escent and just at the entrance of the cave where the
Sybil held her oracles, we discovered four fierce looking fellows with
lighted torches in their hands standing at the entrance. My friend cried
out _Voila les Furies_, and these proved to be our boatmen who, while we
were contemplating the _bolge d'Averno_, had run on before to provide
torches to shew us the interior of the grotto of the Sybil. As this grotto
is nearly knee-deep filled with water we got on the backs of the boatmen to
enter it. It is about twenty-five feet long, fifteen broad and the height
about thirteen feet. As we were neither devoured by Cerberus nor hustled by
old Charon into his boat, we returned from the _Shades below_ to the light
of heaven, triumphant like Ulysses or Aeneas, considering ourselves now
among the _Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter_.[99]

Acheron, the dreadful Acheron, is not far from Avernus and is likewise a
lake, tho' call'd a river in the mythology. It is also sulfuric and the
ground about it is woody, low, marshy and consequently aguish.

We next ascended the cliffs of Baiae and we were shown the remains of the
villas of Cicero, Caesar, Sylla and other great names. We then went to the
baths of Nero (so called). Here it is the fashion to descend under ground
in order to feel the effect of the sulfuric heat, which is intense, and my
friend who descended soon returned dripping with perspiration and calling
out: _Qui n'a pas vu cela n'a rien vu!_ but I did not chuse to descend, as
I could feel no pleasure in being half stifled and the _grotto del Cane_
had already given me a full idea of the force of the vapour of the
_Thermes_.

We then descended from the cliffs of Baiae on the other side, and visited
the remains of three celebrated temples of antiquity situated on the beach
nearly and very close to each other, viz., the temples of Diana, of Venus
and of Mercury; all striking objects and majestic, tho' in a state of
dilapidation. Each of these temples has cupolas. We then ascended the slope
of ground leading towards cape Misensus, to visit the _Cento Camarelle_ and
_Piscina mirabile_, both vast edifices under ground, serving as cellars or
appendages to a Palace that stood on this spot. We then visited the lake
called the _Mare Morto_ or Styx; and then went round to the other side of
it, to visit those beautiful _coteaux_ planted in vines and their summits
crowned with groves which have obtained the name of the Elysian fields.
T