drive off." So saying, I paid the man in
advance for waiting, and followed my party to the
entrance-door, which was of heavy wood.

My reason for retaining the cabman was this:
I had been waiting some days for the official
permission to visit the catacombs, and, on the
very morning when it arrived, I was preparing
to start for London upon business of moment.
Now, the train started at twelve, and the written
permit arrived at ten. I was undesirous of losing
the opportunity for my underground exploration,
and I was desirous of starting by the twelve
o'clock train. I therefore came to the conclusion
that if half an hour in the catacombs (from eleven
to half-past) would satisfy me, I could then catch
the train by twelve if I had a cab ready: whereas
if I found the exploration sufficiently attractive
to occupy more time, I would then defer my
departure until the evening.

I found the catacombs extraordinary, but
monotonous. Everybody knows that they were
originally the stone mines which supplied the
building material of Paris; in fact, it has been
aptly said that Paris has been built of her own
entrails. Let there be the least volcanic shock
below Paris— she lies in a volcanic line— and
her stupendous palaces, her whole being, would
be swallowed in the tomb she herself has excavated.

At the beginning of this century, Napoleon
decreed extramural interment, and all the
graveyards within the walls of Paris were broken up
and built over. The bones of centuries were
moved into the catacombs. Millions of the bones
of dead French were carried thither, and
fantastically arranged. The visitor passes between two
walls of skulls, which all seem to stare at him
with a ghastly blind stare.

Ten minutes were quite enough to satisfy my
curiosity; but our guide, true to his trade, kept
on making the widest promises of coming
wonders, and, as a couple of my party were ladies,
I need not add that the party's curiosity was
stimulated by the assertions of our leader.

We each carried a little lamp, and we looked
an odd group.

"Well," said I, at last, " I really think I will
leave you to your promenade. I can find my
way back, I feel sure, and I have yet time to
catch the train."

The guide laughed at the idea of my finding
my way back to the entrance. I looked at my
watch. It wanted ten minutes to the half-hour;
if I did not go back at once, the cab would be
gone.

We had passed many transverse passages in
our way; indeed, the catacombs, as I saw them,
seemed a wide street, intersected at regular
intervals by smaller streets, and courts, and alleys.
I was the last of my party, and perhaps, reluctant
as I felt to go on, I lagged behind. At all
events, I was looking about me from one side to
the other, when, as the lamp of my companions
crossed one of the transverse cuttings, I noticed,
a few steps along this passage, an immense skull,
in which all the teeth were singularly perfect,
white, and gleaming. I turned into the passage,
meaning to inspect this skull more narrowly,
when, as I moved my head towards it, a horrible
rat, frightened at my presence, leaped in its
fright against my cheek. I fell as though I had
been shot. We all have antipathies more or
less, and my antipathy is rats. I abhor them.
I am almost ashamed to say it, but the shock of
the sudden appearance and touch of that rat,
caused me to faint. I must have lost my senses
for many minutes.

When I knew myself again, I was utterly in
the dark. The blackness seemed absolutely to
hit me. I heard not a sound at first; then a
rumbling; it was a passing carriage rolling above
my horrible tomb. For a few moments I think I
lost my consciousness once more. I am not sure,
however, on this point. Having again recovered
it, I endeavoured to grasp the full truth of my
position.

My friends were not near me, that was certain.

Now, had they left the catacombs, or were
they searching for me? That they discovered
they had lost me, almost immediately after I had
fainted, seemed to me certain. Then how was
it they had left the spot near which they had last
seen me? It was certain that, in looking for
me, they would take the line we had traversed.
Then why had they not found me? Suddenly
the awful truth flashed upon me. They had
thought, after calling to me many times and
receiving no answer, that I had tried to make
my way to the entrance. When they reached
it the half-hour was ended, and, the driver being
gone, they had believed him to have taken me
away, and so supposed me on my road to
England.

It was a terrible knowledge to gain, but I did
not utterly despair. I felt sure that the alarm
would be taken before I had been long enough
in my living tomb to die of starvation. But to
pass even four or five days underground, without
food or water, in a darkness which was
positively maddening——-

I could not remain inactive; I must do
something. What could I do?

My first question was, should I remain where
I lay? In the first place, such inaction would
kill me; in the second, it was needless: for,
as when the alarm should be taken every inch of
this subterranean world would be searched till I
should be found, it mattered not whither I
might have wandered— I should be equally safe
anywhere.

I got up, stretched my hand, and touched the
wall of skulls. I shrank to the ground again.
A few moments and I conquered my cowardice.
I declare to you, that within a few moments, and
purely by dint of gravely and kindly reasoning
with myself, I was able to touch the dead about
me with absolute calmness; nay, I could run
my hand over the shape of the skull with a kind
of curiosity.

My lamp was shivered into a thousand pieces.