AT THE TIME WHEN THE SWORD PIERCED THE HEART OF OUR MOTHER, I, ITS RULER, BURIED HERE, WAS TEACHING THE THINGS OF HEAVEN. SUDDENLY THEY CAME, THEY SEIZED ME SEATED AS I WAS. THE SOLDIERS BEING SENT IN, THE PEOPLE GAVE THEIR NECKS. SOON THE OLD MAN SAW WHO WAS WILLING TO BEAR AWAY THE PALM FROM HIMSELF, AND WAS THE FIRST TO OFFER HIMSELF AND HIS OWN HEAD, FEARING LEST THE BLOW SHOULD FALL ON ANY ONE ELSE. CHRIST, WHO AWARDS THE REWARDS OF LIFE, RECOGNIZES THE MERIT OF THE PASTOR; HE HIMSELF IS PRESERVING THE NUMBER OF HIS FLOCK. Beyond are two crypts, with a fresco of the Good Shepherd, in good preservation, on the ceiling, and other Christian emblems. We emerge into daylight by means of the original stairs, of an early construction. _A little lower down the road, on the left, are the_ JEWISH CATACOMBS, which, perhaps more than any other, would illustrate that these catacombs were formerly quarries, because they are rather wide. _A little further on we turn down a rough road on the left_, leading to what has been called the "antiquary's despair," the TEMPLE OF CERES AND FAUSTINA, the site of which is now occupied by the deserted CHURCH OF S. URBANO. The church was built of brick, and the vestibule is supported by marble Corinthian pillars. Piranesi saw the name of Faustina stamped on one of the bricks. The basin in the vestibule containing the holy water was found near here, and was an altar consecrated to Bacchus. The inscription says that it was made under the priesthood of Apronianus. The grove of ilex trees is termed the Sacred Grove of Bacchus. Tradition says S. Urban, in 222-30, had an oratory here under the present altar; and that Urban VIII. (1633) turned the oratory into a church;--the paintings and iron bars are of that date. Below the altar, entered from its side, is a cell, on the end wall of which is a fresco, of the eighth century, of the Virgin with Christ, and SS. John and Urban. The plan of the building is rectangular, and it is of the time of Antoninus Pius. At the foot of this hill is the valley of the Almo, or Caffarella, in which is the mossy entrance to a grotto, for a long time called the Grotto of Egeria, owing to the misapprehension of the site of the Porta Capena. It is now known to have been a nymphæum in the VILLA OF HERODES ATTICUS.