[26] See Il. vi. 289.
.... "Mantles of all hues, accomplish'd works
Of fair Sidonians wafted o'er the deep."
[27] See Book I.
[BOOK VI.]
Calasiris and Cnemon betook themselves to their apartments on the men's side of the house, and composed themselves to rest. The night was quickly past, great part of it having been consumed in the preceding feast, and subsequent narration; but it passed too slowly for their impatience; and almost before day they were up, and presented themselves to Nausicles, urging him to inform them where he thought Theagenes was, and to lead them to him as soon as possible. He was not slow in complying with their request, and they set out under his direction. Chariclea was very earnest to accompany them, but they pressed, and at last obliged, her to remain where she was; Nausicles assuring her that they were not going far, and that they would soon return, and bring Theagenes with them. Here then they left her, struggling between sorrow for their departure, and joy for the promised hope of seeing her lover.
They had scarcely got out of the village, and were proceeding along the banks of the Nile, when they saw a crocodile creeping from the right side of the river to the left, and making his way swiftly down the stream. The rest of the party being used to the sight, regarded it with indifference, although Calasiris secretly thought that it portended some impediment in their expedition. But Cnemon was very much frightened at its appearance, though he could hardly be said to have seen the animal itself, but had rather had a glimpse of the shadow: he was so terrified as almost to run away. Nausicles burst into a laugh. "Cnemon," said Calasiris, "I thought you were apt to be terrified only in the darkness and obscurity of the night; but I see your courage shows itself even in the day-time. It is not only names that affright you,[1] but the commonest and most every-day appearance puts you quite into a trepidation."—"Prithee tell me what god, or what demon is it," said Nausicles, "whose name this valiant Grecian cannot bear?"
"If it were the name of a deity," replied the old man, "there might be something in it; but it is the appellation of a mortal, and that not of a celebrated hero, nor even of a man; but of a weak woman, and, as he says, of a dead one too, at the mention of which he is disordered and trembles. That night in which you returned from the buccaneers, bringing with you my dearest Chariclea, this said name was, somehow or other, mentioned in his hearing: it put him into such an agitation, that he had no sleep all night, nor suffered me to enjoy any; he was half dead with fear, and I had the greatest difficulty in the world to bring him to himself; and were I not afraid of terrifying, or giving him pain, I would now mention the name, that you might laugh the more:"—and immediately he uttered the word Thisbe. But Nausicles did not laugh, as he expected; he became grave and pensive, doubting and pondering why and by reason of what intimacy Cnemon felt so much at the mention of Thisbe.
Cnemon upon this burst out into an immoderate fit of laughter in his turn. "See," said he, "my dear Calasiris, the mighty magic of this name; it is not only a bugbear which disturbs, as you say, all my faculties, but it has the same effect upon Nausicles; with this difference, however, that the certainty of her death inclines me to laughter, when the same news seems to make him sorrowful, who was before so disposed to be merry at the expense of others."—"Spare me," said Nausicles; "you have sufficiently revenged yourself: but I conjure you by the gods of hospitality and friendship—by the kind and sincere reception which you have met with at my house and table—that you will tell me how you became so well acquainted with the name of Thisbe—whether you really have known her, or only pretend to have done so, out of sport, and to vex me?"—"It is now your turn, Cnemon," said Calasiris, "to turn narrator. You have frequently promised to make me acquainted with your condition and adventures, and as often, on some pretext or other, have put it off: you cannot have a better opportunity of doing so than the present: you will oblige both Nausicles and me; and lighten, by your story, the fatigues of our journey."
Cnemon suffered himself to be persuaded, and entered upon his history, relating briefly, what he had before told more at length to Theagenes and Chariclea—That he was an Athenian—that his father was Aristippus, and his stepmother Demæneta—her execrable love, and the snares she laid for him on its disappointment, by the ministry of Thisbe—the particulars of these—his flight from his country, and condemnation as a patricide—his exile at Ægina—his hearing from Charias of the death of Demæneta, betrayed by her own wicked assistant Thisbe—what Anticles related to him of the distress his father fell into; the family of Demæneta combining against him, and persuading the people that he had murdered her—the flight of Thisbe from Athens, with a Naucratian merchant, who was in love with her—his sailing with Anticles to Egypt, in search of Thisbe; in order, if he could find her, to bring her back to Athens, to clear his father, and punish her—the various difficulties and dangers he went through, both by sea and pirates—how, having escaped these, and arrived in Egypt, he was again taken by the pirates—his meeting and connection with Theagenes and Chariclea—the death of Thisbe—and every thing in order, till he came to his meeting with Calasiris and Nausicles, and to those facts and events with which they were acquainted.