Only occasionally a house showed windows or doors lacking, while many were wholly unharmed.

Among the latter was one building in whose front wall a well-preserved Roman gravestone was set, its carving in high relief being still clearly outlined.

Here had once been entombed the ashes of Caius Longinis, a centurion of the third legion.

_Sit sibi terra levis!_ One of the door-posts had in ancient times served as a milestone, and the broad bench before the house was made from the lid of a sarcophagus, bearing an inscription which informed the archaeologist what saffron-haired Roman beauty had, centuries before, been laid to rest beneath it.
The riders drew rein before this house, and straightway an old woman of extraordinary ugliness stuck her head out of the little door.

Among the Wallachians one meets with the comeliest young women and the ugliest old hags.