Leucippe had been interred. He arrived at her tomb, but was prevented from executing his purpose by the sudden appearance of his servant Satyrus, and of Menelaus, a young man who had sailed with him in the vessel from Berytus. These two persons had also escaped from the shipwreck, and had afterwards fallen into the power of the robbers. By them Leucippe had been accommodated with a false uterus, made of sheep's skin, which gave rise to the deceptio visus above related. "At the command of Menelaus, Leucippe issued from the tomb, and proceeded with Clitopho and Menelaus to the quarters of Charmides. In a short time this commander became enamoured of Leucippe, as did also Gorgias, one of his officers. Gorgias gave her a potion calculated to inspire her with reciprocal passion; but which being too strong, affected her with a species of madness of a very indecorous character. She is cured, however, by Chaereas, another person who had fallen in love with her, and had discovered the secret of the potion from the servant of Gorgias. "Taking Chaereas along with them, Clitopho and Leucippe sail for Alexandria. Soon after their arrival, Leucippe was carried off from the neighbourhood of that place, and hurried on board a vessel by a troop of banditti employed by Chaereas. Clitopho pursued the vessel, but when just coming up with it he saw the head of a person whom he mistook for Leucippe struck off by the robbers. Disheartened by this incident, he relinquished the pursuit, and returned to Alexandria. There he was informed that Melitta, a rich Ephesian widow, at that time residing at Alexandria, had fallen in love with him. This intelligence he received from his old friend Clinias, who after the wreck of the vessel in which he had embarked with Clitopho, had got on shore by the usual expedient of a plank, and now suggested to his friend that he should avail himself of the predilection of Melitta. "In compliance with this suggestion, he set sail with her for Ephesus, but persisted in postponing the nuptials till they should reach that place, in spite of the most vehement importunities on the part of the widow. On their arrival at Ephesus the marriage took place; but before Melitta's object had been accomplished, Clitopho discovered Leucippe among his wife's slaves; and Thersander, Melitta's husband, who was supposed to be drowned, arrived at Ephesus. Clitopho was instantly confined by the enraged husband; but, on condition of putting the last seal to the now invalid marriage, he escaped by the intervention of Melitta. He had not proceeded far when he was overtaken by Thersander, and brought back to confinement. Thersander, of course, fell in love with Leucippe, but not being able to engage her affections, he brought two actions; one declaratory, that Leucippe was his slave, and a prosecution against Clitopho for marrying his wife. Clitopho escapes being put to the torture by the opportune arrival of Sostratus, Leucippe's father, sent on a sacred embassy. "Leucippe is at last subjected to a trial of chastity in the cave of Diana, from which the sweetest music issued when entered by those who resembled its goddess. Never were notes heard so melodious as those by which Leucippe was vindicated. Thersander was, of course, nonsuited, and retired, loaded with infamy. Leucippe then related to her father and Clitopho that it was a woman dressed in her clothes whose head had been struck off by the banditti, in order to deter Clitopho from further pursuit, but that a quarrel having arisen among them on her account, Chaereas was slain, and after his death she was sold by the other pirates to Sosthenes. By him she had been purchased for Thersander, in whose service she remained till discovered by Clitopho." Sostratus then relates how Callisthenes, after discovering his mistake, became enamoured of Calligone, conducted her to Byzantium, treated her with all respect, expressing his determination not to marry her without her own and her father's consent. The party in a few days sail to Byzantium, where the nuptials of Clitopho and Leucippe take place. Shortly afterwards they proceed to Tyre, and are present at the wedding of Callisthenes and Calligone, who had arrived in that city before them. THE ADVENTURES OF THEAGENES AND CHARICLEA THE day had begun to smile cheerily, and the sun was already gilding the tops of the hills, when a band of men, in arms and appearance pirates,* having ascended the summit of a mountain which stretches down towards the Heracleotic+ mouth of the Nile, paused and contemplated the sea which was expanded before them. When not a sail appeared on the water to give them hopes of a booty, they cast their eyes upon the neighbouring shore; where the scene was as follows: a ship was riding at anchor, abandoned by her crew; but to all appearance laden with merchandize, as she drew much water. The beach was strewn with bodies newly slaughtered; some quite dead, others dying, yet still breathing, gave signs of a combat recently ended. Yet it appeared not to have been a designed engagement; but Piracy was not in those times considered dishonorable; but the contrary. Thucyd. B. i. 4. "It seems + Called by Herodotus, B. ii. 17, the Bucolic mouth. clear that the phrase was derived from the inhabitants of the region, a horde of piratical herdsmen, apparently of different race from the agricultural Ægyptians. They haunted the most marshy part of the Delta, where the papyrus reeds effectually masked their retreats.”