Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (ebook reader macos TXT) 📕

scattered through the city. Not far from the camp Cæsar’s horse sprang

aside suddenly at sight of a corpse. The mantle slipped from his head;

a soldier recognized Nero, and, confused by the unexpected meeting, gave

the military salute. While passing the pretorian camp, they heard

thundering shouts in honor of Galba. Nero understood at last that the

hour of death was near. Terror and reproaches of conscience seized him.

He declared that he saw darkness in front of him in the form of a black

cloud. From that cloud came forth faces in which he saw his mother, his

wife, and his brother. His teeth were chattering from fright; still his

soul of a comedian found a kind of charm in the horror of the moment.

To be absolute lord of the earth and lose all things, seemed to him the

height of tragedy; and faithful to himself, he played the first role to

the end. A fever for quotations took possession of him, and a

passionate wish that those present should preserve them for posterity.

At moments he said that he wished to die, and called for Spiculus, the

most skilled of all gladiators in killing. At moments he declaimed,

“Mother, wife, father, call me to death!” Flashes of hope rose in him,

however, from time to time,—hope vain and childish. He knew that he

was going to death, and still he did not believe it.

They found the Nomentan Gate open. Going farther, they passed near

Ostrianum, where Peter had taught and baptized. At daybreak they

reached Phaon’s villa.

There the freedmen hid from him no longer the fact that it was time to

die. He gave command then to dig a grave, and lay on the ground so that

they might take accurate measurement. At sight of the earth thrown up,

however, terror seized him. His fat face became pale, and on his

forehead sweat stood like drops of dew in the morning. He delayed. In

a voice at once abject and theatrical, he declared that the hour had not

come yet; then he began again to quote. At last he begged them to burn

his body. “What an artist is perishing!” repeated he, as if in

amazement.

Meanwhile Phaon’s messenger arrived with the announcement that the

Senate had issued the sentence that the “parricide” was to be punished

according to ancient custom.

“What is the ancient custom?” asked Nero, with whitened lips.

“They will fix thy neck in a fork, flog thee to death, and hurl thy body

into the Tiber,” answered Epaphroditus, abruptly.

Nero drew aside the robe from his breast.

“It is time, then!” said he, looking into the sky. And he repeated once

more, “What an artist is perishing!”

At that moment the tramp of a horse was heard. That was the centurion

coming with soldiers for the head of Ahenobarbus.

“Hurry!” cried the freedmen.

Nero placed the knife to his neck, but pushed it only timidly. It was

clear that he would never have courage to thrust it in. Epaphroditus

pushed his hand suddenly,—the knife sank to the handle. Nero’s eyes

turned in his head, terrible, immense, frightened.

“I bring thee life!” cried the centurion, entering.

“Too late!” said Nero, with a hoarse voice; then he added,—

“Here is faithfulness!”

In a twinkle death seized his head. Blood from his heavy neck gushed in

a dark stream on the flowers of the garden. His legs kicked the ground,

and he died.

On the morrow the faithful Acte wrapped his body in costly stuffs, and

burned him on a pile filled with perfumes.

And so Nero passed, as a whirlwind, as a storm, as a fire, as war or

death passes; but the basilica of Peter rules till now, from the Vatican

heights, the city, and the world.

Near the ancient Porta Capena stands to this day a little chapel with

the inscription, somewhat worn: Quo Vadis, Domine?

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, QUO VADIS ***

This file should be named quvds11.txt or quvds11.zip

Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, quvds12.txt

VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, quvds11a.txt

This eBook was produced by David Reed

Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed

editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US

unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not

keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.

We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance

of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.

Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,

even years after the official publication date.

Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til

midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.

The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at

Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A

preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment

and editing by those who wish to do so.

Most people start at our Web sites at:

http://gutenberg.net or

http://promo.net/pg

These Web sites include award-winning information about Project

Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new

eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).

Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement

can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is

also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the

indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an

announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.

http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or

ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03

Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90

Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,

as it appears in our Newsletters.

Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)

We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The

time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours

to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright

searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our

projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value

per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2

million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text

files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+

We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002

If they reach just 1-2% of the world’s population then the total

will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year’s end.

The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!

This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,

which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.

Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):

eBooks Year Month

1 1971 July

10 1991 January

100 1994 January

1000 1997 August

1500 1998 October

2000 1999 December

2500 2000 December

3000 2001 November

4000 2001 October/November

6000 2002 December*

9000 2003 November*

10000 2004 January*

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created

to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.

We need your donations more than ever!

As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people

and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,

Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,

Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,

Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New

Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,

Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South

Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West

Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones

that have responded.

As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list

will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.

Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.

In answer to various questions we have received on this:

We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally

request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and

you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,

just ask.

While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are

not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting

donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to

donate.

International donations are accepted, but we don’t know ANYTHING about

how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made

deductible, and don’t have the staff to handle it even if there are

ways.

Donations by check or money order may be sent to:

Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation

PMB 113

1739 University Ave.

Oxford, MS 38655-4109

Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment

method other than by check or money order.

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by

the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN

[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are

tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising

requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be

made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.

We need your donations more than ever!

You can get up to date donation information online at:

http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html

***

If you can’t reach Project Gutenberg,

you can always email directly to:

Michael S. Hart <[email protected]>

Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.

We would prefer to send you information by email.

**The Legal Small Print**

(Three Pages)

***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***

Why is this “Small Print!” statement here? You know: lawyers.

They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with

your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from

someone other than us, and even if what’s wrong is not our

fault. So, among other things, this “Small Print!” statement

disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how

you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.

BEFORE! YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK

By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm

eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept

this “Small Print!” statement. If you do not, you can receive

a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by

sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person

you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical

medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.

ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS

This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,

is a “public domain” work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart

through the Project Gutenberg Association (the “Project”).

Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright

on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and

distribute it in the United States without permission and

without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth

below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook

under the “PROJECT GUTENBERG” trademark.

Please do not use the “PROJECT GUTENBERG” trademark to market

any commercial products without permission.

To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable

efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain

works. Despite these efforts, the Project’s