A REunion OF DIFFERENT ACTORS. STREAMS THAT FLOWED APART RUSH INTO ONE .  
IMPATIENT to learn whether the fell drug had yet been administered by Julia to his hated rival, and with what effect, Arbaces resolved, as the evening came on, to seek her house, and satisfy his . It was customary, as I have before said, for men at that time to carry abroad with them the tablets and the stilus attached to their girdle; and with the girdle they were put off when at home. In fact, under the appearance of a literary instrument, the Romans carried about with them in that same stilus a very sharp and formidable weapon. It was with his stilus that Cassius stabbed Caesar in the senate-house. Taking, then, his girdle and his cloak, Arbaces left his house, supporting his steps, which were still somewhat feeble (though hope and had greatly with his own medical science, which was profound, to restore his natural strength), by his long staff—Arbaces took his way to the of Diomed.
 
And beautiful is the moonlight of the south! In those climes the night so quickly into the day, that scarcely makes a bridge between them. One moment of darker purple in the sky—of a thousand rose-hues in the water—of shade half over light; and then burst at once the stars—the moon is up—night has resumed her !
 
Brightly then, and softly bright, fell the moonbeams over the antique to Cybele—the stately trees, whose date went beyond tradition, cast their long shadows over the soil, while through the openings in their the stars shone, still and frequent. The whiteness of the small sacellum in the centre of the grove, amidst the dark , had in it something and startling; it recalled at once the purpose to which the wood was consecrated—its holiness and solemnity.
 
With a swift and stealthy pace, Calenus, under the shade of the trees, reached the , and gently putting back the boughs that completely closed around its rear, settled himself in his ; a concealment so complete, what with the fane in front and the trees behind, that no unsuspicious passenger could possibly have detected him. Again, all was apparently in the grove: afar off you heard faintly the voices of some noisy revellers or the music that played cheerily to the groups that then, as now in those climates, during the nights of summer, lingered in the streets, and enjoyed, in the fresh air and the liquid moonlight, a milder day.
 
From the height on which the grove was placed, you saw through the of the trees the broad and purple sea, in the distance, the white of Stabiae in the curving shore, and the dim Lectiarian hills with the delicious sky. Presently the tall figure of Arbaces, in his way to the house of Diomed, entered the extreme end of the grove; and at the same instant Apaecides, also bound to his appointment with Olinthus, crossed the Egyptian's path.
 
'! Apaecides,' said Arbaces, recognizing the priest at a glance; 'when last we met, you were my . I have wished since then to see you, for I would have you still my pupil and my friend.'
 
Apaecides started at the voice of the Egyptian; and halting , gazed upon him with a full of contending, bitter, and scornful emotions.
 
' and impostor!' said he at length; 'thou hast recovered then from the of the grave! But think not again to weave around me thy guilty . Retiarius, I am armed against thee!'
 
'!' said Arbaces, in a very low voice—but his pride, which in that descendant of kings was great, betrayed the wound it received from the insulting of the priest in the quiver of his lip and the flush of his brow. 'Hush! more low! thou mayest be overheard, and if other ears than mine had drunk those sounds—why...'
 
'Dost thou threaten?—what if the whole city had heard me?'
 
'The manes of my ancestors would not have suffered me to forgive thee. But, hold, and hear me. Thou art that I would have offered violence to thy sister. , peace, peace, but one instant, I pray thee. Thou art right; it was the of passion and of jealousy—I have bitterly of my madness. Forgive me; I, who never pardon of living man, thee now to forgive me. Nay, I will the insult—I ask thy sister in marriage—start not—consider—what is the alliance of yon holiday Greek compared to mine? Wealth unbounded—birth that in its far leaves your Greek and Roman names the things of yesterday—science—but that thou knowest! Give me thy sister, and my whole life shall atone a moment's error.'
 
'Egyptian, were even I to consent, my sister the very air thou breathest: but I have my own wrongs to forgive—I may pardon thee that thou hast made me a tool to thy deceits, but never that thou hast me to become the abettor of thy —a polluted and a man. Tremble!—even now I prepare the hour in which thou and thy false gods shall be unveiled. Thy and Circean life shall be dragged to day—thy mumming disclosed—the fane of the Isis shall be a byword and a scorn—the name of Arbaces a mark for the of ! Tremble!'
 
The flush on the Egyptian's brow was succeeded by a livid paleness. He looked behind, before, around, to feel assured that none were by; and then he his dark and eye on the priest, with such a gaze of and menace, that one, perhaps, less supported than Apaecides by the daring of a divine , could not have faced with unflinching look that lowering aspect. As it was, however, the young convert met it unmoved, and returned it with an eye of proud .
 
