‘Here,’ Alice pronounced, and she raised
her hand: ’Here! call aloud three times
running the name of the mighty Roman!’
‘What will happen?’
‘You will see.’
I wondered. ‘Divus Caius Julius Caesar!’
I cried suddenly; ’Divus Caius Julius Caesar!’
I repeated deliberately; ‘Caesar!’
The last echoes of my voice had hardly died away,
when I heard....
It is difficult to say what I did hear. At first
there reached me a confused din the ear could scarcely
catch, the endlessly-repeated clamour of the blare
of trumpets, and the clapping of hands. It seemed
that somewhere, immensely far away, at some fathomless
depth, a multitude innumerable was suddenly astir,
and was rising up, rising up in agitation, calling
to one another, faintly, as if muffled in sleep, the
suffocating sleep of ages. Then the air began
moving in dark currents over the ruin.... Shades
began flitting before me, myriads of shades, millions
of outlines, the rounded curves of helmets, the long
straight lines of lances; the moonbeams were broken
into momentary gleams of blue upon these helmets and
lances, and all this army, this multitude, came closer
and closer, and grew, in more and more rapid movement....
An indescribable force, a force fit to set the whole
world moving, could be felt in it; but not one figure
stood out clearly.... And suddenly I fancied a
sort of tremor ran all round, as if it were the rush
and rolling apart of some huge waves.... ‘Caesar,
Caesar venit!’ sounded voices, like the leaves
of a forest when a storm has suddenly broken upon
it ... a muffled shout thundered through the multitude,
and a pale stern head, in a wreath of laurel, with
downcast eyelids, the head of the emperor, began slowly
to rise out of the ruin....
There is no word in the tongue of man to express the
horror which clutched at my heart.... I felt
that were that head to raise its eyes, to part its
lips, I must perish on the spot! ‘Alice!’
I moaned, ’I won’t, I can’t, I don’t
want Rome, coarse, terrible Rome.... Away, away
from here!’
‘Coward!’ she whispered, and away we flew.
I just had time to hear behind me the iron voice of
the legions, like a peal of thunder ... then all was
darkness.
‘Look round,’ Alice said to me, ‘and
don’t fear.’
I obeyed—and, I remember, my first impression
was so sweet that I could only sigh. A sort of
smoky-grey, silvery-soft, half-light, half-mist, enveloped
me on all sides. At first I made out nothing:
I was dazzled by this azure brilliance; but little
by little began to emerge the outlines of beautiful
mountains and forests; a lake lay at my feet, with
stars quivering in its depths, and the musical plash
of waves. The fragrance of orange flowers met
me with a rush, and with it—and also as
it were with a rush—came floating the pure
