Chapter VII
THE PROGRESS OF THE DESTRUCTION.
THE cloud, which had scattered so deep a murkiness over the day, had now
settled into a solid and impenetrable mass. It resembled less even the
thickest gloom of a night in the open air than the close and blind darkness
of some narrow room. But in proportion as the blackness gathered, did the
lightnings around Vesuvius increase in their vivid and scorching glare. Nor
was their horrible beauty confined to the usual hues of fire; no rainbow
ever rivalled their varying and prodigal dyes. Now brightly blue as the
most azure depth of a southern sky--now of a livid and snakelike green,
darting restlessly to and fro as the folds of an enormous serpent--now of a
lurid and intolerable crimson, gushing forth through the columns of smoke,
far and wide, and lighting up the whole city from arch to arch--then
suddenly dying into a sickly paleness, like the ghost of their own life!
In the pauses of the showers, you heard the rumbling of the earth beneath,
and the groaning waves of the tortured sea; or, lower still, and audible but
to the watch of intensest fear, the grinding and hissing murmur of the
escaping gases through the chasms of the distant mountain. Sometimes the
cloud appeared to break from its solid mass, and, by the lightning, to
assume quaint and vast mimicries of human or of monster shapes, striding
across the gloom, hurtling one upon the other, and vanishing swiftly into
the turbulent abyss of shade; so that, to the eyes and fancies of the
affrighted wanderers, the unsubstantial vapors were as the bodily forms of
gigantic foes--the agents of terror and of death.
The ashes in many places were already knee-deep; and the boiling showers
which came from the steaming breath of the volcano forced their way into the
houses, bearing with them a strong and suffocating vapor. In some places,
immense fragments of rock, hurled upon the house roofs, bore down along the
streets masses of confused ruin, which yet more and more, with every hour,
obstructed the way; and, as the day advanced, the motion of the earth was
more sensibly felt--the footing seemed to slide and creep--nor could chariot
or litter be kept steady, even on the most level ground.
Sometimes the huger stones striking against each other as they fell, broke
into countless fragments, emitting sparks of fire, which caught whatever was
combustible within their reach; and along the plains beyond the city the
darkness was now terribly relieved; for several houses, and even vineyards,
had been set on flames; and at various intervals the fires rose suddenly and
fiercely against the solid gloom. To add to this partial relief of the
darkness, the citizens had, here and there, in the more public places, such
as the porticoes of temples and the entrances to the forum, endeavored to
place rows of torches; but these rarely continued long; the showers and the
winds extinguished them, and the sudden darkness into which their sudden
birth was converted had something in it doubly terrible and doubly
impressing on the impotence of human hopes, the lesson of despair.
Frequently, by the momentary light of these torches, parties of fugitives
encountered each other, some hurrying towards the sea, others flying from
the sea back to the land; for the ocean had retreated rapidly from the
shore--an utter darkness lay over it, and upon its groaning and tossing
waves the storm of cinders and rock fell without the protection which the
streets and roofs afforded to the land. Wild--haggard--ghastly with
supernatural fears, these groups encountered each other, but without the
leisure to speak, to consult, to advise; for the showers fell now
frequently, though not continuously, extinguishing the lights, which showed
to each band the deathlike faces of the other, and hurrying all to seek
refuge beneath the nearest shelter. The whole elements of civilization were
broken up. Ever and anon, by the flickering lights, you saw the thief
hastening by the most solemn authorities of the law, laden with, and
fearfully chuckling over, the produce of his sudden gains. if, in the
darkness, wife was separated from husband, or parent from child, vain was
the hope of reunion. Each hurried blindly and confusedly on. Nothing in
all the various and complicated machinery of social life was left save the
primal law of self-preservation!
Through this awful scene did the Athenian wade his way, accompanied by Ione
and the blind girl. Suddenly, a rush of hundreds, in their path to the sea,
swept by them. Nydia was torn from the side of Glaucus, who, with Ione, was
borne rapidly onward; and when the crowd (whose forms they saw not, so thick
was the gloom) were gone, Nydia was still separated from their side.
