fixed on the opposite
flame, and large tears rolling down her livid cheeks.
'A grievous tale is thine, in truth,' said Arbaces. 'But these emotions
are fit only for our youth--age should harden our hearts to all things
but ourselves; as every year adds a scale to the shell-fish, so should
each year wall and incrust the heart. Think of those frenzies no more!
And now, listen to me again! By the revenge that was dear to thee, I
command thee to obey me! it is for vengeance that I seek thee! This
youth whom I would sweep from my path has crossed me, despite my
spells:--this thing of purple and broidery, of smiles and glances,
soulless and mindless, with no charm but that of beauty--accursed be
it!--this insect--this Glaucus--I tell thee, by Orcus and by Nemesis, he
must die.'
And working himself up at every word, the Egyptian, forgetful of his
debility--of his strange companion--of everything but his own vindictive
rage, strode, with large and rapid steps, the gloomy cavern.
'Glaucus! saidst thou, mighty master!' said the witch, abruptly; and her
dim eye glared at the name with all that fierce resentment at the memory
of small affronts so common amongst the solitary and the shunned.
'Ay, so he is called; but what matters the name? Let it not be heard as
that of a living man three days from this date!'
'Hear me!' said the witch, breaking from a short reverie into which she
was plunged after this last sentence of the Egyptian. 'Hear me! I am thy
thing and thy slave! spare me! If I give to the maiden thou speakest of
that which would destroy the life of Glaucus, I shall be surely
detected--the dead ever find avengers. Nay, dread man! if thy visit to
me be tracked, if thy hatred to Glaucus be known, thou mayest have need
of thy archest magic to protect thyself!'
'Ha!' said Arbaces, stopping suddenly short; and as a proof of that
blindness with which passion darkens the eyes even of the most acute,
this was the first time when the risk that he himself ran by this method
of vengeance had occurred to a mind ordinarily wary and circumspect.
'But,' continued the witch, 'if instead of that which shall arrest the
heart, I give that which shall sear and blast the brain--which shall
make him who quaffs it unfit for the uses and career of life--an abject,
raving, benighted thing--smiting sense to drivelling youth to
dotage--will not thy vengeance be equally sated--thy object equally
attained?'
'Oh, witch! no long
|