of the world beyond.  The groom that led the horse and his rider was the Thanatis or Fate that had inflicted the death-blow; and the figure with the hammer was probably intended for the Mantus—­the Etruscan Dispater—­who led the way to another state of existence.  The deep-red colour of the human figures indicated not only that they belonged to the male sex, but also that they were in a state of glorification.  This is further confirmed by the flowers, which looked like those of the lotus, universally regarded amongst the ancients as symbols of immortality.  It is difficult to say what part the domestic animals were meant to play in this scene of apotheosis.  Painted with the same hues as those of the steed, they were doubtless sacrificed at the death of their master, in order that they might share his fortunes and accompany him into the unseen world; their affection for him, and the reluctance with which they parted from him, being indicated by the cat putting its paw upon his shoulder as if to pull him back, and the dog barking furiously at the heels of the horse.  But all this is merely conjectural.  And yet I caught such a glimpse of the general significance of the picture, of the spirit that prompted it, as deeply impressed me.  It seemed as if my own searching dimly with a candle in the inside of a dark sepulchral cave into the meaning of this fresco of death was emblematical of the groping of the ancient Etruscans, by such feeble light of nature as they possessed, in the midst of the profound, terrible darkness of death, for the great truths of immortality.  They had not heard of One who alone with returning footsteps had broken the eternal silence of the tomb, and brought the hope of immortal life to the sleeping dead around.  These Etruscan sleepers had been laid to rest in their narrow cell ages before the Son of Man had rolled away the stone from the door of the sepulchre, and carried captivity captive; but He whom they ignorantly worshipped had partially lifted the veil and given them faint glimpses of the things unseen and eternal.  And these were doubtless sufficient to redeem their life from its vanity and their death from its fear.

Below the fresco which I have thus minutely described is another about the same size, representing a sphinx, with a nondescript animal, which may be either an ass or a young deer standing below it, and a panther or leopard sitting behind in a rampant attitude, with one paw on the haunch of the sphinx, and the other on the tail, and its face turned towards the spectator.  The face of the sphinx is painted red.  The figure bears some resemblance to the Egyptian type of that chimera in its straight black hair depending behind, and its oblique eyes; but in other respects it diverges widely.  On Egyptian monuments the sphinx never appears standing as in this fresco, but crouching in the attitude of reposeful observation.  Its form also was always fuller and more rounded than the long-legged, attenuated spectre before us, and it was invariably