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Chapter X
 WHAT BECOMES OF NYDIA IN THE HOUSE OF ARBACES. THE EGYPTIAN FEELS FOR GLAUCUS. COMPASSION IS OFTEN A VERY USELESS VISITOR TO THE GUILTY.  
IT will be remembered that, at the command of Arbaces, Nydia followed the Egyptian to his home, and there with her, he learned from the of her despair and , that her hand, and not Julia's, had administered to Glaucus the fatal potion. At another time the Egyptian might have conceived a interest in sounding the depths and origin of the strange and absorbing passion which, in blindness and in slavery, this singular girl had dared to cherish; but at present he spared no thought from himself. As, after her confession, the poor Nydia threw herself on her knees before him, and him to restore the health and save the life of Glaucus—for in her youth and ignorance she imagined the dark magician all-powerful to effect both—Arbaces, with unheeding ears, was noting only the new of detaining Nydia a prisoner until the trial and fate of Glaucus were . For if, when he judged her merely the of Julia in obtaining the philtre, he had felt it was dangerous to the full success of his to allow her to be at large—to appear, perhaps, as a witness—to the manner in which the sense of Glaucus had been darkened, and thus win indulgence to the crime of which he was accused—how much more was she likely to volunteer her when she herself had administered the , and, inspired by love, would be only anxious, at any expense of shame, to her error and preserve her beloved? Besides, how unworthy of the rank and repute of Arbaces to be in the disgrace of to the passion of Julia, and assisting in the unholy of the of Vesuvius! Nothing less, indeed, than his desire to induce Glaucus to own the murder of Apaecides, as a policy evidently the best both for his own permanent safety and his successful suit with Ione, could ever have led him to the confession of Julia.
 
As for Nydia, who was necessarily cut off by her blindness from much of the knowledge of active life, and who, a slave and a stranger, was naturally ignorant of the of the Roman law, she thought rather of the illness and of her Athenian, than the crime of which she had heard him accused, or the chances of the trial. Poor that she was, whom none addressed, none cared for, what did she know of the senate and the sentence—the hazard of the law—the ferocity of the people—the and the lion's ? She was accustomed only to associate with the thought of Glaucus everything that was prosperous and lofty—she could not imagine that any , save from the madness of her love, could menace that sacred head. He seemed to her set apart for the of life. She only had disturbed the current of his felicity; she knew not, she dreamed not that the stream, once so bright, was dashing on to darkness and to death. It was therefore to restore the brain that she had , to save the life that she had endangered that she the assistance of the great Egyptian.
 
'Daughter,' said Arbaces, waking from his reverie, 'thou must rest here; it is not meet for thee to wander along the streets, and be from the threshold by the rude feet of slaves. I have compassion on thy soft crime—I will do all to remedy it. Wait here patiently for some days, and Glaucus shall be restored.' So saying, and without waiting for her reply, he hastened from the room, drew the bolt across the door, and the care and wants of his prisoner to the slave who had the charge of that part of the .
 
Alone, then, and , he waited the morning light, and with it repaired, as we have seen, to possess himself of the person of Ione.
 
His primary object, with respect to the unfortunate Neapolitan, was that which he had really stated to Clodius, viz., to prevent her interesting herself in the trial of Glaucus, and also to guard against her accusing him (which she would, doubtless, have done) of his former act of and violence towards her, his —denouncing his causes for vengeance against Glaucus—unveiling the of his character—and casting any doubt upon his in the charge which he had made against the Athenian. Not till he had encountered her that morning—not till he had heard her loud denunciations—was he aware that he had also another danger to in her suspicion of his crime. He hugged himself now at the thought that these ends were effected: that one, at once the object of his passion and his fear, was in his power. He believed more than ever the flattering promises of the stars; and when he sought Ione in that in the inmost of his mysterious mansion to which he had consigned her—when he found her overpowered by blow upon blow, and passing from fit to fit, from violence to ............
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