The Temptation of St. Antony Part 16

_Apollonius_--"At Tarentum, they brought to the stake a young girl who was dead."

_Damis_--"The Master touched her lips; and she arose, calling on her mother."

_Antony_--"Can it be? He brings the dead back to life?"

_Apollonius_--"I foretold that Vespasian would be Emperor."

_Antony_--"What! He divines the future?"

_Damis_--"There was at Corinth----"

_Apollonius_--"While I was supping with him at the waters of Baia----"

_Antony_--"Excuse me, strangers; it is late!"

_Damis_--"----A young man named Menippus."

_Antony_--"No! no! go away!"

_Apollonius_--"----A dog entered, carrying in its mouth a hand that had been cut off."

_Damis_--"----One evening, in one of the suburbs, he met a woman."

_Antony_--"You do not hear me. Take yourselves off!"

_Damis_--"----He prowled vacantly around the couches."

_Antony_--"Enough!"

_Apollonius_--"----They wanted to drive him away."

_Damis_--"----Menippus, then, surrendered himself to her; and they became lovers."

_Apollonius_--"----And, beating the mosaic floor with his tail, he deposited this hand on the knees of Flavius."

_Damis_--"----But, in the morning, at the school-lectures, Menippus was pale."

_Antony_, with a bound--"Still at it! Well, let them go on, since there is not ..."

_Damis_--"The Master said to him: 'O beautiful young man, you are caressing a serpent; and a serpent is caressing you. For how long are these nuptials?' Every one of us went to the wedding."

_Antony_--"I am doing wrong, surely, in listening to this!"

_Damis_--"Servants were busily engaged at the vestibule; the doors flew open; nevertheless, one could hear neither the noise of footsteps, nor the sound of opening doors. The Master seated himself beside Menippus.

Immediately, the bride was seized with anger against the philosophers.

But the vessels of gold, the cup-bearers, the cooks, the attendants, disappeared; the roof flew away; the walls fell in; and Apollonius remained alone, standing with this woman all in tears at his feet. It was a vampire, who satisfied the handsome young men in order to devour their flesh--because nothing is better for phantoms of this kind than the blood of lovers."

_Apollonius_--"If you wish to know the art----"

_Antony_--"I wish to know nothing."

_Apollonius_--"On the evening of our arrival at the gates of Rome----"

_Antony_--"Oh! yes, tell me about the City of the Popes."

_Apollonius_--"----A drunken man accosted us who sang with a sweet voice. It was an epithalamium of Nero; and he had the power of causing the death of anyone who heard him with indifference. He carried on his back in a box a string taken from the cithara of the Emperor. I shrugged my shoulders. He threw mud in our faces. Then I unfastened my girdle and placed it in his hands."

_Damis_--"In this instance you were quite wrong!"

_Apollonius_--"The Emperor, during the night, made me call at his residence. He played at ossicles with Sporus, leaning with his left arm on a table of agate. He turned round, and, knitting his fair brows: 'Why are you not afraid of me?' he asked. 'Because the G.o.d who made you terrible has made me intrepid,' I replied."

_Antony_, to himself--"Something unaccountable fills me with fear."

Silence.

_Damis_ resumes, in a shrill voice--"All Asia, moreover, could tell you ..."

_Antony_, starting up--"I am sick. Leave me!"

_Damis_--"Listen now. At Ephesus, he witnessed the death of Domitian, who was at Rome."

_Antony_ making an effort to laugh--"Is this possible?"

_Damis_--"Yes, at the theatre, in broad daylight, on the fourteenth of the Kalends of October, he suddenly exclaimed: 'They are murdering Caesar!' and he added, every now and then, 'He rolls on the ground! Oh!

how he struggles! He gets up again; he attempts to fly; the gates are shut. Ah! it is finished. He is dead!' And that very day, in fact, t.i.tus Flavius Domitia.n.u.s was a.s.sa.s.sinated, as you are aware."

_Antony_--"Without the aid of the Devil ... No doubt ..."

_Apollonius_--"He wished to put me to death, this Domitian. Damis fled by my direction, and I remained alone in my prison."

_Damis_--"It was a terrible bit of daring, I must confess!"

_Apollonius_--"About the fifth hour, the soldiers led me to the tribunal. I had my speech quite ready, which I kept under my cloak."

_Damis_--"The rest of us were on the bank of Puzzoli! We saw you die; we wept; when, towards the sixth hour, all at once, you appeared, and said to us, 'It is I.'"

_Antony_, aside--"Just like Him!"

_Damis_, very loudly--"Absolutely!"

_Antony_--"Oh, no! you are lying, are you not? You are lying!"

_Apollonius_--"He came down from Heaven--I ascend there, thanks to my virtue, which has raised me even to the height of the Most High!"

_Damis_--"Tyana, his native city, has erected a temple with priests in his honour!"

_Apollonius_ draws close to Antony, and, bending towards his ear, says: