CYR'S FIFTH READER

ARBACES AND THE LION.

EDWARD BULWER LYTTON.

THE following selection is taken from "The Last Days of Pompeii," a famous novel written by Edward Bulwer Lytton, the author of a large number of works of fiction.

Arbaces, an Egyptian, murdered Apæcides, a priest, and accused Glaucus, a young Greek, of having committed the crime. 5 Calenus witnessed the deed, and Arbaces, after promising him a large sum for his silence, imprisoned him in a dungeon, leaving him there to die.

Glaucus was condemned, and, according to the ancient custom, was to be devoured by the lions; but Calenus escaped and 10 accused Arbaces of the crime.

The terrible eruption of Mt. Vesuvius burst forth just as the crowd rushed upon Arbaces, and the city of Pompeii was buried beneath its fury. Glaucus and some of his friends escaped, but Arbaces perished.

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THE keeper, who was behind the den, cautiously removed the grating; the lion leaped forth with a mighty and a glad roar of release. Glaucus had bent his limbs so as to give himself the firmest posture at the expected rush of the lion, with his small and shining weapon 20

raised on high, in the faint hope that one well-directed thrust might penetrate through the eye to the brain of his grim foe. But, to the unutterable astonishment of all, the beast halted abruptly in the arena; then 5 suddenly it sprang forward, but not on the Athenian. At half speed it circled round and round the space, turning its vast head from side to side with an anxious and perturbed gaze, as if seeking only some avenue of escape. Once or twice it endeavored to 10 leap up the parapet that divided it from the audience, and, on failing, uttered rather a baffled howl than its deep-toned and kingly roar. The first surprise of the assembly at the apathy of the lion was soon converted into resentment at its cowardice; and 15 the populace already merged their pity for the fate of Glaucus into angry compassion for their own disappointment.

Then there was a confusion, a bustle-voices of remonstrance suddenly breaking forth, and suddenly 20 silenced at the reply. All eyes turned, in wonder at the interruption, towards the quarter of the disturbance. The crowd gave way, and suddenly Sallust appeared on the senatorial benches, his hair disheveled-breathless-heated-half exhausted. He cast his eyes hastily 25 around the ring. "Remove the Athenian!" he cried d; "haste he is innocent! Arrest Arbaces, the Egyptian; he is the murderer of Apæcides!

"Art thou mad, O Sallust?" said the prætor, rising from his seat. "What means this raving?"

"Remove the Athenian! Quick! or his blood be on your head. Prætor, delay and you answer with your own life to the emperor! I bring with me the eyewitness to the death of the priest Apæcides. Room there! stand back! give way! People of Pompeii, fix 5 every eye upon Arbaces-there he sits! Room there for the priest Calenus!" "The priest Calenus! Calenus!" cried the mob. "Is it he? No-it is a dead man.' "It is the priest Calenus," said the prætor. "What hast thou to say?" "Arbaces of Egypt is the mur- 10 derer of Apæcides, the priest of Isis; these eyes saw him deal the blow. Release the Athenian; he is innocent!"

"It is for this, then, that the lion spared him. A miracle! a miracle!" cried Pansa.

"A miracle! a miracle!" shouted the people. "Remove the Athenian! Arbaces to the lion!"

And that shout echoed from hill to vale, from coast to sea: "Arbaces to the lion!"

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"Hear me," answered Arbaces, rising calmly, but 20 with agitation visible in his face. "This man came to threaten that he would make against me the charge he has now made, unless I would purchase his silence with half my fortune. Were I guilty, why was the witness of this priest silent at the trial? Then I had 25 not detained or concealed him. Why did he not proclaim my guilt when I proclaimed that of Glaucus ?" "What!" cried Calenus, turning around to the people, "shall Isis be thus contemned? Shall the blood

of Apæcides yet cry for vengeance? Shall the lion be cheated of his lawful prey? A god! a god! I feel the god rush to my lips! To the lion to the lion with Arbaces!" Sinking on the ground in strong convul5 sions—the foam gathered to his mouth- he was as a man, indeed, whom a supernatural power had entered! The people saw and shuddered. "It is a god that inspires the holy man! To the lion with the Egyptian!"

With that cry up sprang-on moved - thousands 10 upon thousands! They rushed from the heightsthey poured down in the direction of the Egyptian. The power of the prætor was as a reed beneath the whirlwind. The guards made but a feeble barrier the waves of the human sea halted for a moment, to 15 enable Arbaces to count the exact moment of his doom! In despair, and in a terror which beat down even pride, he glanced his eyes over the rolling and rushing crowd-when, right above them, he beheld a strange and awful apparition-he beheld and his 20 craft restored his courage!

25 ers!'

"Behold!" he shouted with a voice of thunder, which stilled the roar of the crowd; "behold how the gods protect the guiltless! The fires of the avenging Orcus burst forth against the false witness of my accusThe eyes of the crowd followed the gesture of the Egyptian and beheld with ineffable dismay a vast vapor shooting from the summit of Vesuvius in the form of a gigantic pine tree-the trunk, blackness; the branches, fire.