“I will tell you a little story about one of my attempts, to provide for the future.  It was toward the end of the fifteenth century, about the time that Columbus set out on his first voyage of discovery,—­and you would be surprised, considering the important results of his voyage, to know how little sensation it caused in Europe,—­that I devised a scheme by which I thought I might establish for myself a permanent fortune.  I was then living in Genoa, and was carrying on the same business in which I am now engaged.  I was a broker, a dealer in money and commercial paper.  I was prosperous and well able to carry out the plan I had formed.  This plan was a simple one.  I would purchase jewels, things easily carried about or concealed, and which would be valuable in any country or any age; and with this idea in my mind I spent many years in collecting valuable stones and jewels, confining myself generally to rings, for I wished to make the bulk of my treasures very small when compared with their value.

“About the middle of the sixteenth century I went to Rome, and took my jewels with me.  They were then a wonderfully fine collection of gems, some of them of great antiquity and value; for, in gradually gathering them together, the enthusiasm of the collector had possessed me, and I often traveled far to possess myself of a valuable jewel of which I had heard.  I remained in Rome as long as I dared do so, and then prepared to set out for Egypt, which I had not visited for a long time, and where I expected to find interesting though depressing changes.  I concluded, naturally enough, that it would be dangerous for me to take my treasures with me, and I could conceive of no place where it would be better to leave them than in the Eternal City.  Rome was central and comparatively easy of access from any part of the world, and, moreover, was less liable to changes than any other place; so I determined to leave my treasures in Rome, and to put them somewhere where they were not likely to be disturbed by the march of improvement, by the desolations of war and conquest, or to become lost to me by the action of nature.  I decided to bury them in the catacombs.  With these ancient excavations I was familiar, and I believed that in their dark and mysterious recesses I could conceal my jewels, and that I could find them again when I wanted them.

“I procured a small box made of thick bronze, and in this I put all my rings and gems, and with them I inclosed several sheets of parchment, on which I had written, with the fine ink the monks used in engrossing their manuscripts, a detailed description, and frequently a history, of every one of these valuable objects.  Having securely fastened up the box, I concealed it in my clothing and then made my way to the catacombs.

“It was a dark and rainy evening, and as the entrances to the catacombs were not guarded in those days, it was not difficult for me to make my way unseen into their interior.  I had brought with me a tinder-box and several rushlights, and as soon as I felt secure from observation from the outside I struck a light and began my operations.  Then, according to a plan I had previously made, I slowly walked along the solemn passageway which I had entered.