"Sire," said the youth, all the nobler feelings of his nature deeply
moved, "I wish above all things to sit at your feet and to learn the
lessons of wisdom which you are so well able to impart But are these
seemly surroundings for a man of your years and condition?--this rocky
vault, this utter loneliness, and these crumbling relics of mortality?"
and he shuddered as he glanced at the shattered sepulchral slabs, which
revealed the remains of what was once man in his strength, woman in her
beauty, or a sweet child in its innocence and glee.

"Why not, my son? soon I must lie down with them and be at rest. The
thought has no terrors to my soul I know no loneliness, and through the
care of kind friends my wants are all supplied. But your young blood and
sensitive imagination, I perceive, shrink from these things to which, by
long use, I have become accustomed. Let us go into the adjoining
chamber, which you will find more cheerful, and, I trust, not less
instructive."

[Illustration]

[Illustration: EARLY CHRISTIAN SCULPTURE--SARCOPHAGUS OF JUNIUS BASSUS,
ROME.]

[Illustration: CEILING PAINTING FROM CATACOMB OF ST. CALIXTUS, ROME.]

FOOTNOTES:

[21] Just such a peasant's house the writer visited on the Appian Way,
near this spot, and just such a repast he shared at the entrance of this
very catacomb. "The wine," said the guide, "is necessary to guard
against a chill." The contrast between the temperature above ground and
below was about 30 degrees.

[22] This sarcophagus, with many others resembling it the writer studied
minutely in the Lateran Museum at Rome.

[23] The writer has some of these earthen lamps which once did service
in the Catacombs. They bear Christian symbols, inscribed before
baking--a dove, anchor, olive branch, fish, and the like.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VIII.

WITH PRIMITIUS, THE PRESBYTER.

The venerable presbyter laid his hand familiarly on the young man's
shoulder and conducted him into a smaller, but much more elegantly
finished, apartment. It contained no graves, save an arched tomb which
had never been used; at one side was a shelf for lamps. The whole
surface of the wall was covered with hard white stucco, which was
divided into panels by bands and borders of brilliant red and blue, as
shown in the cut on next page. The vaulted ceiling was similarly
divided. The angles were filled in with elegant floral designs, and the
panels with Biblical and symbolical paintings, whi