The statues of the Vestales Maximæ stand like voiceless messengers from that time of darkness--a darkness which was, as we know, the darkness before the dawn. In the old Rome, which is so continually brought to the surface from the covering dust of centuries, there can scarcely be a figure round which so much interest might be supposed to gather as round the nameless statue of the Vestal, whose story imagination may supply in many colours and in many forms--each one, for himself, as he stands before it, may clothe it as he will. But that of the noble, earnest soul struggling towards the Light, and rising from the dry chrysalis of a worn-out faith to the flight of the unimprisoned spirit upward to God--who is the Light--has seemed as full of probability as of charm. And it is easy to believe that a woman like Cœlia Concordia, herself unable to soar and yet conscious that her aims were after all but earthly and sordid, might grudge one of the most beloved and most highly gifted of the priestesses the unsparing meed of praise which the inscription commemorates. Yet, she might have reflected, if the inscription remained without a name the identity of Hyacintha would never be discovered, and thus the once-honoured and beloved Vestal would be known henceforth only as NUMBER THIRTEEN. THE END. PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER. FOOTNOTES: [A] The Caracalla was a long garment like the habit of a modern monk, sometimes with, sometimes without, a hood or cowl. [B] Although there is no record extant of the Jews settling in Britain till some centuries later than this time, still it is probable that a few scattered merchants of the despised people may have come over with some of the Roman nobility--performing menial offices, and conducting barters with the native Britons for their Roman masters. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of No. XIII; or, The Story of the Lost Vestal, by Emma Marshall