nightingale, then..."

Damia paused; and gazed upwards as if in ecstasy, and it was not till
a few minutes later that she went on, with a changed expression in her
face: "Then my son's widow, Mary, would be hatched out of a serpent's
egg and would creep a writhing asp.... Great gods! the ravens! What can
they mean? They come again. Air, air! Wine! I cannot--I am choking--take
it away!--To-morrow--to-day.... Everything is going; do you see--do
you feel? It is all black--no, red; and now black again. Everything is
sinking; hold me, save me; the floor is going from under me.--Where is
Porphyrius? Where is my son?--My feet are so cold; rub them. It is the
water! rising--it is up to my knees. I am sinking--help! save me! help!"
The dying woman fought with her arms as if she were drowning; her cries
for help grew fainter, her head drooped on her laboring chest, and in a
few minutes she had breathed her last in her grandchild's arms, and her
restless, suffering soul was free.

Never before had Gorgo seen death. She could not persuade herself that
the heart which had been so cold for others, but had throbbed so warmly
and tenderly for her, was now stilled for ever; that the spirit which,
even in sleep, had never been at rest, had now found eternal peace. The
slave-woman had hastily taken her place, had closed the dead woman's
eyes and mouth, and done all she could to diminish the horror of the
scene, and the terrible aspect of the dead in the sight of the girl who
had been her one darling. But Gorgo had remained by her side, and,
while she did everything in her power to revive the stiffening body,
the overwhelming might of Death had come home to her with appalling
clearness. She felt the limbs of one she had loved growing cold and
rigid under her hands, and her spirit rose in obstinate rebellion
against the idea that annihilation stood between her and the woman
who had so amply filled a mother's place. She insisted on having every
method of resuscitation tried that had ever been heard of, and made her
nurse send for physicians, though the woman solemnly assured her that
human help was of no avail: then she sent for the priest of Saturn
who--as the dead woman herself had told her--knew mighty spells which
had called back many a departed spirit to the body it had quitted.

When, at last, she was alone and gazed on the hard, set features of the
dead, though she shuddered with horror, she so far controlled herself
as to press he