dropped upon the
silvered water that reflected the sad faces of grave men.

The foremost memories of the past in Trevi centre about the ancient
family of the Colonna, still numerous, distinguished and flourishing
after a career of nearly a thousand years--longer than that, it may be,
if one take into account the traditions of them that go back beyond the
earliest authentic mention of their greatness; a race of singular
independence and energy, which has given popes to Rome, and great
patriots, and great generals as well, and neither least nor last,
Vittoria, princess and poetess, whose name calls up the gentlest
memories of Michelangelo's elder years.

The Colonna were originally hill men. The earliest record of them tells
that their great lands towards Palestrina were confiscated by the
Church, in the eleventh century. The oldest of their titles is that of
Duke of Paliano, a town still belonging to them, rising on an eminence
out of the plain beyond the Alban hills. The greatest of their early
fortresses was Palestrina, still the seat and title estate of the
Barberini branch of the family. Their original stronghold in Rome was
almost on the site of their present palace, being then situated on the
opposite side of the Basilica of the Santi Apostoli, where the
headquarters of the Dominicans now are, and running upwards and
backwards, thence, to the Piazza della Pilotta; but they held Rome by a
chain of towers and fortifications, from the Quirinal to the Mausoleum
of Augustus, now hidden among the later buildings, between the Corso,
the Tiber, the Via de' Pontefici and the Via de' Schiavoni. The present
palace and the basilica stood partly upon the site of the ancient
quarters occupied by the first Cohort of the Vigiles, or city police, of
whom about seven thousand preserved order when the population of ancient
Rome exceeded two millions.

The 'column,' from which the Colonna take their name, is generally
supposed to have stood in the market-place of the village of that name
in the higher part of the Campagna, between the Alban and the Samnite
hills, on the way to Palestrina. It is a peaceful and vine-clad country,
now. South of it rise the low heights of Tusculum, and it is more than
probable that the Colonna were originally descended from the great
counts who tyrannized over Rome from that strong point of vantage and,
through them, from Theodora Senatrix. Be that as it may, their arms
consist of a simple column, use