The desperate compact of the guests, now that its execution
had actually begun, awed them at first in spite of themselves. At
length, when there was a lull of all sounds--when a temporary calm
prevailed over the noises outside--when the wine-cups were emptied, and
left for a moment ere they were filled again--Vetranio feebly rose, and,
announcing with a mocking smile that he was about to speak a funeral
oration over his friends and himself, pointed to the wall immediately
behind him as to an object fitted to awaken the astonishment or the
hilarity of his moody guests.
Against the upper part of the wall were fixed various small statues in
bronze and marble, all representing the owner of the palace, and all
hung with golden plates. Beneath these appeared the rent-roll of his
estates, written in various colours on white vellum, and beneath that,
scratched on the marble in faint irregular characters, was no less an
object than his own epitaph, composed by himself. It may be translated
thus:--
Stop, Spectator!
If thou has reverently cultivated the pleasures of the taste, pause amid
these illustrious ruins of what was once a palace, and peruse with
respect on this stone the epitaph of VETRANIO, a senator.
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