Last Days of Pompeii by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
page 45 of 573 (07%)
page 45 of 573 (07%)
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'No, she is from Neapolis.' 'Neapolis!' echoed Glaucus; and at that moment the group, dividing on either side of Ione, gave to his view that bright, that nymph-like beauty, which for months had shone down upon the waters of his memory. Chapter IV THE TEMPLE OF ISIS. ITS PRIEST. THE CHARACTER OF ARBACES DEVELOPS ITSELF. THE story returns to the Egyptian. We left Arbaces upon the shores of the noonday sea, after he had parted from Glaucus and his companion. As he approached to the more crowded part of the bay, he paused and gazed upon that animated scene with folded arms, and a bitter smile upon his dark features. 'Gulls, dupes, fools, that ye are!' muttered he to himself; 'whether business or pleasure, trade or religion, be your pursuit, you are equally cheated by the passions that ye should rule! How I could loathe you, if I did not hate--yes, hate! Greek or Roman, it is from us, from the dark lore of Egypt, that ye have stolen the fire that gives you souls. Your knowledge--your poesy--your laws--your arts--your barbarous mastery of war (all how tame and mutilated, when compared with the vast original!)--ye have filched, as a slave filches the fragments of the feast, from us! And now, ye mimics of a mimic!--Romans, forsooth! the mushroom herd of robbers! ye are our masters! the pyramids look down no |
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