272 AUSTRALIA AND HOMEWARD. 



And where the fiendish tyrant Nero frowned, 

 A loathsome snake lies coiled in the gloom ; 

 Where golden hair waved in the western wind, 

 Green rushes quiver in the midnight air. 



Where are those valiant youths of ancient Rome, 



Who congregated in thy mighty walls ? 



And where thy merry maidens, dames sedate ? 



Gone ! gone ! irrevocably, forever gone ! 



And on thee doomed theatre of sin 



Where shone the cruel eyes of old Rome's fairest, 



The pale moon gleams on marbled desolation, 



And on thy site will beam when thou hast vanished. 



Here, too, is the Basilica, where it is probable Paul 

 stood before the Emperor and testified of Christ. 

 We saw the Holy Stairs up which Martin Luther 

 went upon his knees, with the word of the Lord 

 ringing in his ears, " The just shall live by faith." 

 And we saw climbing the same Sancta Scala a dozen 

 or more poor deluded souls, vainly thinking thus to 

 cleanse themselves from sin. We were told by the 

 " bill of particulars," a real business-like advertise- 

 ment, that for each step we ascended on our knees we 

 should get seven years' indulgence. 



Two young priests, evidently like ourselves, foreign- 

 ers, came in and passing us knelt upon the first step, 

 and then having kissed the step, looked up at those 



