een resolved to seek the sea-shore for escape, her most
probable chance of rejoining her companions would be to persevere in
that direction. Guiding her steps, then, by the staff which she always
carried, she continued, with incredible dexterity, to avoid the masses
of ruin that encumbered the path--to thread the streets--and unerringly
(so blessed now was that accustomed darkness, so afflicting in ordinary
life!) to take the nearest direction to the sea-side.

Poor girl!--her courage was beautiful to behold!--and Fate seemed to
favor one so helpless! The boiling torrents touched her not, save by
the general rain which accompanied them; the huge fragments of scoria
shivered the pavement before and beside her, but spared that frail form:
and when the lesser ashes fell over her, she shook them away with a
slight tremor,' and dauntlessly resumed her course.

Weak, exposed, yet fearless, supported but by one wish, she was a very
emblem of Psyche in her wanderings; of Hope, walking through the Valley
of the Shadow; of the Soul itself--lone but undaunted, amidst the
dangers and the snares of life!

Her path was, however, constantly impeded by the crowds that now groped
amidst the gloom, now fled in the temporary glare of the lightnings
across the scene; and, at length, a group of torch-bearers rushing full
against her, she was thrown down with some violence.

'What!' said the voice of one of the party, 'is this the brave blind
girl! By Bacchus, she must not be left here to die! Up, my Thessalian!
So--so. Are you hurt? That's well! Come along with us! we are for the
shore!'

'O Sallust! it is thy voice! The gods be thanked! Glaucus! Glaucus!
Glaucus! have ye seen him?'

'Not I. He is doubtless out of the city by this time. The gods who
saved him from the lion will save him from the burning mountain.'

As the kindly epicure thus encouraged Nydia, he drew her along with him
towards the sea, heeding not her passionate entreaties that he would
linger yet awhile to search for Glaucus; and still, in the accent of
despair, she continued to shriek out that beloved name, which, amidst
all the roar of the convulsed elements, kept alive a music at her heart.

The sudden illumination, the bursts of the floods of lava, and the
earthquake, which we have already described, chanced when Sallust and
his party had just gained the direct path leading from the city to the
port; and here they were arrested by an immense crowd, mor