MINETTE AMONG THE TOMBS AT POMPEII.

WEEP, princes of the house of Husesbourg, weep, ye Montmorencys and De Noailles, ye De Rohans, and Grammonts; weep, ye Howards, and Percys, and in lieu of the ashes that are lost to posterity, place ashes on your heads, and wear sackcloth as mourning for all the noble dust lost to, the world;-weep, for the tomb of the most ancient family of the heathen world has been sacrilegiously entered and destroyed; -lament, ye antiquaries, and genealogists— ye decipherers of hieroglyphics: ye lovers of mummies, lament-for yourselves and for posterity.

In the street of the tombs at Pompeii is

the tomb of Navolia Tyche; the inscription on it sets forth that she raised it during her life, to herself, and to Caius Munatius Faustal,Angustal (a sort of hereditary Archbishop of Canterbury in the heathen world, who held jurisdiction over sacred matters). From the level of the street it rises some steps, and is richly ornamented with a bas-relief, which has worn out the eyesight and turned the head of many an antiquary, curious in research.-There is also a portrait in bas-relief, supposed to be that of Navolia Tyche. Ascending the steps, from a court-yard, you look through a grating into the tomb. There are niches in the wall and a raised stone round the funeral chamber, on which urns are placed as well as in the niches. The urns were of glass or earth, and contained the ashes of the illustrious family. There were lamps too, placed in the corners, and the money for Charon, according to the poetical fiction still believed in those days. Adjoining the sepulchre was a place for burning the bodies.

Cypress and other woods were laid to form the funeral pile, pitch was added to quicken the flames, and the blaze was fed by the most costly oils and gums of the east; the body being reduced to ashes, these were quenched with wine, and the embers finally collected in

an urn.

These urns, this dust, those lamps, these lachrymatories were all broken and the ashes. scattered by "the paw of a certain domestic animal." Mr Canning did not choose to use the word Cat in the house of Commons, it may be; thinking it too familiar a word for that august assembly, or possibly that it might immediately suggest to his hearers a still more vulgar animal, its lawful prey.

Certainly some good reason exists why cat must not be said or sung on any solemn or great occasion; this mischief, this horrible mischief was achieved by "pattes develorus," of great beauty, singular dexterity, and great perseverance; they made the hole in the grating of

iron wire, through which the inside of the tomb was seen; they insinuated themselves within the sepulchre, and when the Custode was out of sight

(Malignant Fate sat by and smiled),

with one fell swoop, this creature of the feline species, this genius of mischief of the first order, jumped into the tomb, threw down the glittering glass vases, overturned the urns and broke each and all of them, and dispersed all the ashes of an illustrious race, whose dust had reposed there from time immemorial,-and then, like one possessed of an evil spirit, like Cornelius Agrippa's dog of old, (who was called Monsieur,) so did Madame rush to the neighbouring river of the Garno, and there finish the list of her heavy crimes by suicide. This mischief, this sacrilege is so unexampled at Pompeii, that a strong idea prevails amongst the vulgar of the Custode that Madame was the spirit of a woman possessed, and that something super