y last
struggle and final agony brought before us. They tell their story with
a horrible dramatic truth that no sculptor could ever reach. They
would have furnished a thrilling episode to the accomplished author of
the 'Last Days of Pompeii.'

"These four persons had perished in a street. They had remained within
the shelter of their homes until the thick black mud began to creep
through every cranny and chink. Driven from their retreat they began
to flee when it was too late. The streets were already buried deep in
the loose pumice stones which had been falling for many hours in
unremitting showers, and which reached almost to the windows of the
first floor. These victims of the eruption were not found together,
and they do not appear to have belonged to the same family or
household. The most interesting of the casts is that of two women,
probably mother and daughter, lying feet to feet. They appear from
their garb to have been people of poor condition. The elder seems to
lie tranquilly on her side. Overcome by the noxious gases, she
probably fell and died without a struggle. Her limbs are extended, and
her left arm drops loosely. On one finger is still seen her coarse
iron ring. Her child was a girl of fifteen; she seems, poor thing, to
have struggled hard for life. Her legs are drawn up convulsively; her
little hands are clenched in agony. In one she holds her veil, or a
part of her dress, with which she had covered her head, burying her
face in her arm, to shield herself from the falling ashes and from the
foul sulphurous smoke. The form of her head is perfectly preserved.
The texture of her coarse linen garments may be traced, and even the
fashion of her dress, with its long sleeves reaching to her wrists;
here and there it is torn, and the smooth young skin appears in the
plaster like polished marble. On her tiny feet may still be seen her
embroidered sandals.

[Illustration: DISCOVERED BODY AT POMPEII.]

"At some distance from this group lay a third woman. She appears to
have been about twenty-five years of age, and to have belonged to a
better class than the other two. On one of her fingers were two silver
rings, and her garments were of a finer texture. Her linen head-dress,
falling over her shoulders like that of a matron in a Roman statue,
can still be distinguished. She had fallen on her side, overcome by
the heat and gases, but a terrible struggle seems to have preceded her
last agony. One arm is ra