mighty and
awful dream, over the assembly.

Chapter III

SALLUST AND NYDIA'S LETTER.

THRICE had Sallust awakened from his morning sleep, and thrice,
recollecting that his friend was that day to perish, had he turned
himself with a deep sigh once more to court oblivion. His sole object
in life was to avoid pain; and where he could not avoid, at least to
forget it.

At length, unable any longer to steep his consciousness in slumber, he
raised himself from his incumbent posture, and discovered his favorite
freedman sitting by his bedside as usual; for Sallust, who, as I have
said, had a gentlemanlike taste for the polite letters, was accustomed
to be read to for an hour or so previous to his rising in the morning.

'No books to-day! no more Tibullus! no more Pindar for me! Pindar!
alas, alas! the very name recalls those games to which our arena is the
savage successor. Has it begun--the amphitheatre? are its rites
commenced?'

'Long since, O Sallust! Did you not hear the trumpets and the trampling
feet?'

'Ay, ay; but the gods be thanked, I was drowsy, and had only to turn
round to fall asleep again.'

'The gladiators must have been long in the ring.'

'The wretches! None of my people have gone to the spectacle?'

'Assuredly not; your orders were too strict.'

'That is well--would the day were over! What is that letter yonder on
the table?'

'That! Oh, the letter brought to you last night, when you
were--too--too...'

'Drunk to read it, I suppose. No matter, it cannot be of much
importance.'

'Shall I open it for you, Sallust,'

'Do: anything to divert my thoughts. Poor Glaucus!'

The freedman opened the letter. 'What! Greek?' said he: some learned
lady, I suppose.' He glanced over the letter, and for some moments the
irregular lines traced by the blind girl's hand puzzled him. Suddenly,
however, his countenance exhibited emotion and surprise. 'Good gods!
noble Sallust! what have we done not to attend to this before? Hear me
read!

'"Nydia, the slave, to Sallust, the friend of Glaucus! I am a prisoner
in the house of Arbaces. Hasten to the praetor! procure my release, and
we shall yet save Glaucus from the lion. There is another prisoner
within these walls, whose witness can exonerate the Athenian from the
charge against him--one who saw the crime--who can prove the criminal in
a villain hitherto unsuspected. Fly! hasten! quick! quick! Bring with
you armed men, lest resistanc