Glaucus shouted her name. No answer came. They retraced their steps--in
vain: they could not discover her--it was evident she had been swept along
some opposite direction by the human current. Their friend, their
preserver, was lost! And hitherto Nydia had been their guide. Her
blindness rendered the scene familiar to her alone. Accustomed, through a
perpetual night, to thread the windings of the city, she had led them
unerringly towards the sea-shore, by which they had resolved to hazard an
escape. Now, which way could they wend? all was rayless to them--a maze
without a clue. Wearied, despondent, bewildered, they, however, passed
along, the ashes falling upon their heads, the fragmentary stones dashing up
in sparkles before their feet.
'Alas! alas!' murmured Ione, 'I can go no farther; my steps sink among the
scorching cinders. Fly, dearest!--beloved, fly! and leave me to my fate!'
'Hush, my betrothed! my bride! Death with thee is sweeter than life without
thee! Yet, whither--oh! whither, can we direct ourselves through the gloom?
Already it seems that we have made but a circle, and are in the very spot
which we quitted an hour ago.'
'O gods! yon rock--see, it hath riven the roof before us! It is death to
move through the streets!'
'Blessed lightning! See, Ione--see! the portico of the Temple of Fortune is
before us. Let us creep beneath it; it will protect us from the showers.'
He caught his beloved in his arms, and with difficulty and labor gained the
temple. He bore her to the remoter and more sheltered part of the portico,
and leaned over her, that he might shield her, with his own form, from the
lightning and the showers! The beauty and the unselfishness of love could
hallow even that dismal time!
'Who is there?' said the trembling and hollow voice of one who had preceded
them in their place of refuge. 'Yet, what matters?--the crush of the ruined
world forbids to us friends or foes.'
Ione turned at the sound of the voice, and, with a faint shriek, cowered
again beneath the arms of Glaucus: and he, looking in the direction of the
voice, beheld the cause of her alarm. Through the darkness glared forth two
burning eyes--the lightning flashed and lingered athwart the temple--and
Glaucus, with a shudder, perceived the lion to which he had been doomed
couched beneath the pillars--and, close beside it, unwitting of the
vicinity, lay the giant form of him who had accosted them--the wounded
gladiator, Niger.
That lightning had revealed to each other the form of beast and man; yet the
instinct of both was quelled. Nay, the lion crept nearer and nearer to the
gladiator, as for companionship; and the gladiator did not recede or
tremble. The revolution of Nature had dissolved her lighter terrors as well
as her wonted ties.
While they were thus terribly protected, a group of men and women, bearing
torches, passed by the temple. They were of the congregation of the
Nazarenes; and a sublime and unearthly emotion had not, indeed, quelled
their awe, but it had robbed awe of fear. They had long believed, according
to the error of the early Christians, that the Last Day was at hand; they
imagined now that the Day had come.
'Woe! woe!' cried, in a shrill and piercing voice, the elder at their head.
'Behold! the Lord descendeth to judgment! He maketh fire come down from
heaven in the sight of men! Woe! woe! ye strong and mighty! Woe to ye of
the fasces and the purple! Woe to the idolater and the worshipper of the
beast! Woe to ye who pour forth the blood of saints, and gloat over the
death-pangs of the sons of God! Woe to the harlot of the sea!--woe! woe!'
And with a loud and deep chorus, the troop chanted forth along the wild
horrors of the air, 'Woe to the harlot of the sea!--woe! woe!'
The Nazarenes paced slowly on, their torches still flickering in the storm,
their voices still raised in menace and solemn warning, till, lost amid the
windings in the streets, the darkness of the atmosphere and the silence of
death again fell over the scene.
There was one of the frequent pauses in the showers, and Glaucus encouraged
Ione once more to proceed. just as they stood, hesitating, on the last step
of the portico, an old man, with a bag in his right hand and leaning upon a
youth, tottered by. The youth bore a torch. Glaucus recognized the two as
father and son--miser and prodigal.
'Father,' said the youth, 'if you cannot move more swiftly, I must leave
you, or we both perish!'
'Fly, boy, then, and leave thy sire!'
'But I cannot fly to starve; give me thy bag of gold!' And the youth
snatched at it.
'Wretch! wouldst thou rob thy father?'
'Ay! who can tell the tale in this hour? Miser, perish!'
The boy struck the old man to the ground, plucked the bag from his relaxing
hand, and fled onward with a shrill yell.
'Ye gods!' cried Glaucus: 'are ye blind, then, even in the dark? Such crimes
may well confound the guiltless with the guilty in one common ruin. Ione,
on!--on!'