— Blakesley's Herodotus. izi TOITOV Swornpa-to the third wale. The wales are strong planks extending along a ship's side through the whole length at different heights, serving to strengthen the decks and form the curves. A passage in the Cyclops of Euripides may illustrate the above γάνυμας δὲ δαιτὸς ἥβης, σκάφος ὁλκὰς ὣς γεμισθεὶς ποτὶ σέλμα γαστρὸς ἄκρας.—Cyclops. 503. there were mingled with these dreadful spectacles the fragments of an unlucky feast, which seemed to have concluded in this fatal manner. There were tables, some yet spread with eatables; others overturned upon those who had hoped to hide themselves under them; others grasped by hands which had snatched them up as weapons. Cups lay in disorder, half fallen out of the hands of those who had been drinking from them, or which had been flung instead of missiles; for the suddenness of the affray had converted goblets into weapons. Here lay one wounded with an axe, another bruised by a shell picked up on the beach, a third had his limbs broken with a billet, a fourth was burnt with a torch, but the greater part were transfixed with arrows; in short, the strangest contrast was exhibited within the shortest compass; wine mingled by fate with blood, war with feasting, drinking and fighting, libations and slaughters. Such was the scene that presented itself to the eyes of the pirates. They gazed some time, puzzled and astonished. The vanquished lay dead before them, but they nowhere saw the conquerors; the victory was plain enough, but the spoils were not taken away; the ship rode quietly at anchor, though with no one on board, yet unpillaged, as much as if it had been defended by a numerous crew, and as if all had been peace. They soon, however, gave up conjecturing, and began to think of plunder; and constituting themselves victors, advanced to seize the prey. But as they came near the ship, and the field of slaughter, a spectacle presented itself which perplexed them more than any which they had yet seen, A maiden of uncommon and almost heavenly beauty sat upon a rock; she seemed deeply afflicted at the scene before her, but amidst that affliction preserved an air of dignity. Her head was crowned with laurel; she had a quiver at her shoulder; under her left arm was a bow, the other hung negligently down; she rested her left elbow on her right knee, and leaning her cheek on her open hand, looked earnestly down on a youth who lay upon the ground at some distance. He, wounded all over, seemed to be recovering a little from a deep and almost deadly trance; yet, even in this situation, he appeared of manly beauty, and the whiteness of his cheeks became more conspicuous from the blood which flowed upon them.* Pain had depressed his eye-lids, yet with difficulty he raised them towards the maiden; and collecting his spirits, in a languid. voice thus addressed her (while the pirates were still gazing upon both): "My love, are you indeed alive? or, has the rage of war involved you also in its miseries? But you cannot bear even in death to be entirely separated from me, for your spirit still hovers round me and my fortunes." "My fate," replied the maiden, "depends on thee: dost thou see this (showing him a dagger which lay on her knee)? it has yet been idle because thou still breathedst;" and saying this, she sprang from the rock. The pirates upon the mountain, struck with wonder and admiration, as by a sudden flash of lightning, began to hide themselves among the bushes; for at her rising she appeared still greater and more divine. Her "shafts rattled as she moved;" her goid-embroidered garments glittered in the sun; and her hair flowed, from under her laurel diadem, in dishevelled ringlets down her neck. The pirates, alarmed and confused, were totally at a loss to account for this appearance, which puzzled them more than the previous spectacle; some said it was the goddess Diana, or Isis, the tutelary deity of the country; others, that it was some priestess, who, inspired by a divine frenzy from the gods, had caused the slaughter they beheld; this they said at random, still in ignorance and doubt. She, flying towards the youth and embracing him, wept, kissed him, wiped off the blood, fetched a deep sigh, and seemed as if she could yet scarcely believe she had him in her arms. The Egyptians, observing this, began to change their opinion. These, said they, are not the actions of a deity; a goddess would not with so much affection kiss a dying body. They encouraged one another therefore to go nearer, and to inquire into the real state of things. Collecting themselves together, then, they ran down and reached the * Indum sanguineo veluti violaverat ostro † ἢ γέγονας πολέμου πάρεργον. The expression πολέμου πάρεργον means a by-work; something done by-the-by.-Thucyd. B. i. 142. Iliad, B. i. 45. |