An Interesting Personage. 377 



This lady, who once exerted a certain influence, ^vl^cn she 

 was handsome, is now rather past ; but in oider to make the 

 world believe that she is still young, she has hired or bought a 

 baby, which is always carried after her when she descends from 

 her carriage and makes a promenade. I sa\v her descend 

 thus, and noticed, what I heard before, that she wore very 

 short dresses to show her small feet, which were encased, not 

 in boots, but in shoes with old-fashioned cross ribbands. 



Of this lady, her husband, and the king himself, the most 

 amusing anecdotes are told in society ; but as such anecdotes 

 lose much in print, I must not communicate them here. In 

 publishing Roman experiences discretion is advisable. 



Amongst my clerical acquaintances, I must not forget to 

 mention that of a most excellent and distinguished man, my 

 confessor, the R.P.F. Joseph Mullooly, O.P.S.T.L., prior of 

 SS. Sixte and Clement ; what the letters before and behind his 

 name mean I do not know, I copy them from the title-page ol 

 a work he has written about his church, the most remarkable 

 wonders ot which he was kind enough to show and explain to 

 me himself. 



The church of St. Clement is very old, and the most periect 

 type of the old catholic basilicas ; but in 1857 was discovered 

 under this church another much older, which on purpose had 

 been covered with earth. In this old edifice have been found 

 not only precious marble columns and mosaics, but most valu- 

 able fresco pictures, dating from the third to the ninth or tenth 

 century. It was extremely difficult to get at these valuable 

 relics, for it had to be done without endangering the actual 

 church. 



But even underneath this most ancient building have been 

 discovered walls, which according to antiquarian researches 

 date from the three distinct periods of heathenish Rome. 



The fresco pictures are highly interesting, and as their sub- 

 terranean wonders have been accessible only since 1866, many 

 visitors to Rome will scarcely know anything of them, and 

 artists and antiquarians who should happen to read my book 

 will thank me for h^rving drawn their notice to St. Clement. 



I had been only five weeks in Rome, where I should have 

 liked to have stayed much longer, when a law-suit, which I 

 mentioned before, made my personal appearance in Bonn 

 necessary. 



