'So much the better,' thought Calenus; 'the more will be my booty.' Hastily he loaded himself with the more portable treasures of the temple; and thinking no more of his comrade, hurried from the sacred place. A sudden flash of lightning from the mount showed to Burbo, who stood motionless at the threshold, the flying and laden form of the priest. He took heart; he stepped forth to join him, when a tremendous shower of ashes fell right before his feet. The gladiator shrank back once more. Darkness closed him in. But the shower continued fast--fast; its heaps rose high and suffocatingly--deathly vapors steamed from them. The wretch gasped for breath--he sought in despair again to fly--the ashes had blocked up the threshold--he shrieked as his feet shrank from the boiling fluid. How could he escape? he could not climb to the open space; nay, were he able, he could not brave its horrors. It were best to remain in the cells, protected, at least, from the fatal air. He sat down and clenched his teeth. By degrees, the atmosphere from without--stifling and venomous--crept into the chamber.
He could endure it no longer. His eyes, glaring round, rested on a sacrificial axe, which some priest had left in the chamber: he seized it.
With the desperate strength of his gigantic arm, he attempted to hew his way through the walls.
Meanwhile, the streets were already thinned; the crowd had hastened to disperse itself under shelter; the ashes began to fill up the lower parts of the town; but, here and there, you heard the steps of fugitives cranching them warily, or saw their pale and haggard faces by the blue glare of the lightning, or the more unsteady glare of torches, by which they endeavored to steer their steps. But ever and anon, the boiling water, or the straggling ashes, mysterious and gusty winds, rising and dying in a breath, extinguished these wandering lights, and with them the last living hope of those who bore them.
In the street that leads to the gate of Herculaneum, Clodius now bent his perplexed and doubtful way. 'If I can gain the open country,' thought he, 'doubtless there will be various vehicles beyond the gate, and Herculaneum is not far distant. Thank Mercury! I have little to lose, and that little is about me!'
'Holla!--help there--help!' cried a querulous and frightened voice. 'I have fallen down--my torch has gone out--my slaves have deserted me. I am Diomed--the rich Diomed--ten thousand sesterces to him who helps me!'
At the same moment, Clodius felt himself caught by the feet. 'Ill fortune to thee--let me go, fool,' said the gambler.
'Oh, help me up!--give me thy hand!'
'There--rise!'
'Is this Clodius? I know the voice! Whither fliest thou?'
'Towards Herculaneum.'
'Blessed be the gods! our way is the same, then, as far as the gate. Why not take refuge in my villa? Thou knowest the long range of subterranean cellars beneath the basement--that shelter, what shower can penetrate?'
'You speak well,' said Clodius musingly. 'And by storing the cellar with food, we can remain there even some days, should these wondrous storms endure so long.'
'Oh, blessed be he who invented gates to a city!' cried Diomed. 'See!--they have placed a light within yon arch: by that let us guide our steps.'
The air was now still for a few minutes: the lamp from the gate streamed out far and clear: the fugitives hurried on--they gained the gate--they passed by the Roman sentry; the lightning flashed over his livid face and polished helmet, but his stern features were composed even in their awe! He remained erect and motionless at his post. That hour itself had not animated the machine of the ruthless majesty of Rome into the reasoning and self-acting man. There he stood, amidst the crashing elements: he had not received the permission to desert his station and escape.
Diomed and his companion hurried on, when suddenly a female form rushed athwart their way. It was the girl whose ominous voice had been raised so often and so gladly in anticipation of 'the merry show'.
'Oh, Diomed!' she cried, 'shelter! shelter! See'--pointing to an infant clasped to her breast--'see this little one!--it is mine!--the child of shame! I have never owned it till this hour. But now I remember I am a mother! I have plucked it from the cradle of its nurse: she had fled! Who could think of the babe in such an hour, but she who bore it? Save it! save it!'
'Curses on thy shrill voice! Away, harlot!' muttered Clodius between his ground teeth.
'Nay, girl,' said the more humane Diomed; 'follow if thou wilt. This way--this way--to the vaults!'
They hurried on--they arrived at the house of Diomed--they laughed aloud as they crossed the threshold, for they deemed the danger over.
Diomed ordered his slaves to carry down into the subterranean gallery, before described, a profusion of food and oil for lights; and there Julia, Clodius, the mother and her babe, the greater part of the slaves, and some frightened visitors and clients of the neighborhood, sought their shelter.
