| OCR Text |
Show 7 &rMrrrrr I CONDENSED I CLASSICS I f I I THE LAST DAYS I OF POMPEII I ? By EDWARD BULWER LYTTON Y Condenmtion by Prof. Wiltiam Ferueiek Harrit T A of Cambridge. Mau. X w y A .'- - .4 A ' ' ' . ' '4 y - V ... i Kdward George Karle Lytton llul-wer llul-wer more familiarly famil-iarly known to novel readers as B u 1 wer - l.ytton. was born In Lin-don. Lin-don. May 2"). 1HU3. He was more of a prodigy In his youth and had a much more public career than most men who have achieved fame as nov.-lists. At the age of 15. he distinguished dis-tinguished himself by publishing a volume of poems and by falling so violently In love that he became highly morbid W'hen his proposal of marriage was not taken seriously by the father of the girl he loved. She died a few years later and Bulwer said that the disappointment disap-pointment embittered his whole life. At Cambridge, he won a medal for the excellence of a poem and published another book of verse In 1827, he had sufliciently recovered from his premature love affair to marry, against his mother's wishes, a brilliant beauty of society. The match was fore-doomed to be unhappy, for both Bulwer and his wife were too unrestrained to live together. They quarreled, were legally separated and continued to quarrel In print for years. Bulwer was rapidly winning renown. His first novels were successes but it was not until "The Last Days of Pompeii" Pom-peii" (1834) that his fame was assured. Nine years later appeared "The Last of th.e Barons." which many good Judges have considered his best work. He wroto numerous other stories, novels of society, of crime, of mysteries, mys-teries, of family life. He was the most successful dramatist of his time. H dabbled In journalism. For 10 years he was a member of parliament, was later secretary for the colonies, and in 1866 was raised to the peerage as Baron Lytton. He died on January IS, 1873. (I.AUCUS the Athenian. E -W- Ihy time has come,' said a loud and clear voice; 'tile lions await thee.' 1 " 'I am ready,' said the Athenian. He had bent his limbs so as to give himself him-self the linuest posture at the expected expect-ed rush of the lion, with his small and shining weapons raised on high, in the faint hope that one well-directed thrust might penetrate through the eye to the brain of his grim foe. "But to the unutterable astonishment astonish-ment of all, the beast seemed not even aware of the presence Df the criminal. crim-inal. At the first moment of its release re-lease it halted abruptly in the arena, raised itself half on end, snulling the upward air with impatient sighs; then suddenly It sprang forward, but not on the Athenian. At half-speed it circled round and round the space, turning its- vast head from side to side with an anxious and perturbed gaze, as if seeking only some avenue of escape; es-cape; once or twice It endeavored to leap up the parapet that divided it from the audience, and, on failing, uttered ut-tered rather a baffled howl than Its deep-toned and kingly roar. It evinced no sign either of wnith or hunger; its tail drooped along the sand, instead of lashing its gaunt sides; and its eye, though it wandered at times to Glnu-cus. Glnu-cus. rolled again listlessly from him. At length, as if tired of attempting to escape, it crept with a moan into Its cage and once more lnid itself down to rest "The first surprise of the assembly at the apathy of the lion soon grew into resentment at its cowardice ; and the populace already merged their pity for the fate of Glaucus into angry compassion for' their own disappointment. disappoint-ment. The manager called to the keeper: "'How Is this? Take a goad, and prick him forth, and then close the door of the den.' "As the keeper, with some fear, but more astonishment, was preparing to obey, a loud cry was heard at one of the entrances of the arena ; there was a confusion, a bustle, voices of remonstrance suddenly breaking forth, and sudtlen silence at the reply. All eyes turned in wonder toward the quarter of the disturbance; the crowd gave way, and suddenly Sallust ap-I ap-I peared on the senatorial benches, his I hair disheveled, breathless, heated, half exhausted. He cast his eyes hns-! hns-! tily around Hie ring. 'Remove the i Athenian," he cried ; 'haste, he is in-! in-! nocent! Arrest Arbaces the Egvp- tian ; he is the murderer of Apae-I Apae-I cides !' ! "'Art thou mad. O Sallust!' said the ; praetor, rising from his seat. 'What means tiiis raving?' " 'Remove the Athenian ! Quick! or i his blood be on your head. Praetor, i delay, and you answer with your own ' life to the emperor! I bring with me the eye-witness to the death of t lie ;' priest Apaooides. Room there! stand ' back! Give way! People of Pompeii, fix every eye upon Arbaces; there he I sits. Room there for the priest Cale- nus !' i 'Tale, haggard, fresh from the jaws of famine air! of death, his face fallen, his eyes dull as a vulture's, his I. road ' frame gaunt as a skeh Caionus was supported in'o the very row in which i Arbaces sat. Ills releasers had ' given him sparingly of food; but the chief sustenance that nerved his feeble ' limbs w as revenge '. "'The priest Calenus! faleuus!' cried the mob. 'Is it he? No, it is a dead uui n !' . "'It is the priest Calenus.' said the praet r, bravely. 