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While, on the contrary, the ambition of Ulpius, originating in revenge and directed to destruction, exacted cruelty from his heart and duplicity from his mind; and, as the reward for his service, mocked him alternately throughout his whole life with delusion and despair.
Every member of his body seemed to be wasting with a gradual death, while his expression, ardent and forbidding, was stamped with all the energy of manhood, and all the daring of youth. It was Ulpius! The wall was passed! The breach was made good!
But the efforts of Ulpius were not confined to the delivery of orations. Every moment of his leisure time was dedicated to secret pilgrimages into Alexandria.
They turned instantly to follow the bearers of the basket, and again Ulpius and Antonina were left alone on the river's bank. The appearance of the assassins had been powerless, as every other sight or event in the city, in arousing the faculties of Ulpius.
It is a stranger, an outcast; a man lost, dishonoured, abandoned it is the solitary and ruined Ulpius who now gazes with indifferent eyes upon the peaceful garden and the eloquent grave. In the destinies of woe committed to the keeping of the night, the pagan had been fatally included.
When Ulpius had arrived within a few paces of the girl he stopped, saying in a hoarse, thick voice 'Hide your toy Numerian is at the gates! Antonina started violently as she listened to those repulsive accents.
A low archway passage, protected by carved gates similar to those at the front of the building, had been formed in the partition, and through this Ulpius and his prisoners now passed into the recess beyond. This apartment was considerably smaller than the first hall of the temple which they had just left.
'I have wealth and power enough to cause her to be sought for to the ends of the earth! Ulpius shall be secured and questioned imprisoned, tortured, if it is necessary. Your daughter shall be recovered. Nothing is impossible to a senator of Rome! 'I knew not that I loved her, until the morning when I wronged and banished her! continued the old man, still speaking to himself.
The girl's position was a guarded one; still holding her father's hand, she was partly protected by his body; and stood unconsciously beneath the arm of Ulpius, as it was raised while he grasped Numerian's shoulder.
The priests, standing before them in a line, stretched out their hands in denunciation against the temple, and repeated together the awful excommunication service of the Roman Church. The fire at the gates had communicated with the idols inside. It was no longer on his prostrate altar, but on his funeral pile that Ulpius now stood; and the image that he clasped was the stake to which he was bound.
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