'The equipage which my patron was pleased to command to carry him to
Aricia,' said he, with a strong emphasis on the last word, 'now stands
in readiness at the private gate of the palace gardens.'
As he heard the word 'Aricia', the senator's powers of recollection and
perception seemed suddenly to return to him. Among that high order of
drinkers who can imbibe to the point of perfect enjoyment, and stop
short scientifically before the point of perfect oblivion, Vetranio
occupied an exalted rank. The wine he had swallowed during the night
had disordered his memory and slightly troubled his self-possession, but
had not deprived him of his understanding. There was nothing plebeian
even in his debauchery; there was an art and a refinement in his very
excesses.
'Aricia--Aricia!' he repeated to himself, 'ah! the villa that Julia lent
to me at Ravenna! The pleasures of the table must have obscured for a
moment the image of my beautiful pupil of other days, which now revives
before me again as Love resumes the dominion that Bacchus usurped! My
excellent Carrio,' he continued, speaking to the freedman, 'you have
done perfectly right in awakening me; delay not a moment more in
ordering my bath to be prepared, or my man-monster Ulpius, the king of
conspirators and high priest of all that is mysterious, will wait for me
in vain! And you, Glyco,' he pursued, when Carrio had departed,
addressing the singing-boy, 'array yourself for a journey, and wait with
my equipage at the garden-gate.
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