quaint himself with her name and condition. This done, he
stepped forth into the portico. The skies were serene and clear; but
he, deeply read in the signs of their various change, beheld in one mass
of cloud, far on the horizon, which the wind began slowly to agitate,
that a storm was brooding above.

'It is like my vengeance,' said he, as he gazed; 'the sky is clear, but
the cloud moves on.'

Chapter IX

STORM IN THE SOUTH. THE WITCH'S CAVERN.

IT was when the heats of noon died gradually away from the earth, that
Glaucus and Ione went forth to enjoy the cooled and grateful air. At
that time, various carriages were in use among the Romans; the one most
used by the richer citizens, when they required no companion in their
excursion, was the biga, already described in the early portion of this
work; that appropriated to the matrons, was termed carpentum, which had
commonly two wheels; the ancients used also a sort of litter, a vast
sedan-chair, more commodiously arranged than the modern, inasmuch as the
occupant thereof could lie down at ease, instead of being
perpendicularly and stiffly jostled up and down. There was another
carriage, used both for travelling and for excursions in the country; it
was commodious, containing three or four persons with ease, having a
covering which could be raised at pleasure; and, in short, answering
very much the purpose of (though very different in shape from) the
modern britska. It was a vehicle of this description that the lovers,
accompanied by one female slave of Ione, now used in their excursion.
About ten miles from the city, there was at that day an old ruin, the
remains of a temple, evidently Grecian; and as for Glaucus and Ione
everything Grecian possessed an interest, they had agreed to visit these
ruins: it was thither they were now bound.

Their road lay among vines and olive-groves; till, winding more and more
towards the higher ground of Vesuvius, the path grew rugged; the mules
moved slowly, and with labor; and at every opening in the wood they
beheld those grey and horrent caverns indenting the parched rock, which
Strabo has described; but which the various revolutions of time and the
volcano have removed from the present aspect of the mountain. The sun,
sloping towards his descent, cast long and deep shadows over the
mountain; here and there they still heard the rustic reed of the
shepherd amongst copses of the beechwood and wild oak. Sometimes they
m