Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

pavement round the bath, was Mosaic, and represented animals,
fruit and flowers. Generally speaking, the principal floors of
this Villa, particularly of the reception rooms, were of Mosaic
workmanship \\hlchhad the advantage of keeping the apartments
cool.
We next visit the out-offices, adjoining the palace. What
most attracts our attention in those, are the numerous rows of
windows. This portion was occupied by Metella's male slaves,
who had the charge of the flower gardens, meadows , olive gardens,
and flax fields. Under this dwelling were the stables, the
doors of which we only open hastily here and there. They
were filled with an abundance of horned cattle, horses ami a
sort of black swine, with soft shiny skins, such as can be seen
at the present day, lying about in the streets of the Grecian
cities. Then again there were vaults for hures and rabbits, and
Others for geese, turkeys, and all sorts of poultry.
After this, follows the " Villa Fructuaria " which excites in
many respects greater interest, for it contained large and various
wine cellars. In the back cellar were several goat skins filled
with the wine, so much valued by the Greeks, called Lesbos,
these were sealed with pitch. Rhodian and Lydian and also the
beloved Falarian were not forgotten. Other cellars of the
Frur.tuaria contained stores from Metella's olive gardens, which
were partly delivered to the great merchant ships, and partly
sold at the new Market of Athens. The store-rooms for corn,
hay and garden fruits, occupied a large space in the Fructuaria
and enclosed off this part of the Villa. Lastly one look at
Metella's garden. It may appear strange that two hundred
years after the birth of Christ one met with the same artistic
ornaments, which are to be seen in the ninteenth century partic-
ularly in France and Holland, where the tasteless custom prevails
of cutting one tree like a pyramid, another like a Lion, and
ft third like a crowing cock, so that one imagines he Is entering
a menagerie rather than a pleasure ground. The peacock, the
favorite bird of the ancients, struts about here in au his pomp,
and proudly swings his tail on high and spreads it out in the
form of a fan. The villas of the rich are a clear proof of the ex-
travagance of Greece, which with sculpture and all works of
art, gave occupation to the greater number of the half-freemen.
Every flower-bed had its peculiar attendant, a white or colored
statue. The flowers change according to their species, and their
quantity and variety would have embarrassed a Greek of ordinary
education, to name only one of these children of Flora, so loreign
were these plants to that country. The ever blooming gardens
of Egypt provided nearly all the country villas of Greece, with
bulbs, seeds, and cuttings. Italy also sent her charms here a
soft breeze waves its balmy perfume from the flower -beds of
Sicily, and Metella's garden offers you a bouquet of Spikenard,
Myrrh, and the lovely Ac*anthus.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE POTTER AND HIS CHILD.
In a magnificently gilt chariot, drawn by white horses, Metella
drove up to the entrance of her Villa. Could we then have seen
the number of her attendants, standing on the marble steps, and
the majestic form and haughty look of this noble dame, as she
gracefully ascended, recognizing neither to the right nor to the
left, a single slave amongst those who stood in crouching ser-
vility, with arms crossed on the breast, to welcome her arrival,
a doubt would have passed through our minds, whether this
proud lady would ever tread the thorny path of our Faith.
But Divine Providence has always means at hand to humble
our pride. As the autumnal winds strip the trees of their
withering foliage, and mingle it aye that of the mighty oak,
with that of the meanest shrub, and leave them bare and desolate
till the coming Spring, so, the Providence of God is wont to
blow away with the winds of affliction, all the vanities of man,
and level his proud heart to the dust, leaving it for a time, empty,
desolate, and bereft of all consolation.
L Y 1> I A 25
.
We see here but slight grounds for supposing
will ever become or a lover of self
Yet a few days later, she made a slight beginning, by :i
that Metclln
.lence of which we shall give an example.
On the following morning, after her arrival, as she was walking
in the court-yard, and fanned by her maid with an artistically
woven peacock's tail, she saw, at the end of the interior court,
which was somewhat hidden by an ornamental shubbery, a poor,
but very cheerful old man, sitting near the kitchen door. Ilix
flowing hair, and peculiar woolen mantle bespoke him to be a
sort of artisan.
He is a potter by trade, and his name is Hyllos. While sit-
ting on the cool Mosaic pavement, and leaning against a pillar,
he little thinks that a stranger is observing him closely.
Poor Hyllos had just brought to the palace, some kitchen
utensils from his work-shop, and had ardently hoped, that he
would have received payment for them on delivery. But it was
not so, and after his long walk, he had only received a piece of
dry bread from one of the cooks. A little annoyed, as he had
not had anything to eat that day, he seated himself down close
to the kitchen, and commenced
"
talking to himself. Well
Hyllos! but you arc a poor, pitiful old blockhead! you have
overworked yourself the whole week, and now you have nothing
more for your trouble, than a bit of dry bread. Oh, hunger
bites I but stop! you growling old fellow! don't you smell an
amazingly good odor from the kitchen? what more do you
want?" and, taking a long sniff, "oh! tit bits, roasted or
steamed! ah! if you were not a discontented rascal, you would
be satisfied with your share of the feast! " So saying, he took
his bread from his bag, and with a long draw, sniffed up the
good smell, and then ate his morsel of bread, and after a pause,
as if to test the quality of taste and smell, said: "Of course
you've had a good dinner! You old fool, to be grumbling for
nothing! Why the bread dipped in the smell from the kitchen
is quite another thing. Ah 1 we have only to sop it in the deli-
cious broth of a healthy imagination, to enjoy it with an under-
standing." He repeated the bite and sniff several times, and by
the help of his imagination, began to feel himself not only satisfied,
but satiated so much so, that he seemed to fear it was
amounting to gluttony, and rising from the ground began to admonish
himself. "Come, Hyllos, don't gormandize, you have
had more than enough for this day," and throwing his bag over
his shoulder, commenced his journey home with a cheerful
countenance.
Metella was forcibly struck by the piteous scene she had just
witnessed. This poor man thought she, is contented with the
odor that proceeds from the food preparing for my table.
What wealth lies in contentment! and yet what wealth can purchase
it? She firmly resolved to visit the poor man without de-
lay in his own humble dwelling.
It was on one of those hot dry harvest days, such as are often experienced
in Greece, when the heat of the sun, the wind, and
the sandy dust, vie with each other which shall conquer, when
Metella gave orders for her favorite slave to hold herself in readiness
for an evening walk. Ophnc brings with her a long hand-
led sun-shade which with the ancients played so important a
part, and which has been handed down to the Greeks of the
present day in a smaller form. She cannot help feeling anxious
whether she will be able to move it about with the necessary
agility, in order to protect her mistress as well from the rays of
the sun, as from the thick clouds of harvest dust. She consoled
herself with the reflection, that latterly her mistress had become
far less sensitive, and that very day, during the entire walk, she
did not hear from her a single complaint.
'
Ophne," said Metella, as they had been walking for Some
''
time in the hot valley. do you know the house of poor Hyll