was left to loneliness and
silence. He felt the damps of the dungeon sink chillingly into his
enfeebled frame. He--the fastidious, the luxurious, the refined--he who
had hitherto braved no hardship and known no sorrow. Beautiful bird
that he was! why had he left his far and sunny clime--the olive-groves
of his native hills--the music of immemorial streams? Why had he
wantoned on his glittering plumage amidst these harsh and ungenial
strangers, dazzling the eyes with his gorgeous hues, charming the ear
with his blithesome song--thus suddenly to be arrested--caged in
darkness--a victim and a prey--his gay flights for ever over--his hymns
of gladness for ever stilled! The poor Athenian! his very faults the
exuberance of a gentle and joyous nature, how little had his past career
fitted him for the trials he was destined to undergo! The hoots of the
mob, amidst whose plaudits he had so often guided his graceful car and
bounding steeds, still rang gratingly in his ear. The cold and stony
faces of former friends (the co-mates of merry revels) still rose before
his eye. None now were by to soothe, to sustain, the admired, the
adulated stranger. These walls opened but on the dread arena of a
violent and shameful death. And Ione! of her, too, he had heard naught;
no encouraging word, no pitying message; she, too, had forsaken him; she
believed him guilty--and of what crime?--the murder of a brother! He
ground his teeth--he groaned aloud--and ever and anon a sharp fear shot
across him. In that fell and fierce delirium which had so unaccountably
seized his soul, which had so ravaged the disordered brain, might he
not, indeed, unknowing to himself, have committed the crime of which he
was accused? Yet, as the thought flashed upon him, it was as suddenly
checked; for, amidst all the darkness of the past, he thought distinctly
to recall the dim grove of Cybele, the upward face of the pale dead, the
pause that he had made beside the corpse, and the sudden shock that
felled him to the earth. He felt convinced of his innocence; and yet
who, to the latest time, long after his mangled remains were mingled
with the elements, would believe him guiltless, or uphold his fame? As
he recalled his interview with Arbaces, and the causes of revenge which
had been excited in the heart of that dark and fearful man, he could not
but believe that he was the victim of some deep-laid and mysterious
snare--the clue and train of which he was l