Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Last Days of Pompeii

BOOK THE FIFTH 4. Chapter IV (continued)

As the keeper, with some fear, but more astonishment, was preparing to obey, a loud cry was heard at one of the entrances of the arena; there was a confusion, a bustle--voices of remonstrance suddenly breaking forth, and suddenly 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 round the ring. 'Remove the Athenian,' he cried; 'haste--he is innocent! Arrest Arbaces the Egyptian--HE is the murderer of Apaecides!'

'Art thou mad, O Sallust!' said the praetor, rising from his seat. 'What means this raving?'

'Remove the Athenian!--Quick! or his blood be on your head. Praetor, delay, and you answer with your own life to the emperor! I bring with me the eye-witness to the death of the priest Apaecides. Room there!--stand back!--give way! People of Pompeii, fix every eye upon Arbaces--there he sits! Room there for the priest Calenus!'

Pale, haggard, fresh from the jaws of famine and of death, his face fallen, his eyes dull as a vulture's, his broad frame gaunt as a skeleton--Calenus was supported into the very row in which Arbaces sat. His releasers had given him sparingly of food; but the chief sustenance that nerved his feeble limbs was revenge!

'The priest Calenus!--Calenus!' cried the mob. 'Is it he? No--it is a dead man?'

'It is the priest Calenus,' said the praetor, gravely. 'What hast thou to say?'

'Arbaces of Egypt is the murderer of Apaecides, the priest of Isis; these eyes saw him deal the blow. It is from the dungeon into which he plunged me--it is from the darkness and horror of a death by famine--that the gods have raised me to proclaim his crime! 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!'