through Livadia on our road to Attica. Perdita would not enter Athens; but

reposing at Marathon on the night of our arrival, conducted me on the

following day, to the spot selected by her as the treasure house of

Raymond's dear remains. It was in a recess near the head of the ravine to

the south of Hymettus. The chasm, deep, black, and hoary, swept from the

summit to the base; in the fissures of the rock myrtle underwood grew and

wild thyme, the food of many nations of bees; enormous crags protruded into

the cleft, some beetling over, others rising perpendicularly from it. At

the foot of this sublime chasm, a fertile laughing valley reached from sea

to sea, and beyond was spread the blue Aegean, sprinkled with islands, the

light waves glancing beneath the sun. Close to the spot on which we stood,

was a solitary rock, high and conical, which, divided on every side from

the mountain, seemed a nature-hewn pyramid; with little labour this block

was reduced to a perfect shape; the narrow cell was scooped out beneath in

which Raymond was placed, and a short inscription, carved in the living

stone, recorded the name of its tenant, the cause and aera of his death.

Every thing was accomplished with speed under my directions. I agreed to

leave the finishing and guardianship of the tomb to the head of the

religious establishment at Athens, and by the end of October prepared for

my return to England. I mentioned this to Perdita. It was painful to appear

to drag her from the last scene that spoke of her lost one; but to linger

here was vain, and my very soul was sick with its yearning to rejoin my

Idris and her babes. In reply, my sister requested me to accompany her the

following evening to the tomb of Raymond. Some days had passed since I had

visited the spot. The path to it had been enlarged, and steps hewn in the

273

The Last Man