90 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



deformity, and seeming, as it were, to ask for a removal from a situ- 

 ation which ill befits them, and which has robbed the grave of its 

 just and long-acknowledged perquisite. This abhorrent spectacle is 

 no other than that of the dead brought from what ought to be their 

 last resting-place, where the dryness of the climate has preserved 

 their flesh from rotting. They were decked out in magnificent 

 attire; but death had slain their beauty; their god-like form was 

 gone, and the worm had left upon them disgusting traces of its 

 ravages. 



' Matres, atque viri, defunctaque corpora vita.' 



"We saw what once had been fine young ladies, and elderly 

 matrons, and fathers of families, in dresses fit for a convivial dance ; 

 and we might have imagined that they were enjoying an hour of 

 repose till the arrival of the festive time. But when our eyes caught 

 the parts not veiled by the gorgeous raiment, oh, Heavens! there, 

 indeed, appeared death in all his grisly terrors. I had never seen 

 any sight in my life, before this, so incongruous, so mournful, so 

 dismal, and so horrifying. These shrunk and withered remnants of 

 former bloom and beauty, brought to my mind the exhibitions of 

 stuffed monkeys which we see in our own museums, with this differ- 

 ence only, that the monkeys have glass eyes most unnaturally starting 

 from their sockets, whilst the hollow sockets of the Sicilian mummies 

 contain a withered substance, discoloured and deprived of all the 

 loveliness that life had once imparted to it. 



"The churches in this delicious island surpass even those of 

 Rome in the variety of rare and costly marble ornaments. The 

 horns of the cattle are of surprising length. 



" We left Sicily under the full impression that we ought to have 

 remained there for three or four months ; but this could not be accom- 

 plished ; so, on our return to Naples, having paid a farewell visit to 

 Virgil's tomb, we left this laughing, noisy, merry city on a fine and 

 sunny morning, to enjoy, for eight or nine months more, the soothing 

 quiet of the Roman capital. To ourselves, as Catholics, a prolonged 

 sojourn in the eternal city was of infinite value. The venerable 

 Cardinal Fransoni had been unremitting in his attentions to us; 

 whilst his pious secretary, il Signore Canonico Natanaele Fucili, 



