have been crushed and buried in the heap. I might boast that, during all this scene of horror, not a sigh or expression of fear escaped from me, had not my support been founded in that miserable, though strong, consolation— that all mankind were involved in the same calamity, and that I imagined I was perishing with the world itself! At last this dreadful darkness was dissipated by degrees, like a cloud of smoke; the real day returned, and even the sun appeared, though very faintly, and as when an eclipse is coming on. Every object that presented itself to our eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed changed, being covered over with white ashes, as with a deep snow. We returned to Misenum, where we refreshed ourselves as well as we could, and passed an anxious night between hope and fear; though indeed with a much larger share of the latter; for the earthquake still continued, while several enthusiastic people ran up and down, heightening their own and their friends' calamities by terrible predictions. However, my mother and I, notwithstanding the danger we had passed, and that which still threatened us, had no thoughts of leaving the place till we should receive some account from my uncle."

It is not improbable that among the enthusiastic alarmists alluded to by Pliny, he specially referred to the early Christians. Bulwer has availed himself of the peculiar historical incidents of the first Christian era, to add additional interest to some of the scenes in his "Last Days of Pompeii." While the internal fires are preparing to overwhelm the guilty city, luxury, gross sensuality, and fraudulent scepticism are pictured as openly indulged in. Gambling and its attendant knavery are carried to their utmost excess, and pleasure alone is aimed at by the sensuous Pompeians. Much of this has been amply confirmed by the singular discoveries brought to light of late years in excavating among its ruins. The fine embossed wares used at the tables of the luxurious citizens are seen figured

with the most indecent and offensive representations that gross sensuality could dictate, and among the relics of the gambler's pastimes cogged dice have been found, the implements by which the old Roman gambler cheated his dupe. It may not therefore have been without good reason, if the primitive Christians of Pompeii looked upon the cities of the Campania as, like the elder cities of the plain, justly" doomed to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire." Bulwer, however, characteristically, and with equal justice, represents them as viewing in it the approaching end of all things. Dion Cassius, who flourished about a century and a half after Pliny, affirms that "Herculaneum and Pompeii were buried under showers of ashes while all the people were sitting in the theatre." Though the result of recent explorations disproves such an idea, if literally received, it is very possible that the pleasure-loving Pompeians may have been disturbed amid their games, by the sudden eruption so graphically described by Pliny, and Bulwer has accordingly represented them assembled in the amphitheatre, where a noble Greek is abandoned to the fangs of a lion, and a Christian is about to be cast into the arena to combat with a tiger, when the awful catastrophe arrests alike the callous onlookers and the victims, and palzies even the lion's rage. We may be pardoned extracting here the supposed glimpse of the Christians of Pompeii caught thereafter amid the terrible scenes which swept over the doomed city. "While thus protected, a group of men and women, bearing torches, passed by the temple. They were of the congregation of the Nazarenes; and a sublime and unearthly emotion had, not indeed quelled their awe, but it had robbed awe of fear. They had long believed, according to the error of the early Christians, that the last day was at hand; they imagined now that the day had come.

"Wo! wo!' cried, in a shrill and piercing voice, the elder at their head. 'Behold! the Lord descendeth to

judgment! He maketh fire come down from heaven in the sight of men! Wo! wo! ye strong and mighty! Wo to ye of the fasces and the purple! Wo to the idolater and the worshipper of the beast! Wo to ye who pour forth the blood of saints, and gloat over the death-pangs of the sons of God! Wo to the harlot of the sea!-wo! wo!'

"And with a loud and deep chorus, the troop chanted forth along the wild horrors of the air :-'Wo to the harlot of the sea!-wo! wo!'

"The Nazarenes paced slowly on, their torches still flickering in the storm, their voices still raised in menace and solemn warning, till, lost amid the windings in the streets, the darkness of the atmosphere, and the silence of death, again fell over the scene."

