troyed. Visconti says: "She
desired, with Christian humility, to be buried in the manner in which
the sisters were buried when they died. And, as I suppose, her body was
placed in the common sepulchre of the nuns of Santa Anna." Grimm
declares that he cannot discover the place of her burial, and Visconti
declares that her tomb remains unknown.

But it is apparently a fact that the body of Vittoria Colonna is
entombed in the sacristy of Santa Domenica Maggiore in Naples, the
sarcophagus containing it resting by the side of the one containing the
body of her husband, Francesco d'Avalos, Marchese of Pescara. This
church is one of the finest in Naples, with twenty-seven chapels and
twelve altars, and it is here that nearly all the great nobles of the
kingdom of Naples are entombed. Here is the tomb of the learned Thomas
Aquinas and here is shown, in relief, the miracle of the crucifix by
Tommaso de Stefani, which--as the legend runs--thus addressed the
learned doctor:--

"_Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma; quam ergo mercedem recipies?_"

To which he replied: "_Non aliam nisi te._"

It is in the sacristy in which lie all the Princes of the House of
Aragon that the sarcophagi of the Marchese and the Marchesa di Pescara
are placed side by side in the high gallery near the ceiling. The altar
has a fine Annunciation ascribed to Andrea da Salerno. The ceiling
(whose coloring is as fresh and vivid as if painted yesterday) is by
Solimena. Around the walls near the ceiling are two balconies or
galleries, filled with very large wooden sarcophagi, whose scarlet
velvet covers have faded into yellow browns with pink shades, many of
which are tattered and are falling to pieces. The casket containing the
body of Fernando Francesco d'Avalos, Marchese of Pescara (the husband of
Vittoria Colonna), has on it an inscription by Ariosto; and his portrait
(showing in profile a young face with blonde hair and a full reddish
brown beard) and a banner, also, is suspended above the casket. That
containing the body of the Marchesa, his wife (Vittoria Colonna), has an
aperture at the top where the wood is worn away and the embalmed form,
partly crumbled, may be seen. This seems strange to the verge of
fantasy, but it is, apparently, true. The writer of this volume visited
the Church of Santa Domenica Maggiore in Naples in December of 1906, and
was assured by the sacristan that this sarcophagus contains the body of
the Marchesa. Inquiries were then made