"Sometimes they wander till they meet some friends, sometimes they are
never heard of again. But at present, most of us know the place so well
that if we lose our way we soon wander into familiar paths again."

One thing particularly struck the young soldier, and that was the
immense preponderance of small tombs. Pollio told him that they were the
graves of children, and thus opened to him thoughts and emotions unfelt
before.

"Children!" thought he, "what do they here, the young, the pure, the
innocent? Why were they not buried above, where the sun might shine
kindly and the flowers bloom sweetly over their graves? Did they tread
such dark paths as these on their way through life? Did they bear their
part in the sufferings of those that lingered here flying from
persecution? Did the noxious air and the never-ending gloom of these
drear abodes shorten their fair young lives, and send their stainless
spirits out of life before their time?"

"We have been a long time on the way," said Marcellus, "will we soon be
there?"

"Very soon," said the boy. Whatever ideas Marcellus might have had about
hunting out these fugitives before he entered here, he now saw that all
attempts to do so must be in vain. An army of men might enter here and
never come in sight of the Christians. The further they went, the more
hopeless would be their journey. They could be scattered through the
innumerable passages and wander about till they died.

But now a low sound arose from afar which arrested his attention. Sweet
beyond all description, low and musical, it came down the long passages
and broke upon his charmed senses like a voice from the skies.

As they went on, a light beamed before them which cast forth its rays
into the darkness. The sounds grew louder, now swelling into a
magnificent chorus, now dying away into a tender wail of supplication.

In a few minutes they reached a turn in the path, and then a scene burst
upon their sight.

"Stop," said Pollio, arresting his companion and extinguishing the
torch. Marcellus obeyed, and looked earnestly at the spectacle before
him. It was a vaulted chamber about fifteen feet in height and thirty
feet square. In this place there were crowded about a hundred people,
men, women, and children. At one side there was a table, behind which
stood a venerable man who appeared to be the leader among them. The
walls of the room seemed to have been rudely decorated with coarse
pictures. The place