guards, some of them with corselets on, and by and by the pope himself
was borne up the nave, high over the heads of all, sitting under a
canopy, crowned with his tiara. He floated slowly along, and was set
down in the neighborhood of the high altar; and the procession being
broken up, some of its scattered members might be seen here and there,
about the church,--officials in antique Spanish dresses; Swiss guards, in
polished steel breastplates; serving-men, in richly embroidered liveries;
officers, in scarlet coats and military boots; priests, and divers other
shapes of men; for the papal ceremonies seem to forego little or nothing
that belongs to times past, while it includes everything appertaining to
the present. I ought to have waited to witness the papal benediction
from the balcony in front of the church; or, at least, to hear the famous
silver trumpets, sounding from the dome; but J----- grew weary (to say
the truth, so did I), and we went on a long walk, out of the nearest city
gate, and back through the Janiculum, and, finally, homeward over the
Ponto Rotto. Standing on the bridge, I saw the arch of the Cloaca
Maxima, close by the Temple of Vesta, with the water rising within two or
three feet of its keystone.

The same evening we went to Monte Cavallo, where, from the gateway of the
Pontifical Palace, we saw the illumination of St. Peter's. Mr. Akers,
the sculptor, had recommended this position to us, and accompanied us
thither, as the best point from which the illumination could be witnessed
at a distance, without the incommodity of such a crowd as would be
assembled at the Pincian. The first illumination, the silver one, as it
is called, was very grand and delicate, describing the outline of the
great edifice and crowning dome in light; while the day was not yet
wholly departed. As ------ finally remarked, it seemed like the
glorified spirit of the Church, made visible, or, as I will add, it
looked as this famous and never-to-be-forgotten structure will look to