this fair Church of San Giovanni had been a Pagan Temple before it was a
Christian Church, and the thought pleased his soul, which was enamoured
of the old-world mysteries. Especially he loved to look on these tombs,
where the sign of the Cross found no place, but which bore Latin
inscriptions and were adorned with carven figures of men and gods. They
were long cubes of white marble, on the sides of which could be made out
representations of banquets and hunting parties, the death of Adonis,
the fight of Lapithæ and Centaurs, the refusal of the chaste Hippolytus,
the Amazons. Messer Guido would read the lettering with anxious care,
and try hard to penetrate the meaning of these fables. One tomb in
particular occupied him more than all the rest, for it showed him two
Loves, each holding a torch, and he was curious to discover the nature
of these two Loves. Well! one night that he was pondering on these
things more deeply than ever, a shadow rose up above the lid of the
tomb--a luminous shadow, as when you see, or fancy you see, the moon
shining faintly through a cloud. Gradually it took the shape of a
beautiful virgin, and said thus in a voice softer than the reeds waving
in the wind:

"I am she that sleeps within this tomb, and I am called Julia Læta. I
lost the light on my marriage-day, at the age of sixteen years, three
months and nine days. Since then, whether I am, or am not, I cannot
tell. Never question the dead, stranger, for they see naught, and a
thick night environs them. 'Tis said that such as in life knew the cruel
joys of Venus roam the glades of a dense forest of myrtles. For me who
died a virgin, I sleep a dreamless sleep. They have graven two Loves on
the stone of my sepulchre. One gives mortals the light of day; the other
quenches it in their tender eyes for ever. The countenance of both is
the same, a smiling countenance, for birth and death are two twin
brothers, and all is joy to the Immortal Gods. I have spoken."