THE ARGUMENT.
An Italian Sunset. Evening in the Apennines. Hymn of the Vestal.
Introduction of Pansa, a Roman Decurion converted to Christianity,
and Mariamne, a captive Jewess, also a convert. Forebodings
of the destruction. A picture of Pompeii and of Jerusalem
in ruins. The Forum of Pompeii; the manners and morals of
Campania pourtrayed. Diomede, the prætor. The night storm.
Vesuvius threatening. Dialogue of Pansa and Mariamne. The
midnight Prayer. The comet rushing amidst the shattered clouds
of the tempest. Mariamne relates her interview with St Paul,
and Pansa describes the martyrdom of the great Apostle, which he
is supposed to have witnessed. Pansa and Mariamne seized in the
cavern of Vesuvius by the emissaries of the prætor, and dragged separately
away to suffer the vengeance which pagan hatred inflicted
on Christian fortitude and fidelity.
