, Rollo and Mr. George
walked around the room, and looked at the other pieces of sculpture that
there were there. They afterwards came back again to the gladiator, in
order to take one more view of it before they went away. Mr. George
advised Rollo to look at it well, and impress the image of it strongly
on his mind.

"It is one of the treasures of the world," said he; "and in the course
of your life, though you may never see it here, in the original, again,
you will meet with casts of it and drawings of it without number, and
you will find descriptions of it and allusions to it continually
recurring in the conversation that you hear and the books that you read.
Indeed, the image of the Dying Gladiator forms a part of the mental
furnishing of every highly-cultivated intellect in the civilized
world."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE TARPEIAN ROCK.

One morning while Mr. George and Rollo were taking breakfast together in
the dining room of the hotel, Mr. George remarked that he had received
some news that morning.

"Is it good news, or bad news?" asked Rollo.

"It is good for me," replied Mr. George, "but I rather think you will
consider it bad for you."

"Tell me what it is," said Rollo, "and then I will tell you how I
consider it."

So Mr. George informed Rollo that the news which he had received was,
that there had been an arrival from America, and that the last night's
post had brought the papers to town.

"And so," said Mr. George, "I am going to spend the morning at
Piale's[6] library, reading the papers, and you will be left to
entertain yourself."

[Footnote 6: Pronounced _Pe-ah-ly's_.]

"O, that's no matter," said Rollo. "I can get Charles Beekman to go
with me. We can take care of ourselves very well."

"What will you do?" asked Mr. George.

"I want to go and see the Tarpeian Rock," said Rollo. "I read about that
rock, and about Tarpeia, in a history in America, and I want to see how
the rock looks."

"Do you know where it is?" asked Mr. George.

"No," said Rollo; "but I can find out."

"Very well," said Mr. George; "then I leave you to take care of
yourself. You can get Charles to go, if his mother will trust him with
you."

"She will, I am sure," said Rollo.

"Why, you got lost when you took him the other day," said Mr. George,
"and you had ever so much difficulty in finding your way home again."

"O, no, uncle George," said Rollo, "we did not have any difficulty at
all. We only had a l