But we need not turn to the picturings of a lively fancy for the full rendering of the terrible scenes witnessed in the overthrow of the cities of the Campania. The discoveries of recent times have revealed minuter incidents than the most graphic chronicler could pen, exhibiting the inner life of that heathen city, in the first century of the Christian era, and showing, in many cases, the transitory and passing incidents of its last hour, arrested and sealed for the instruction of later centuries. Pompeii, as we have said, was not completely buried by a single eruption. Eight successive lairs have been traced above its ruins, the evidences of repeated outbreaks of the same destructive elements which involved it in ruin. The lowest of these has alone been disturbed previous to the modern excavations on its site. When the volcano had expended its fury, the inhabitants must have returned to secure their most costly property, and hence it is that comparatively few articles of great intrinsic worth have yet been brought to light by modern research. Treasure and other portable articles of value were doubtless, in many cases, carried off by those who effected their escape from the devoted city

during the continuance of the volcanic eruption. Sir William Gell mentions that a skeleton of a Pompeian was found in the street extending from the Temple of Fortune to the Forum, "who apparently for the sake of sixty coins, a small plate, and a saucepan of silver, had remain ed in his house till the street was already half-filled with volcanic matter." The position of the skeleton indicated that he had perished apparently in the act of escaping from his window. Other incidents of like character are no less striking. The skeletons of the Roman sentries were found, in more than one instance, at their posts, furnishing a remarkable proof of the stern military discipline of imperial Rome. The Roman soldier stationed at his post, stood faithful to it even amid such awful convulsions of nature, and perished there, because he had not received permission to desert from his appointed station.

In the interesting volumes of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, a very concise and valuable abstract of the numerous narratives of explorations on the site of Pompeii is given. One or two extracts from this will suffice to illustrate the varied character of the relics which modern investigations have brought to light. The following brief account will suffice to illustrate both what were abandoned, and what were afterwards recovered by those who escaped from Pompeii :—

"Between the Forum and the Baths is a small Corinthian temple, dedicated to Fortune by a private person, one M. Tullius. It has been cased with marble both within and without, and is accessible by a flight of steps, broken in the middle by a podium or low wall. The lower flight consists of three, the upper of eight, steps. There is an altar placed upon the podium, which was protected from wanton intrusion by an iron railing running along the side-margins and in front of the steps. Holes for the reception of the uprights still remain, together with

pieces of iron. The portico has four columns in front, and two at the sides, and the external walls of the cella are decorated with pilasters. At the end of the building is a semicircular niche, containing a small temple of the Corinthian order, richly finished and designed, under which the statue of the goddess was placed.

"This Marcus Tullius, who appears, from an inscription on the architrave, to have erected this temple, has been supposed to be a descendant of the great Cicero. But the belief seems to rest entirely on the circumstance of a statue, the size of life, bearing some resemblance to the busts of that distinguished orator, having been found in the interior of the building. He is represented clothed in the toga prætexta, the robe of office of the Roman magistrates; and, which adds value and singularity to the statue, this robe is entirely painted with a deep purple violet colour. This seems to give reason for believing that the prætexta, instead of being a garment with only a purple hem, as it is usually explained, was entirely dyed with this precious colour; at least in the later times of the republic, in which the influx of wealth had introduced an extravagant scale of expenditure. The price of this purple was enormous; the violet, though the less costly sort, is said by Pliny to have been worth one hundred denarii (about £3, 4s. 7d.) the pound; the red is valued by the same authority at one thousand denarii. It was obtained from the murex, a shell-fish found in various parts of the Mediterranean. The species which produced the violet dye was found in considerable quantity near Tarentum; the red was chiefly brought from the neighbourhood of Tyre, whence the common name of Tyrian purple. Cochineal has now entirely superseded these dyes, but we may still perhaps trace the estimation anciently set upon them in the colours appropriated to the Romish hierarchy, in which the prelates are dressed in violet, and the cardinals in scarlet.