ng, or rather having the
well-grounded confidence that they would find the country only weakly
defended, and would be able to establish themselves as masters over the
defenceless Romans who still remained.

In such fancies, not without the silent wish that I might myself glean
some small memorial of Roman times from this land so rich in
remembrances, I penetrated one evening deeper into the brushwood on the
right of the Roman road, following upwards the course of a small
stream, through a hollow often strewn with broken stones and potsherds,
which moss and ivy had thickly overgrown, and which cracked not seldom,
under my footsteps. I picked up many tiles and bits of pottery. Were
they Roman? No certain evidence could be gathered from _these_.

I determined to-day to follow the rivulet till I should reach its
source, which I imagined to be under the gentle slope of a moderately
high hill; for I knew that the Romans liked to build their quiet villas
as well as their military stations by running water.

It was very hot on that summer day, I was tired in body and mind, and
it was only slowly, and with difficulty, that I could ascend the course
of the brook, forcing my way through the thick and often nearly
impassable bushes by the help of my alpenstock, which I carried with,
me, as I often climbed the mountains in my wanderings.

I could willingly have stretched myself drowsily on the soft inviting
moss; but I resisted the inclination, and determined to press through
and up to the goal I had set myself: the source of the stream.

In half an hour the slope was reached; the height is called by the
people, "the Pagan mound." Along the latter part of the way I had
noticed a striking increase in the number and size of the fragments of
stone; among them also were red and gray marble, like that which had
been quarried in the neighbourhood for unnumbered centuries; and it
was, as I had imagined, close under the crown of the hill the stream
trickled out of the ground.

It appeared to have been once surrounded by masonry; this was in part
still perceptible, carefully polished clear gray marble enclosed it
here and there in a handsome setting, and round about lay scattered
numerous tiles. My heart beat quickly, not only in consequence of the
arduous climb, but also, I confess it, in hopeful expectation, I was
yet very young. Suppose if to-day and here, Mercury, the Roman, or
Wotan, the German god of wishes and discovery, should