rried about with them
in that same stilus a very sharp and formidable weapon. It was with his
stilus that Cassius stabbed Caesar in the senate-house. Taking, then,
his girdle and his cloak, Arbaces left his house, supporting his steps,
which were still somewhat feeble (though hope and vengeance had
conspired greatly with his own medical science, which was profound, to
restore his natural strength), by his long staff--Arbaces took his way
to the villa of Diomed.

And beautiful is the moonlight of the south! In those climes the night
so quickly glides into the day, that twilight scarcely makes a bridge
between them. One moment of darker purple in the sky--of a thousand
rose-hues in the water--of shade half victorious over light; and then
burst forth at once the countless stars--the moon is up--night has
resumed her reign!

Brightly then, and softly bright, fell the moonbeams over the antique
grove consecrated to Cybele--the stately trees, whose date went beyond
tradition, cast their long shadows over the soil, while through the
openings in their boughs the stars shone, still and frequent. The
whiteness of the small sacellum in the centre of the grove, amidst the
dark foliage, had in it something abrupt and startling; it recalled at
once the purpose to which the wood was consecrated--its holiness and
solemnity.

With a swift and stealthy pace, Calenus, gliding under the shade of the
trees, reached the chapel, and gently putting back the boughs that
completely closed around its rear, settled himself in his concealment; a
concealment so complete, what with the fane in front and the trees
behind, that no unsuspicious passenger could possibly have detected him.
Again, all was apparently solitary in the grove: afar off you heard
faintly the voices of some noisy revellers or the music that played
cheerily to the groups that then, as now in those climates, during the
nights of summer, lingered in the streets, and enjoyed, in the fresh air
and the liquid moonlight, a milder day.

From the height on which the grove was placed, you saw through the
intervals of the trees the broad and purple sea, rippling in the
distance, the white villas of Stabiae in the curving shore, and the dim
Lectiarian hills mingling with the delicious sky. Presently the tall
figure of Arbaces, in his way to the house of Diomed, entered the
extreme end of the grove; and at the same instant Apaecides, also bound
to his appointment with Olinthus, cro