just where it had
been placed a piece of the potsherd is broken away.

Then followed twelve Latin signatures, jotted about here and there,
wherever there was a space upon the tile suitable to their inscription.
These signatures, with three exceptions only, ended with the name
"Vindex" or "the Avenger," which seems to have been adopted by the
family after its migration to Rome as a kind of equivalent to the Greek
"Tisisthenes," which also means an avenger. Ultimately, as might be
expected, this Latin cognomen of Vindex was transformed first into De
Vincey, and then into the plain, modern Vincey. It is very curious
to observe how the idea of revenge, inspired by an Egyptian who lived
before the time of Christ, is thus, as it were, embalmed in an English
family name.

A few of the Roman names inscribed upon the sherd I have actually since
found mentioned in history and other records. They were, if I remember
right,

MVSSIVS. VINDEX

SEX. VARIVS MARVLLVS

C. FVFIDIVS. C. F. VINDEX

and

LABERIA POMPEIANA. CONIVX. MACRINI. VINDICIS

this last being, of course, the name of a Roman lady.

The following list, however, comprises all the Latin names upon the
sherd:--

C. CAECILIVS VINDEX
M. AIMILIVS VINDEX
SEX. VARIVS. MARVLLVS
Q. SOSIVS PRISCVS SENECIO VINDEX
L. VALERIVS COMINIVS VINDEX
SEX. OTACILIVS. M. F.
L. ATTIVS. VINDEX
MVSSIVS VINDEX
C. FVFIDIVS. C. F. VINDEX
LICINIVS FAVSTVS
LABERIA POMPEIANA CONIVX MACRINI VINDICIS
MANILIA LVCILLA CONIVX MARVLLI VINDICIS

After the Roman names there is evidently a gap of very many centuries.
Nobody will ever know now what was the history of the relic during those
dark ages, or how it came to have been preserved in the family. My
poor friend Vincey had, it will be remembered, told me that his Roman
ancestors finally settled in Lombardy, and when Charlemagne invaded
it, returned with him across the Alps, and made their home in Brittany,
whence they crossed to England in the reign of Edward the Confessor. How
he knew this I am not aware, for there is no reference to Lombardy or
Charlemagne upon the tile, though, as will presently be seen, there is a
reference to Brittany. To continue: the next entries on the sherd, if I
may except a long splash either of blood or red colouring matter of
some sort, consist of two crosses drawn in red pigment, and probably
representing Crusaders' swords, and a rather neat mono