inguish the
sun. This beautiful happy world they would have dark, gloomy, melancholy,
hideous; thy kingdom, great Phoebus, is sunny, joyful and bright . . . !"
Here his strength failed him; but presently he rallied once more and went
on, with eager eyes: "We crave for light, for music, lutes and pipes--for
perfumed flowers on careless brows--we--hold me up Herse--and thou, heal
me, O Phoebus Apollo!--Hail, all hail! I thank thee--thou hast accepted
much from me and hast given me all! Come, thou joy of my soul! Come in
thy glorious chariot, attended by Muses and Hours! See, Orpheus,
Herse--do you see Him coming?"

He pointed with a confident gesture to the distance; and his anxious eyes
followed the indication of his hand; he raised himself a little by a last
supreme effort; but instantly fell back; his head sank on the bosom of
his faithful partner and a stream of blood flowed from his quivering
lips. The votary of the Muses was dead; and a few minutes after Orpheus,
too, fell senseless.

War-cries and trumpet-calls rang and echoed through the Serapeum. The
battle was now a hand-to-hand fight; the besiegers had surmounted the
barricade and stood face to face with the heathen. Herse saw them coming;
she snatched the dart from her husband's wound, and fired by hatred and a
wild thirst for vengeance, she rushed upon the besiegers with frantic and
helpless fury, cursing them loudly. She met the death she craved; a
javelin struck her and she fell close to her husband and son. Her death
struggle was a short one; she had only time and strength to extend a hand
to lay on each before she herself was a corpse.

The battle raged round the heap of dead; the Imperial troops drove the
garrison backwards into the temple-halls, and the plan of attack which
had been agreed upon at a council of war held in the palace of the Comes,
was carried out, point by point, with cool courage and irresistible
force. A few maniples pursued the fugitives into the main entrance hall,
helped them to force the gates open, and then drove them down the slope
and steps, over the stones that had been heaped up for protection, and
into the very arms of the division placed in front of the temple. These
at once surrounded them and took them prisoners, as the hunter traps the
game that rushes down upon him when driven by the dogs and beaters.
Foremost to fly were the women from the rotunda, who were welcomed with
acclamations by the soldiers.

But those who