me
now! I feel that my life will not be long; let me gaze on thee at least
unto the last. I am of the bright land of thy fathers--I have trod the
heights of Phyle--I have gathered the hyacinth and rose amidst the
olive-groves of Ilyssus. Thou shouldst not desert me, for thy fathers
were brothers to my own. And they say this land is lovely, and these
climes serene, but I will bear thee with me--Ho! dark form, why risest
thou like a cloud between me and mine? Death sits calmly dread upon thy
brow--on thy lip is the smile that slays: thy name is Orcus, but on
earth men call thee Arbaces. See, I know thee! fly, dim shadow, thy
spells avail not!'

'Glaucus! Glaucus!' murmured Nydia, releasing her hold and falling,
beneath the excitement of her dismay, remorse, and anguish, insensible
on the floor.

'Who calls?' said he in a loud voice. 'Ione, it is she! they have borne
her off--we will save her--where is my stilus? Ha, I have it! I come,
Ione, to thy rescue! I come! I come!'

So saying, the Athenian with one bound passed the portico, he traversed
the house, and rushed with swift but vacillating steps, and muttering
audibly to himself, down the starlit streets. The direful potion burnt
like fire in his veins, for its effect was made, perhaps, still more
sudden from the wine he had drunk previously. Used to the excesses of
nocturnal revellers, the citizens, with smiles and winks, gave way to
his reeling steps; they naturally imagined him under the influence of
the Bromian god, not vainly worshipped at Pompeii; but they who looked
twice upon his face started in a nameless fear, and the smile withered
from their lips. He passed the more populous streets; and, pursuing
mechanically the way to Ione's house, he traversed a more deserted
quarter, and entered now the lonely grove of Cybele, in which Apaecides
had held his interview with Olinthus.

Chapter VI

A REUNION OF DIFFERENT ACTORS. STREAMS THAT FLOWED APPARENTLY APART
RUSH INTO ONE GULF.

IMPATIENT to learn whether the fell drug had yet been administered by
Julia to his hated rival, and with what effect, Arbaces resolved, as the
evening came on, to seek her house, and satisfy his suspense. It was
customary, as I have before said, for men at that time to carry abroad
with them the tablets and the stilus attached to their girdle; and with
the girdle they were put off when at home. In fact, under the
appearance of a literary instrument, the Romans ca