take my bread from my mouth.'"

On great occasions Peppo could quit his board and straddle upon an ass.
And now he came upon his ass, set Antonio before him, and carried him
off to his home or den. The boy was put into a small recess contiguous
to the apartment which his uncle occupied with some of his guests. He
overheard this conversation: "Can the boy do any thing?" asked one; "Has
he any sort of hurt?"

"No; the Madonna has not been so kind to him," said Peppo; "he is
slender and well formed, like a nobleman's child."

"That is a great misfortune," said they all; and some suggestions were
added, that he could have some little hurt to help him to get his
earthly bread until the Madonna gave him the heavenly. Conversation such
as this filled him with alarm; he crept through the aperture which
served for window to his dormitory; slid down the wall, and made his
escape. He ran as fast as he could, and found himself at length in the
Coliseum.

Antonio, at this time, is a poor boy about nine or ten years old; we
have seen from what sort of guardian the terrified lad was making his
escape. Now, observe the exquisite appropriateness, taste, and judgment
of what follows. It is precisely here that the author makes parade of
the knowledge he has lately gained in the grammar-school of
Slagelse--precisely here that he throws his Antonio into a classical
dream or vision!

"Behind one of the many wooden altars which stand not far apart
within the ruins, and indicate the resting-points of the Saviour's
progress to the cross,[3] I seated myself upon a fallen capital,
which lay in the grass. The stone was as cold as ice, my head
burned, there was fever in my blood; I could not sleep, and there
occurred to my mind all that people had related to me of this old
building; of the captive Jews who had been made to raise these huge
blocks of stone for the mighty Roman Caesar; of the wild beasts
which, within this space, had fought with each other, nay, even
with men also, while the people sat upon stone benches, which
ascended step-like from the ground to the loftiest colonnade.

"There was a rustling in the bushes above me; I looked up, and
fancied that I saw something moving. Oh, yes! my imagination showed
to me pale dark shapes, which hewed and builded around me; I heard
distinctly every stroke that fell, saw the meagre black-bearded
Jews tear away gr