'Ate,' answered Glaucus; and he closed at once with the Egyptian.
Meanwhile, Apaecides raised his sister, now lifeless, from the ground;
his strength, exhausted by a mind long overwrought, did not suffice to
bear her away, light and delicate though her shape: he placed her,
therefore, on the couch, and stood over her with a brandishing knife,
watching the contest between Glaucus and the Egyptian, and ready to
plunge his weapon in the bosom of Arbaces should he be victorious in the
struggle. There is, perhaps, nothing on earth so terrible as the naked
and unarmed contest of animal strength, no weapon but those which Nature
supplies to rage. Both the antagonists were now locked in each other's
grasp--the hand of each seeking the throat of the other--the face drawn
back--the fierce eyes flashing--the muscles strained--the veins
swelled--the lips apart--the teeth set--both were strong beyond the
ordinary power of men, both animated by relentless wrath; they coiled,
they wound, around each other; they rocked to and fro--they swayed from
end to end of their confined arena--they uttered cries of ire and
revenge--they were now before the altar--now at the base of the column
where the struggle had commenced: they drew back for breath--Arbaces
leaning against the column--Glaucus a few paces apart.
'O ancient goddess!' exclaimed Arbaces, clasping the column, and raising
his eyes toward the sacred image it supported, 'protect thy
chosen--proclaim they vengeance against this thing of an upstart creed,
who with sacrilegious violence profanes thy resting-place and assails
thy servant.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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