Connecticut western news., 1909-06-10
HERCULES WARNING,
Rx E. A. MITCHELL.

 cipal dwellings of the ancient city of Hercufaneum sat a youth and a maiden. Beside the girl, its base rest ing on the marble seat stood harp, l the strings of which she now and l again struck plaintively. Above them | to the east lowered the cone of the | Vesuvian volcano, to the west reposed i the pale blue waters of the Mediter- ranean, while to the south were visi- ble the tiled roofs of the temples of the neighboring city of Pompeii. "Heraclea,' said the youth gloomtly, ! ''this intention of your father to make you priestess in this religion of the i Egyptians will surely bring down upon him the wrath of the true gods. Yet it may be that you and l shall go free to wed in a foreign land"
 Have you consulted the oracles, Gavius?"
 NO; but Hercules, from whom your city was named and whose name your father gave to you, last night appeared to me in a dream and told me this"
 "Oh, Gavius, be not deceived! There is no hope. Tomorrow, as surely as love dwells on Olympus, must go to Pompeii to be initiated in the mysteries in the temple of Isis there. My father,
 like many others, is infatuated with the worship of this foreign goddess,
 and though I have wept and pleaded
 with him he will not forego his in-
 tent"
 Trouble will surely come from this slight to the true gods. The senate at Rome has forbidden it."
 Nevertheless there stands the tenn pie at Pompeii on the slope near the
 ampitheater. You may see its roof" Meanwhile the young man was re- garding the summit of Vesuvius, which was emitting fitful puffs of
 smoke.
 7 "T have not for several days" he said, liked the looks of the mountain. I fear the earthquake. Do you know,
 Heraclea, I have feeling-perhaps 1t has been planted within me by the immortal gods-that in some way the
 volcano is connected with our fate = that rather than see you priestess of !. false goddess Hercules will emerge
 from the crater, descend upon her , temple and destroy it."
 And us, too, perhaps" replied the girl giving frightened look up at the
 cone. which at that moment uttered an l. ominous growl.
 | Enough of these melancholy words l. dear heart With our approaching eter' 4 nal separation and the volcano mutter F. ing above us I am plunged in gloom
 Sing the song I love so well, that olc air brought by your ancestors from the
 isles of Greece. It may be the lasi :. time shall hear it."
 n The girl commenced to sing in low ,r plaintive tone, accompanying herself = on her harp. The air, though monoto
 nous, was sweet, rising and falling a ID intervals. The words were a recita 'o of their grief at their coming separa Is tion. The song served to deepen thei
 gloom. When it ceased Gavius claspeC
 Heraclea in his arms, and they wep
 silently. Then after an impassionet b farewell they separated.I
 Ill The next day. as Heradlea under tn TX guardianship of her family. was leav Id ing for the temple of Isis, Fesuviu " gave shudder, then sent up that col N as which destroyed the cities at its base ne Gavius, maddened at the prospect O e- losing his love, collected a number o of his friends who were opposed to tn .1 worship of the Egyptian goddess
 among them priests from the temple o ID Jupiter-and, sallying from his house aV on the main street crossing Pompe north and south, turned into the on
 leading to the Herculanean gate. Ther'
 supported by his band, he stood read L., for a desperate attempt to rescue He rT aclea on her entrance into the city hA' But Heraclea did not come. At th -n- hour appointed for her initiation bot he Herculaneum and Pompeii were bein gs: covered by showers of ashes and cart y, rained down from Vesuvius, while tt st. mountain roared and the earth quake' m. Gavius started to Herculaneum md die with his love, but in the darkneE ea lost his way. Painting, he lay stup ~. fled by gases from the volcano, bl N'o was taken up by one of his slaves aI nN carried to the sea. Later when all "; H. again serene he went and stot N. on the crust above the buried Here
 
 ays garded by those who were trying tn dig their way down to where th' m. might recover treasures as having To md his mind through the terrors attendil
 the late eruption. When night can
 they left him there and found hi 'h'' there again fa the morning. The on
 words he was heard to say were:
 70 Hercules, direct me!' .ar On the evening of the second d. iob after the eruption as the twilight dee i0il enad Gavius was still wandering abo enV the buried Herculaneum. The se 1aIl the mountain, the ground on which the stood. were still. A stream had flow uti- on either side of the site of the tow ints Wandering aimlessly toward one s a these streams, outSof the silence the one came to him q sound. Gavius listen ~ and heard the plaintive strains of Ina