* * * * *
I started from Rome on the second of April with a _vetturino_, and on
arrival at Baccano, we struck off into a road on the right hand, and
arrived at Civita Castellana at a late hour. Civita Castellana merits no
further attention, except that it is supposed to stand on the site of the
ancient city of Veii. The following day at ten o'clock we reached the small
town of Narni. Here are the remains of a beautiful bridge, constructed over
the ravine, thro' which flows the river Nera, and which was built in the
time of Augustus. It affords a very favorable specimen of the Roman bridge
architecture. There is a small chapel here, and it contains, engraved on a
stone, a description of a miracle wrought here about four years ago by the
Virgin Mary, who saved the life of a postillion. He went into the river to
water his horses, when he was carried off by the torrent and would have
been drowned, had not the Virgin, on her aid being invoked, dashed into the
river and haled him out by the hair of his head. Of this story, to use a
phrase of old Josephus,[115] every one may believe as much as he thinks
proper; but certain it is that the postillion made oath (which oath is
registered) that his life was saved by the Virgin Mary in this manner, and
he has put up a votive tablet at her shrine, which remains to this day,
commemorative of the event.
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