The old man still lived--his weary eyes opened gladly on her, when she
aroused him to partake of the treasured gifts from the senator's
banqueting table. The wretched food which the suicide-guests had
disdained, and the simple flask of wine which they would have carelessly
quaffed at one draught, were viewed both by parent and child as the
saving and invigorating sustenance of many days. After having consumed
as much as they dared of their precarious supply, the remainder was
carefully husbanded. It was the last sign and promise of life to which
they looked--the humble yet precious store in which alone they beheld
the earnest of their security, for a few days longer, from the pangs of
famine and the separation of death.
And now, with their small provision of food and wine set like a beacon
of safety before their sight, a deep, dream-like serenity--the sleep of
the oppressed and wearied faculties--arose over their minds. Under its
mysterious and tranquilising influence, all impressions of the gloom and
misery in the city, of the fatal evidences around them of the duration
of the siege, faded away before their perceptions as dim retiring
objects, which the eye loses in vacancy.
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