sserts that some buildings where he had
seen it used, had fallen down. From the imperfect specimens of it
which remain in modern times, it would be difficult to decide upon its
merits. That it was assuredly insufficient to support the weight of the
bank of the Pincian Mount, which rose immediately behind it, in the
solitary spot described some pages back, is still made evident by the
appearance of the wall at that part of the city, which remains in
modern times bent out of the perpendicular, and cracked in some places
almost from top to bottom. This ruin is now known to the present race
of Italians, under the expressive title of 'Il Muro Torto' or, The
Crooked Wall.

We may here observe that it is extremely improbable that the existence
of this natural breach in the fortifications of Rome was noticed, or if
noticed, regarded with the slightest anxiety or attention by the
majority of the careless and indolent inhabitants, at the period of the
present romance. It is supposed to have been visible as early as the
time of Aurelian, but is only particularly mentioned by Procopius, an
historian of the sixth century, who relates that Belisarius, in
strengthening the city against a siege of the Goths, attempted to
repair this weak point in the wall, but was hindered in his intended
labour by the devout populace, who declared that it was under the
peculiar protection of St. Peter, and that it would be consequently
impious to meddle with it. The general submitted without remonstrance
to the decision of the inhabitants, and found no cause afterwards to
repent of his facility of compliance; for, to use the translated words
of the writer above-mentioned, 'During the siege neither the enemy nor
the Romans regarded this place.' It is to be supposed that so
extraordinary an event as this, gave the wall that sacred character,
which deterred subsequent rulers from attempting its repair; which
permitted it to remain crooked and rent through the convulsions of the
middle ages; and which still preserves it, to attest the veracity of
historians, by appealing to the antiquarian curiosity of the traveller
of modern times.

We now return to Ulpius. It is a peculiarity observable in the
characters of men living under the ascendancy of one ruling idea, that
they intuitively distort whatever attracts their attention in the outer
world, into a connection more or less intimate with the single object
of their mental contemplation. Since the