similar suspense!

Glaucus had raised the cup to his lips. He had already drained about a
fourth of its contents, when, suddenly glancing upon the face of Nydia,
he was so forcibly struck by its alteration, by its intense, and
painful, and strange expression, that he paused abruptly, and still
holding the cup near his lips, exclaimed. "Why, Nydia--Nydia, art thou
ill or in pain? What ails thee, my poor child?"

As he spoke, he put down the cup--happily for him, unfinished--and rose
from his seat to approach her, when a sudden pang shot coldly to his
heart, and was followed by a wild, confused, dizzy sensation at the
brain.

The floor seemed to glide from under him, his feet seemed to move on
air, a mighty and unearthly gladness rushed upon his spirit. He felt too
buoyant for the earth; he longed for wings--nay, it seemed as if he
possessed them. He burst involuntarily into a loud and thrilling laugh.
He clapped his hands, he bounced aloft. Suddenly this perpetual
transport passed, though only partially, away. He now felt his blood
rushing loudly and rapidly through his veins.

Then a kind of darkness fell over his eyes. Now a torrent of broken,
incoherent, insane words gushed from his lips, and, to Nydia's horror,
he passed the portico with a bound, and rushed down the starlit streets,
striking fear into the hearts of all who saw him.

_IV.--The Day of Ghastly Night_

Anxious to learn if the drug had taken effect, Arbaces set out for
Julia's house on the morrow. On his way he encountered Apaecides. Hot
words passed between them, and stung by the scorn of the youth, he
stabbed him into the heart with his stylus. At this moment Glaucus came
along. Quick as thought the Egyptian struck the already half-senseless
Greek to the ground, and steeping his stylus in the blood of Apaecides,
and recovering his own, called loudly for help. The next moment he was
accusing Glaucus of the crime.

For a time fortune favoured the Egyptian. Glaucus, his strong frame
still under the influence of the poison, was sentenced to encounter a
lion in the amphitheatre, with no weapon beyond the incriminating
stylus. Nydia, in her terror, confessed to the Egyptian the exchange of
the love philtre. She he imprisoned in his own house. Calenus, who had
witnessed the deed, sought Arbaces with the intention of using his
knowledge to his own profit. He, by a stratagem, was incarcerated in one
of the dungeons of the Egyptian's dwelling. The la