'Apaecides,' said the Egyptian, in a tremulous and inward tone, 'beware! What is it thou wouldst ? Speakest thou—reflect, pause before thou repliest—from the hasty influences of wrath, as yet divining no settled purpose, or from some fixed design?'
 
'I speak from the inspiration of the True God, whose servant I now am,' answered the , boldly; 'and in the knowledge that by His grace human courage has already fixed the date of thy and thy 's worship; ere thrice the sun has dawned, thou know all! Dark sorcerer, tremble, and farewell!'
 
All the fierce and passions which he inherited from his nation and his clime, at all times but ill beneath the of craft and the coldness of philosophy, were released in the breast of the Egyptian. Rapidly one thought chased another; he saw before him an barrier to even a alliance with Ione—the fellow-champion of Glaucus in the struggle which had baffled his designs—the of his name—the threatened of the goddess he served while he disbelieved—the and approaching revealer of his own impostures and vices. His love, his repute, nay, his very life, might be in danger—the day and hour seemed even to have been fixed for some design against him. He knew by the words of the convert that Apaecides had adopted the Christian faith: he knew the indomitable zeal which led on the proselytes of that . Such was his enemy; he grasped his stilus—that enemy was in his power! They were now before the chapel; one hasty glance once more he cast around; he saw none near—silence and alike him.
 
'Die, then, in thy rashness!' he muttered; 'away, obstacle to my rushing fates!'
 
And just as the young Christian had turned to depart, Arbaces raised his hand high over the left shoulder of Apaecides, and his sharp weapon twice into his breast.
 
Apaecides fell to the ground pierced to the heart—he fell mute, without even a , at the very base of the sacred chapel.
 
Arbaces gazed upon him for a moment with the fierce animal joy of conquest over a foe. But presently the full sense of the danger to which he was exposed flashed upon him; he wiped his weapon carefully in the long grass, and with the very garments of his victim; drew his cloak round him, and was about to depart, when he saw, coming up the path, right before him, the figure of a young man, whose steps reeled and vacillated strangely as he advanced: the quiet moonlight streamed full upon his face, which seemed, by the whitening ray, colorless as marble. The Egyptian recognized the face and form of Glaucus. The unfortunate and Greek was chanting a disconnected and mad song, composed from snatches of and sacred odes, all jarringly woven together.
 
'Ha!' thought the Egyptian, instantaneously divining his state and its terrible cause; 'so, then, the hell-draught works, and destiny hath sent thee hither to crush two of my at once!'
 
Quickly, even ere this thought occurred to him, he had on one side of the chapel, and concealed himself amongst the boughs; from that place he watched, as a tiger in his , the advance of his second victim. He the wandering and restless fire in the bright and beautiful eyes of the Athenian; the convulsions that distorted his statue-like features, and his lip. He saw that the Greek was deprived of reason. Nevertheless, as Glaucus came up to the dead body of Apaecides, from which the dark red stream flowed slowly over the grass, so strange and ghastly a spectacle could not fail to arrest him, benighted and as was his sense. He paused, placed his hand to his brow, as if to collect himself, and then saying:
 
'What ho! Endymion, sleepest thou so soundly? What has the moon said to thee? Thou makest me jealous; it is time to wake'—he stooped down with the intention of lifting up the body.
 
Forgetting—feeling not—his own debility, the Egyptian sprung from his hiding-place, and, as the Greek , struck him forcibly to the ground, over the very body of the Christian; then, raising his powerful voice to its highest pitch, he shouted:
 
'Ho, citizens—oh! help me!—run hither—hither!—A murder—a murder before your very fane! Help, or the murderer escapes!' As he , he placed his foot on the breast of Glaucus: an idle and precaution; for the potion operating with the fall, the Greek lay there motionless and insensible, save that now and then his lips gave to some vague and sounds.
 
As he there stood awaiting the coming of those his voice still continued to summons, perhaps some , some compunctious visitings—for despite his crimes he was human—haunted the breast of the Egyptian; the defenceless state of Glaucus—his wandering words—his shattered reason, him even more than the death of Apaecides, and he said, half audibly, to himself:
 
'Poor clay!—poor human reason; where is the soul now? I could spare thee, O my rival—rival never more! But destiny must be obeyed—my safety demands thy sacrifice.' With that, as if to drown compunction, he shouted yet more loudly; and drawing from the girdle of Glaucus the stilus it contained, he steeped it in the blood of the murdered man, and laid it beside the .
 
And now, fast and breathless, several of the citizens came to the place, some with torches, which the moon rendered unnecessary, but which ^{<............}