Now, there are dozens of catacombs; the environs of Rome are honeycombed with them.

Think of that, and perhaps you will be able to form some idea of the vast number of people who were buried in this manner." Pierre listened, feeling greatly impressed.

He had once visited a coal pit in Belgium, and he here found the same narrow passages, the same heavy, stifling atmosphere, the same nihility of darkness and silence.
The flamelets of the candles showed merely like stars in the deep gloom; they shed no radiance around.

And he at last understood the character of this funereal, termite-like labour--these chance burrowings continued according to requirements, without art, method, or symmetry.

The rugged soil was ever ascending and descending, the sides of the gallery snaked: neither plumb-line nor square had been used.