I. VISIT TO THE CATACOMBS. ABOUT two miles from the gates of Rome, on that same Appian Way, over whose pavements once the legions of victorious Rome marched on their way to the Capitol, and whose stones were bedewed with the tears of captive princes as they were dragged along to swell the glory of the triumph, stands the church of St. Sebastian. The tide of population has flowed away from it-the dwellers about have fled from the deadly miasma which broods over these wastes the ruins of their habitations have sunk beneath the soil, as the rank vegetation rose around them-and the church, with its adjoining monastery, stands nothing but a monument of the saint who is said to have suffered martyrdom on that spot. It was on one of those genial mornings when an Italian winter is rapidly changing to its early spring, that we stood opposite to this time-worn relic of the past. A scene which presented the image of more perfect repose could not be imagined, Around us, far and wide, stretched the desolate Campagna, till in the dim horizon rose the purple hills of Albano, consecrated on the classic page as having on their slopes the villa of Horace, and the now vanished palace of Maecenas, where once the princely patron gathered around him the wit and genius of Rome in her most intellectual days. Before us were the broken arches of the Claudian aqueduct, the ruined shrine of Egeria, from which the Nymph and Dryad have long since fled, and the massive tomb of Cœcilia Metella, 66 -with two thousand years of ivy grown, The garland of Eternity, where wave The green leaves over all by time o'erthrown." The Eternal city was sleeping in the distance, the still air brought no murmur of its population, and the whole wide landscape gave no sign of life. A beggar was slumbering in the porch of the apparently deserted church, and not a sound broke the stillness, but the droning of some insects which were wheeling around in ceaseless circles in the sunlight. It was a scene to be found nowhere but among the solemn ruins which encircle this "Niobe of nations." Beneath this church is the only entrance to the Catacombs by which admittance is usually gained. There is another indeed at the church of St. Agnes, but, for some reason, strangers are seldom permitted to enter it. The writer made many attempts while in Rome; but though several times promised admission by ecclesiastics, he never succeeded in effecting it. And such, he has found, was the tes timony of all his friends. The only individual he has met with, who was able to inspect the Catacombs of St. Agnes, was the late Thomas Cole, the artist, from whom he once received so interesting an account, as to deepen his regret at his own failure. Mr. Cole represented these passages as being much richer in inscriptions and paintings than those of St. Sebastian, fewer having been removed from their original positions to be placed in the gallery of the Vatican.* There are also numberless openings scattered over the Campagna for miles, which, overgrown with vines, often prove dangerous to the incautious rider. It was of these that D'Agincourt availed himself, on several occasions, to enter the Catacombs; though without guides or landmarks, the experiment was a dangerous one. Some of them were in existence during the persecutions in early Christian times, and were used as air-holes. They are spoken of in the "Acts of the Martyrs," as luminaria cryptæ. Others were probably produced in later ages by the falling in of the ground where the roof of a passage had too nearly approached the * Professor Weir of West Point, to whom Mr. Cole also gave an account of his visit, has lately confirmed the writer's impressions with regard to the conversation. Among other things, Mr. Cole stated, that he was so impressed with the resemblance of some of the clerical garments, portrayed in fresco, to those now used in our Church, that he commenced copying them, but was prevented from finishing by those in charge of the cemetery. He then attempted at home to sketch them from memory. Unfortunately these drawings have not been found among his papers, and we have given in a succeeding chapter, the only passage in his letters relating to this subject. |