O God, God!--she may die!--her body may be cast away like the rest, and
I may live to see it!'
He rose suddenly from the couch; his reason seemed for a moment to be
shaken as he tottered to the window, crying, 'Food! food!--I will give
my house and all it contains for a morsel of food. I have nothing to
support my own child--she will starve before me by tomorrow if I have no
food! I am a citizen of Rome--I demand help from the Senate! Food!
food!'
In tones declining lower and lower he continued to cry thus from the
window, but no voice answered him either in sympathy or derision. Of
all the people--now increased in numbers--collected in the street before
Vetranio's palace, no one turned even to look on him. For days and days
past, such fruitless appeals as his had been heard, and heard
unconcernedly, at every hour and in every street of Rome--now ringing
through the heavy air in the shrieks of delirium; now faintly audible in
the last faltering murmurs of exhaustion and despair.
Thus vainly entreating help and pity from a populace who had ceased to
give the one or to feel the other, Numerian might long have remained;
but now his daughter approached his side, and drawing him gently towards
his couch, said in tender and solemn accents: 'Remember, father, that
God sent the ravens to feed Elijah, and replenished the widow's cruse!
He will not desert us, for He has restored us to each other, and has
sent me hither not to perish in the famine, but to watch over you!'
'God has deserted the city and all that it contains!' he answered
distractedly.
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