CATACOMBS OF PALERMO. 
23 
sound was not there. Passing on from vault to vault, I saw 
here and there a dead baby thrown upon a shelf—its inno¬ 
cent little face sleeping calmly among the mouldering skulls ; 
a leg, or an arm, or an old skull, from which the lower jaw 
had fallen; now a lively corpse, jumping with a startling 
throe from its niche, or a grim skeleton in its dark corner 
chuckling at the ravages of the destroyer. Who was the 
prince here ? Who was the great man, or the proud man, or 
the rich man ? The musty, grinning, ghastly skeleton in the 
corner seemed to chuckle at the thought, and say to himself, 
“ Was it you, there on the right, you ugly, noseless, sightless, 
disgusting thing ? Was it you that rode in your fine carriage, 
about a year ago, and thought yourself so great when you 
ordered your coachman to drive over the beggar ? Don’t you 
see he is as handsome as you are now, and as great a man; 
you can’t cut him down now, my fine fellow I And you, there 
on the left. What a nice figure you are, with your fleshless 
shanks and your worm-eaten lips ! It was you that betrayed 
youth and beauty and innocence, and brought yourself here 
at last to keep company with such wretches as I am. Why. 
there is not a living thing now, save the maggots, that 
wouldn’t turn away in disgust from you. And you, sir, on 
the opposite side, how proud you were when I last saw you; 
an officer of state, a great man in power, who could crush all 
below you, and make the happy wife a widowed mourner, 
and bring her little babes to starvation ; it was you that had 
innocent men seized and cast into prison. What can you do 
now ? The meanest wretch that mocks you in this vault of 
death is as good as you, as strong, as great, as tall, as broad, 
as pretty a piece of mortality, and a great deal nearer to 
heaven. Oh, you are a nice set of fellows, all mixing to¬ 
gether without ceremony! Where are your rules of etiquette 
now; your fashionable ranks, and your plebeian ranks ; your 
thousands of admiring friends, your throngs of jeweled visit¬ 
ors? Why, the lowliest of us has as many visitors here, and 
as many honest tears shed as you. Ha ! ha ! This is a jolly 
place, after all; we are all a jolly set of republicans, and old 
Death is our President!” 
