retia; then I almost fancied I could see
the spot where stood the butcher's shop, from whence Virginius snatched the
knife to immolate his daughter at the shrine of Honor; next the shade of
Regulus flitted before my imagination, refusing to be exchanged; then I
figured to myself Cicero thundering against Catiline; or the same with
delicate irony ridiculing the ultra-rigor of the Stoics, so as to force
even the gravity of Cato to relax into a smile; then the grand, the heroic
act of Marcus Brutus in immolating the great Caesar at the altar of
liberty. All these recollections and ideas crowded on my imagination
without regard to order or chronology, and I remained for some time in a
state of the most profound reverie, from which I was only roused by my
friend the Jew reminding me that we had a quantity of other things to see.

The first object that engaged my attention on being roused from my reverie,
was the Arch of Severus at the foot of the Capitol which towers above it.
Excavations have been made around this Arch (for otherwise only half of it
could be seen) and a stone wall built around the excavated ground in the
same manner as at the Arch of Constantine. Round several of the columns of
the temples I have above enumerated, excavations have been also made;
otherwise the lower half of them would remain buried in the earth and give
to the monuments the appearance of a city which had been half swallowed up
by an earthquake. By dint of digging round the column of Phocas, the
ancient paved road which led to the Capitol has been discovered and is now
open to view. This ancient road is at least thirty feet below the surface
of the present road and the ground about it. This shows how the ground must
have been filled up by the destruction of buildings at the different
sackings of Rome and the consequent accumulation of rubbish. The French
when they were here began these excavations and the Duchess of Devonshire
continues them.[86] It is useful in every way; it employs a number of poor
people and may be the means of discovering some valuable remains of
antiquity and objects of art. At any rate it is highly gratifying to have
discovered the identical road to the Capitol on which so many Consuls,
Dictators and Emperors moved in triumph, and so many captive Kings wept in
chains.

We then ascended the steps that lead to the modern Capitol and mounted on
the _Campanile_ of the same, from whence there is a superb panoramic view
of R