o heed the strangers--they were
occupied only with their own fears. After the tranquillity of sixteen
years, that burning and treacherous soil again menaced destruction; they
uttered but one cry, 'THE EARTHQUAKE! THE EARTHQUAKE!' and passing
unmolested from the midst of them, Apaecides and his companions, without
entering the house, hastened down one of the alleys, passed a small open
gate, and there, sitting on a little mound over which spread the gloom
of the dark green aloes, the moonlight fell on the bended figure of the
blind girl--she was weeping bitterly.

BOOK THE THIRD

Chapter I

THE FORUM OF THE POMPEIANS. THE FIRST RUDE MACHINERY BY WHICH THE NEW
ERA OF THE WORLD WAS WROUGHT.

IT was early noon, and the forum was crowded alike with the busy and the
idle. As at Paris at this day, so at that time in the cities of Italy,
men lived almost wholly out of doors: the public buildings, the forum,
the porticoes, the baths, the temples themselves, might be considered
their real homes; it was no wonder that they decorated so gorgeously
these favorite places of resort--they felt for them a sort of domestic
affection as well as a public pride. And animated was, indeed, the
aspect of the forum of Pompeii at that time! Along its broad pavement,
composed of large flags of marble, were assembled various groups,
conversing in that energetic fashion which appropriates a gesture to
every word, and which is still the characteristic of the people of the
south. Here, in seven stalls on one side the colonnade, sat the
money-changers, with their glittering heaps before them, and merchants
and seamen in various costumes crowding round their stalls. On one
side, several men in long togas were seen bustling rapidly up to a
stately edifice, where the magistrates administered justice--these were
the lawyers, active, chattering, joking, and punning, as you may find
them at this day in Westminster. In the centre of the space, pedestals
supported various statues, of which the most remarkable was the stately
form of Cicero. Around the court ran a regular and symmetrical
colonnade of Doric architecture; and there several, whose business drew
them early to the place, were taking the slight morning repast which
made an Italian breakfast, talking vehemently on the earthquake of the
preceding night as they dipped pieces of bread in their cups of diluted
wine. In the open space, too, you might perceive various petty traders
ex