tomb. Nature has done her utmost for nigh two thousand years to bring
back this monument to her own bosom, but she has been foiled in all
her attempts,--the travertine blocks of its exterior, though fitted to
each other without cement, being as smooth and even in their courses
of masonry as when first constructed, and almost as free from
weather-stains as if they had newly been taken from the quarry. Only
on the broad summit, where medieval Vandals broke down the noble pile
and desecrated it by their own inferior workmanship, has nature been
able to effect a lodgment; and in the breaches of this fortress, which
is but a thing of yesterday as compared with the monument, and yet is
far more ruinous, she has planted bushes, trees, and thick festoons of
ivy, as if laying her quiet finger upon the angry passions of man, and
obliterating the memory of his evil deeds by her own fair and smiling
growth.

The sepulchral vault in the interior was not opened till the time of
Paul III., about 1540, when a beautiful marble sarcophagus, adorned
with bas-reliefs of the chase, was found in it, which is supposed to
be that which stands at the present day in the court of the Palazzo
Farnese. This is likely to be true, for it is well known that this
Pope, who was a member of the Farnese family, unscrupulously despoiled
ancient Rome of many of its finest works of art in order to build and
adorn his new palace. A golden urn containing ashes is said to have
been discovered at the same time; but if so, it has long since
disappeared. On a marble panel below the frieze an inscription in bold
letters informs us that this is the tomb of Cæcilia Metella, daughter
of Quintus Metellus,--who obtained the sobriquet of _Creticus_ for his
conquest of Crete,--and wife of Crassus. She belonged to one of the
most haughty aristocratic families of ancient Rome, whose members at
successive intervals occupied the highest positions in the state, and