parallel, one of which follows the alignment of the Forum, and the other
that of the interior portico. The space between this double wall is
utilized and some shops hide themselves in its recesses. Thus the
irregularity of the plan is not merely corrected--it is turned to useful
account. The ancients were shrewd fellows. This portico rested on
fifty-eight columns, surrounding a court-yard. In the court-yard, a
large movable stone, in good preservation, with the ring that served to
lift it, covered a cistern. At the extremity of the portico, in a
hemicycle, stood a headless statue--perhaps the Piety or Concord to
which the entire edifice was dedicated. Behind the hemicycle a sort of
square niche buried itself in the wall between two doors, one of which,
painted on the wall for the sake of symmetry, is a useful and curious
document. It is separated into three long and narrow panels and is
provided with a ring that should have served to move it. Doors are
nowhere to be seen now in Pompeii, because they were of wood, and
consequently were consumed by the fire; hence, this painted
representation has filled the savants with delight; they now know that
the ancients shut themselves in at home by processes exactly like our
own.

Between, the two doors, in the square niche, the statue of Eumachia, or,
at least, a moulded model of that statue, is still erect upon its
pedestal. It is of a female of tall stature, who looks sad and ill. An
inscription informs us that the statue was erected in her honor by the
fullers. These artisans formed quite a respectable corporation at
Pompeii, and we shall presently visit the manufactory where they
worked. Everything is now explained: the edifice of Eumachia must have
been the Palace of Industry of that city and period. This is the
Pompeian Merchants' Exchange, where transactions took place in the
portico, and in winter, in the crypt. The tribunal of commerce sat in