

At some future time I will remind

"You may command Marcus Clodius at all times; and so, vale!"

"Now," said the Egyptian, soliloquising, "I am not wantonly a man of blood; I would willingly save this Greek, if, by confessing the crime, he will lose himself for ever to Ione, and for ever free me from the chance of discovery; and I can save him by persuading Julia to own the philter, which will be held his excuse. But if he do

not confess the crime, why Julia must be shamed from the confession, and he must die!—die, lest he prove my rival with the living-die, that he may be my proxy with the