'What hast thou to say?' "'Arbaces of F.gypt Is the murderer j of Apaeeides. the priest of lsis ; : these eyes saw him deal the blow. It Is from the dungeon into which he plunged me. it is from the darkness and horror of a death by famine, that the gods huve raised me to proclaim his crime! Release the Athenian he is innocent!' "'It is for this, then, that' the lion spared him. A miracle! a miracle I' ; cried Pansa. i "'A miracle! a miracle!' shouted the I people; 'remove the Athenian Arbaces to the lion !' "The power of the praetor wus as a reed beneath the whirlwind; still, at his word the guards had drawn themselves them-selves along the lower benches, on which the upper classes sat separate from the vulgar. They made hut a feeble barrier; the waves of tile human hu-man sea halted for a moment, to enable en-able Arbaces to count the exact moment mo-ment of his doom! In despair, and in a terror which beat down even pride, he glanced his eyes over the rolling and rushing crowd, when, right above them, through the wide chasm which had been left in the velaria, he beheld a strange and awful apparition; .he beheld, and his craft restored his courage cour-age ! "lie stretched his hand on high; over Ills lofty brow and royal features there came an expression of unutterable unutter-able solemnity and command. " 'Pohold !' he shonted with a voice of thunder which stilled the roar of the crowd ; 'behold how the gods protect, pro-tect, the guiltless! The fires of the avenging Orcus burst forth against the false witness of my accusers!'" The fires of the "avenging Orcus" were those of the great eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A. D. Toward such a melodramatic climax, furnished him by Nature, the author had been spinning spin-ning the lives of his characters in the little oily which nestled under the shadow of the volcano. The converging threads of the story are many, giving in the final weaving a complete picture of the life of Pom peii its shops, tiny palaces, baths, forum, theater, circus, and all that daily took place in the energetic life of this toy copy of Rome at the beginning begin-ning of the Christian era. The story centers around Glaucus the Athenian, brilliant, gay, willy, descendant of a nobler race frivolling himself away amid the coarser pleasures of the Romans, Ro-mans, until finally all that was fine in him was brought forth by his love for lone of Naples, who, like him., elf, was a child of Greece. And alongside this tale of love runs the pathetic story of Nydia, the blind slave girl, who centers all her hopes of happiness happi-ness in winning the affection of Glaucus. Glau-cus. To this end she gains possession of a love potion which the opulent .Tulia lias had prepared In the belief that it will bring to her the much-desired Glaucus. In reality the potion is a poison which will drive the unfortunate un-fortunate drinker mad. It Is designed by the sinister Egyptian Arbaces to clear his path to lone from his rivai Glaucus. In his raving, Glaucus comes upon Arbaces just as the latter has killed Ione's brother Apaeeides, a young priest of lsis, who, much to the annoyance of Arbaces, lias embraced the new Christian faith. Arbaces throws the guilt upon poor Glaucus with apparent success. But the priest Calenus was a hidden witness, with the final result shown in the great episode epi-sode of the book. As the crowd in the circus turned their eyes toward .Vesuvius, .Vesu-vius, they beheld "a fire that shifted and wavered in its hues with every moment, now fiery luminous, now of a dull and dying red, that again blazed terrifically forth with intolerable glare. Then there arose on high the universal shrieks of women; the men stared at each other, but were dumb. At that moment they felt the earth shake beneath their feet; the walls of (he theater trembled, and beyond In the distance they heard the crash nf falling roofs; an instant more and the mountain-cloud seemed to roll to wards them, dark end rapid, like a torrent; at the same time it cast fortlt from its bosom a shower of ashes mixed with vast fragments of burning stone! Over the crashing vines, over the desolate streets, over the amphitheater itself, far and wide, with many a mighty splash in the agitated agi-tated sea, fell that awful shower! 'No longer thought the crowd of justice or of Arbaces; safety for themselves was their sole thought. Each turned to fly each dashing, pressing, crashing, crash-ing, against the other." It was save himself who could in that night of horrors. Of the many episodes seen in the flashes of light was that of blind Nydia guiding Glaucus to lone, and then leading both to safety, she the only one at home in the darkness dark-ness in which she had always lived. And then, when they hail gained a ship and put to sea and all but Nydia had fallen Into exhausted slumber. ".May the gods bless you. Athenian !" she murmured, "may you be happy with your beloved one; may you some times remember Nydia !" A sailor, half dozing on the deck, heard a slight splash on the waters. Drowsily he looked up. and believed, as ilie vessel merrily bounded on, he fancied be saw something white above the waves CcpvriTi-t. IT':?, by the Tost Publishing Co. t Toe lesion Puslj. All rights reserved. |
