looked mutely down from the wall upon the rite, or stalked beside the
altar at the base of the steps.

At that altar now stood the sacrificial flamen.

The countenance of Arbaces seemed to lose all its rigid calm while the
aruspices inspected the entrails, and to be intent in pious anxiety--to
rejoice and brighten as the signs were declared favorable, and the fire
began bright and clearly to consume the sacred portion of the victim
amidst odorous of myrrh and frankincense. It was then that a dead
silence fell over the whispering crowd, and the priests gathering round
the cella, another priest, naked save by a cincture round the middle,
rushed forward, and dancing with wild gestures, implored an answer from
the goddess. He ceased at last in exhaustion, and a low murmuring noise
was heard within the body of the statue: thrice the head moved, and the
lips parted, and then a hollow voice uttered these mystic words:

There are waves like chargers that meet and glow,
There are graves ready wrought in the rocks below,
On the brow of the future the dangers lour,
But blest are your barks in the fearful hour.

The voice ceased--the crowd breathed more freely--the merchants looked
at each other. 'Nothing can be more plain,' murmured Diomed; 'there is
to be a storm at sea, as there very often is at the beginning of autumn,
but our vessels are to be saved. O beneficent Isis!'

'Lauded eternally be the goddess!' said the merchants: 'what can be less
equivocal than her prediction?'