While the chiefs of the valley tribes of Indians were entertained in the city, one from the Vermejo petitioned the pr?tor for permission to settle with his tribe on the vega of the lake expanse of the Boetis below the temple grove. This petition awakened a pleasing smile in the expression of the pr?tor’s face, who, without consulting his associates, requested his daughter to proffer his fealty to the united chiefs and their tribes of the valleys, in behalf of the citizens of Heraclea, with the hope that they would trustfully extend their permission for the continued occupation of lands alienated by the cruel oppressions of their ancestors of old Heraclea. When, with some difficulty, Correliana was able to make them understand the nature of this request, they pondered, and looked upon each other in bewildered silence. At length, one of the oldest Betongese chiefs, “saw the approaching ends of the long severed thread of unity that had caused the siege of hatred, and the concession offered by the pr?tor for uniting it with the durable bonds of privileged equality.” His explanation was received by his compadric chiefs with smiling assent, assured that it was for mutual behoofment. With united sanction, evidences of mutual understanding were passed in tokens of goodwill, until the rays of the sun, in decline, were cast aslant from the brink of the precipice of the falls, covering with its bright canopy the shadows that enveloped the city beneath, then in strengthened concord the p?an hymn of thanksgiving 108rose in unison from every Heraclean threshold, and after it a responsive refrain repeated in swelling harmony from group to group. Of its import M. Hollydorf gave the following rendition,—
“Neighbors good-night, good-night;
A day of right,
Without a wrong,
Hallows our evening song.”

At an early hour of the day, succeeding the arrival of the Kyronese detachment, Indian women brought fresh fish and fruits as presents, then volunteered their service for clearing the houses, colonnades, and patios of the accumulations consequent upon the sickness of the Heracleans, and were made happy by the acceptance of their proffered aid. Gradually the cheerless gloom which had held sway in the depopulated portions of the city for ages, from the harassed anxiety of its defenders, passed away under the active hands of the Kyronese and their Indian aids. Fountains, whose conduits had become choked, were opened and cleaned, causing the house gardens and latifundium to rejoice in primal gladness from water distribution above and below the surface of the ground. The loving sympathy of the Heracleans made manifest in the tender care bestowed upon the reviving sick, brought forth the latent gentleness of the corps, which had been suppressed from childhood by the civilized decrees of fashionable folly and vanity, begot from the precedental inoculation of habits and customs derived from the heroic ages of classical brutality. Indeed the members of the corps were so often moved to express genial emotions with glistening tears commingled with smiles, they seemed to have developed a new inherent combination as necessary for the joyful expression of happiness, as sun and showers for the behests of fruitful vegetation. The padre, in his quaint emphatic style, expressed the prevailing influence in an evening salutation addressed to his 109compadre Dr. Baāhar after even song, in this wise: “Well I declare, doctor, upon my soul, I have passed such a happy day in useful labor that it seems as if I had just emerged from a life’s nightmare of torpid inactivity. Really, upon my hopes of salvation, I believe that I could live and thrive upon the joys of others, without material food.”

But the doctor, who was impaling the insect game obtained from his day’s hunting excursion, replied sneeringly. “So, so, h-m—I see, you are taken in, with the others, by this humdrum life of these Heracleans, with their puling, wishee-washy affectations of caring more for others than they do for themselves. The long and short of the matter is, that you are all subject to an unnatural influence, and if it is not thrown off immediately, from whatever source derived, you will shortly forswear manliness, and your hopes of heaven.”

This baited injunction caused the padre to exclaim, “My goodness gracious, doctor, you frighten me! I hope you don’t truly think there’s anything like magic or sorcery used upon us here? To be sure, now that I remember, I have had strange thoughts, to which I have never been accustomed to before! But they have been in motive pure, urging the necessity of controlling the appetites and passions, if we would attain the abiding confidence of a trustful affection, that outreaches self. But then, as you know, the devil can preach, and practice too, if it so minds him, self-condemnation?”

“Certes, the fact is,” replied the doctor, “you are subject to vagaries when your stomach is empty, and require to feel the force of sound German philosophy that urges substantial fullness as the source of generous impressions, eloquence, and heroic deeds, and for exorcism thorough fumigation with tobacco smoke.”

M. Hollydorf, from the intervention of multiplied causes, had procrastinated the inauguration of his 110scientific explorations, until compelled to enter upon the duties of his commission through fear that inquiries would be instituted to learn the cause of his long silence. Fully aware that the manifold attractions of Correliana had served to abate his professional enthusiasm, and urgency of his desire to fulfill the trust reposed in his discretion, he resolved to make a test of his naturalistic occupation for the diversion of his thoughts from an object of hopeless attainment. Notwithstanding his knowledge that her affections were irrevocably fixed, he could not withhold the manifestation of a hopeful desire in her presence, within the limits of reverential respect. Correliana, on her part, seemed to fully understand the import of his attentions, but was in no way embarrassed by their indulgence, which with her frankness appeared inexplicable. When he expressed his intention of commencing his microscopical field investigations, she asked the privilege of assisting him when free from the indispensable duties of the household; promising, if her request was granted, to be diligent for advancement in scientific knowledge. She was promptly accepted as a catechumenic aid, notwithstanding the promptings of his judgment which suggested that with the ever present cause of his disquietude, his remedy would prove of little avail for relief. But he determined, with a lover’s infatuation, to converse with her as an abstract divested of material embodiment.

On the first day of November, while engaged in preparing his instruments after evening song, M. Hollydorf was surprised with a visit from the pr?tor and family. Observing that the unusual hour caused fear that some mishap had occurred, Correliana hastened to relieve the anticipation of evil tidings by stating the object of the visit. “My father,” she said, “has been delegated to proffer you the perpetual hospitality of Heraclea. Not, however, with the 111design that you should hold it as an acknowledgment of service rendered, but rather as the promptings of affectionate esteem for your companionship. As you are aware, we have no practical knowledge of the world beyond our city walls, and feel that in winning from you a reciprocation of our affection, we shall be advised of a course that will avail us as a protection against the grasping cupidity you have described as the inherent motive power of civilization. To be forced to adopt habits of corruption, in defiance of local option, because your enlightened civilization holds that the power to enforce their arbitrary despotisms with brute strength, aided by destructive mechanical adju............