ever the question as to the state of this art among the ancients. The
subject was a favorite one with all artists of all ages,--from the
world-famous Iliad: the story of the goddess-born Achilles. Here tutored
by the wise Centaur, Chiron, in horsemanship and archery, and all that
makes a hero; here tearing off the virgin mitre, to don the glittering
casque proffered, with sword and buckler, among effeminate wares, by the
disguised Ulysses; there wandering in the despondent gloom of injured
pride along the stormy sea, meet listener to his haughty sorrows, while in
the distance, turning her tearful eyes back to her lord, Briseis went
unwilling at the behest of the unwilling heralds. Again he was presented,
mourning with frantic grief over the corpse of his beloved Patroclus--grief
that called up his Nereid mother from the blue depths of her native
element; and, in the last, chasing with unexampled speed the flying
Hector, who, stunned and destined by the Gods to ruin, dared not await his
onset, while Priam veiled his face upon the ramparts, and Hecuba already
tore her hair, presaging the destruction of Troy's invincible unshaken
column.(2)

A small wood fire blazed cheerfully upon the hearth, round which were
clustered, in uncouth attitudes of old Etruscan sculpture, the grim and
grotesque figures of the household Gods. Two lamps of bronze, each with
four burners, placed on tall candelabra exquisitely carved in the same
metal, diffused a soft calm radiance through the room, accompanied by an
aromatic odor from the perfumed vegetable oil which fed their light. Upon
a circular table of dark-grained citrean wood, inlaid with ivory and
silver, were several rolls of parchment and papyrus, the books of the day,
some of them splendidly emblazoned and illuminated; a lyre of
tortoiseshell, and near to it the slender plectrum by which its cords were
wakened to melody. Two or three little flasks of agate and of onyx
containing some choice perfumes, a Tuscan vase full of fresh-gathered
flowers, and several articles yet more decidedly feminine, were scattered
on the board; needles, and thread of various hues, and twine of gold and
silver, and some embroidery, half finished, and as it would seem but that
instant laid aside. Such was the aspect of the saloon wherein three
persons were sitting on that night; who, though they were unconscious,
nay, even unsuspicious of the existence of conspiracy and treason, were
destined, ere many days