s jokes. Being familiar with these tombs, he had lost
respect for them, as sacristans lose it for the saints they brush the
dust off of with a feather-duster. Moreover, he judged everything by an
esthetic criterion, completely devoid of respect; for him there were
only sepulchres with artistic character, or without it; of a good or
a poor period; and the latter sort he struck contemptuously with his
stick.

The marine Breton was irritated, and asked Caesar several times:

"Why is that permitted?" "I don't know," answered Caesar.

The monk made extraordinary remarks.

Explaining the life of the Christians in the earliest eras of
Christianity, he said:

"In this century the habits of the pontiffs were so lax that the
Pope had to go out accompanied by two persons to insure his modest
behaviour."

"Oh, oh!" said a young Frenchman, in a tone of vexation.

_"Ah! C'est L'histoire,"_ replied the monk.

Caesar translated what the Trappist had said, to Don Calixto and the
Canon, and they were both really perplexed.

They followed the long, narrow galleries. It was a strange effect,
seeing the procession of tourists with their burning candles. One didn't
notice the modern clothes and the ladies' hats, and from a distance the
procession lighted by the little flames of the candles, had a mysterious
look.

At the tail of the crowd walked two men who spoke English. One was a
"gentleman" little versed in archeological questions; the other a tall
person with the face of a scholar. Caesar drew near them to listen. The
one was explaining to his companion everything they saw as they went
along, the signification of the emblems cut in the tablets, and the
funerary customs of the Christians.

"Didn't they put crosses?" asked the unlearned gentleman.

"No," said the other. "It is said that for the Romans the _crux_
represented the gallows! Thus the earliest representation of the
Crucified is a drawing in the Kirchnerian museum, which shows a
Christian kneeling before a man with a donkey's head, who is nailed to a
cross. In Greek letters one reads: 'Alexamenes adores his God.' They say
this drawing comes from the Palace of the Caesars, and it is considered
to be a caricature of Christ, drawn by a Roman soldier on a wall."

"Didn't they put up images of Christ, either?"

"No. You do not consider that they were at the height of the discussion
as to whether Christ was ugly or beautiful."

The tall gentleman got involved in a lo