unclosed, and
this time he began to speak; but his thoughts--if thoughts they could
be called--were as yet wholly occupied by the 'table-talk' at the past
night's banquet.

'The ancient Egyptians--oh, sprightly and enchanting Camilla--were a
wise nation!' murmured the senator drowsily. 'I am myself descended
from the ancient Egyptians; and, therefore, I hold in high veneration
that cat in your lap, and all cats besides. Herodotus--an historian
whose works I feel a certain gratification in publicly mentioning as
good--informs us, that when a cat died in the dwelling of an ancient
Egyptian, the owner shaved his eyebrows as a mark of grief, embalmed
the defunct animal in a consecrated house, and carried it to be
interred in a considerable city of Lower Egypt, called 'Bubastis'--an
Egyptian word which I have discovered to mean The Sepulchre of all the
Cats; whence it is scarcely erroneous to infer--'

At this point the speaker's power of recollection and articulation
suddenly failed him, and Carrio--who had listened with perfect gravity
to his master's oration upon cats--took immediate advantage of the
opportunity now afforded him to speak again.

'The equipage which my patron was pleased to command to carry him to
Aricia,' said he, with a strong emphasis on the last word, 'now stands
in readiness at the private gate of the palace gardens.'

As he heard the word 'Aricia', the senator's powers of recollection and
perception seemed suddenly to return to him. Among that high order of
drinkers who can imbibe to the point of perfect enjoyment, and stop
short scientifically before the point of perfect oblivion, Vetranio
occupied an exalted rank. The wine he had swallowed during the night
had disordered his memory and slightly troubled his self-possession,
but had not deprived him of his understanding. There was nothing
plebeian even in his debauchery; there was an art and a refinement in
his very excesses.

'Aricia--Aricia!' he repeated to himself, 'ah! the villa that Julia
lent to me at Ravenna! The pleasures of the table must have obscured
for a moment the image of my beautiful pupil of other days, which now
revives before me again as Love resumes the dominion that Bacchus
usurped! My excellent Carrio,' he continued, speaking to the freedman,
'you have done perfectly right in awakening me; delay not a moment more
in ordering my bath to be prepared, or my man-monster Ulpius, the king
of conspirators and high priest o