ee again the sepulchre of
the best wife God ever gave to any man." After walking in silence some
minutes, he entered a sort of family vault, and lit a bronze lamp,
shaped like a ship, hanging from the vaulted ceiling, while Isidorus
studied out the following inscription, not altogether free from errors
in spelling and grammar:--

CONIVGE VENEVANDE BONE INNOCVA FLORENTIA
DIGNA PIA AMABILIS PVDICA _(sic)_ DEO FIDELIS
DVLCIS MARITO NVTRIX FAMILIAE HVMILIS
CVNCTIS AMATRIX PAVPERVM. BIXIT MECVM
ANN. XXXII. MENS. IX. DIES V. HOR. X.
SCRVPVLOS XIL SEMPER CONCORDES SINE VLLA
QVERELA. BIXIT PLVS MINVS ANN. LII. MENS.
V. INCOMPARABILEM CONIVGEM MALE FRACTVS
CONIVX GEMITV TRISTI LACRI MIS DEFLET.

"To my wife Florentia, deserving of honour, good, guileless, worthy,
pious, amiable, modest, faithful to God, endeared to her husband, the
nurse of her family, humble to all, a lover of the poor. She lived with
me (_i.e._, was married) thirty-two years, nine months, five days, ten
hours, six scruples (about a quarter of an hour--they were very
scrupulous about this). She lived (altogether) fifty-two years, five
months, more or less. The sore-broken husband bewails, with tears and
bitter lamentation, his incomparable spouse."

"Yes, I made it all up, and carved it all myself," said the old man, as
Isidorus finished reading the long inscription; "and if I say it myself,
I don't think there is a better in the whole Catacomb; you see, I
selected the best bits from all the best epitaphs, and she deserved it
every word, dear soul," and he drew his rough hand across his moistened
eyes.

The easy-tempered Greek was too good-natured to inflict wanton pain, so
he ignored its bad Latinity, and contented himself with saying that "it
was indeed a very remarkable epitaph."

In a few minutes they emerged from the gloom of the Catacomb to the
golden glory which was flooding the broad Campagna from the westering
sun. "Would," thought Isidorus within himself, "that I could thus emerge
from the gloomy doubts and fears in which my spirit gropes, to the
golden light of Christian life."

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[24] The following, except the last one, are all authentic inscriptions
from the Catacombs, selected from many hundreds, translated by the
writer in his volume on this subject.

CHAPTER IX.

A DIFFICULT QUEST.

The Empress Valeria had not forgotten her purpose to discover, if
possible, the father of her freed-woman, Calli