"Very curious," said the Admiral dryly, pointing to a pencil sketch such as one notices on the dead walls in the London streets which happen to have a national school near them--the master or beadle or other obnoxious person being represented by an outlined figure with straight lines for the legs and arms, and some sort of an irregular circle for head and body. This one had a nose added as well as an eye, and his feet were represented by pothooks, and his hands by toasting-forks, one of which held a straight weapon, looking, it must be confessed, more like a rod than any sort of sword. The letters of the inscription were all capitals, and although not absolutely like our present Roman alphabet, might easily be read, particularly by one who from Herculanean MSS. had become a little familiar with antique penmanship. This was Mr. Comyn's dictum, not mine, and the name of the figure was Nonius Maximus. The Queen bade Miss Cornelia Knight, who was one of the party, and had a pretty talent for making poor sketches, to do a drawing of the figure for Her Majesty; which produced much merriment, for the one-armed guardian was such a recluse in his charge out here that he did not know his company. He at once rebuked Her Majesty, informing her that he had strict orders from the Queen not to allow the use of pencil, paper, or any writing or drawing materials within the town of Forum Pompeji. My Lady, after first exchanging confidential glances with the faithful servant, slyly winked at the Queen with her left eye, while a repeated gliding motion of her right thumb across the finger nearest it made a certain telegraphic signal, and the Queen made one who desired to serve her honestly a rogue, by giving him some _carlins_, to be allowed to break the rules, which she had made herself. I could see that the Admiral was gravely shocked: the idea of professional duty never left him in the most incongruous situations. On a sight-seeing expedition like this, it was in the habit of my Lady, and, I was told, of the Queen, to do that which might be least expected of them. If there were but little to see, they would fly through it and back again, in so short a space of time that all the elaborate preparations should seem wasted; and if there was more to be seen than a strong man could walk through on a long summer's day, they would trifle by the hour at the very outset, as they seemed like to do now. But the Admiral was of a different mind. He had come to see the ruins so wondrously preserved for nigh twenty centuries by the mummifying ashes,--how these mighty Romans lived whose ensample he was never weary of studying. His acquaintance with their history was not indeed profound, and in the studies of their antiquities he was even less versed. But he had in his chaplain, Mr. Comyn, a ripe scholar, with whom it was ever his wont to make all possible inquiry about a place before he should visit it.