various other interesting things, the bronze wolf suckling Romulus and
Remus, who sit beneath her dugs, with open mouths to receive the milk.

On Friday, we all went to see the Pope's Palace on the Quirinal. There
was a vast hall, and an interminable suite of rooms, cased with marble,
floored with marble or mosaics or inlaid wood, adorned with frescos on
the vaulted ceilings, and many of them lined with Gobelin tapestry; not
wofully faded, like almost all that I have hitherto seen, but brilliant
as pictures. Indeed, some of them so closely resembled paintings, that I
could hardly believe they were not so; and the effect was even richer
than that of oil-paintings. In every room there was a crucifix; but I
did not see a single nook or corner where anybody could have dreamed of
being comfortable. Nevertheless, as a stately and solemn residence for
his Holiness, it is quite a satisfactory affair. Afterwards, we went
into the Pontifical Gardens, connected with the palace. They are very
extensive, and laid out in straight avenues, bordered with walls of box,
as impervious as if of stone,--not less than twenty feet high, and
pierced with lofty archways, cut in the living wall. Some of the avenues
were overshadowed with trees, the tops of which bent over and joined one
another from either side, so as to resemble a side aisle of a Gothic
cathedral. Marble sculptures, much weather-stained, and generally
broken-nosed, stood along these stately walks; there were many fountains
gushing up into the sunshine; we likewise found a rich flower-garden,
containing rare specimens of exotic flowers, and gigantic cactuses, and
also an aviary, with vultures, doves, and singing birds. We did not see
half the garden, but, stiff and formal as its general arrangement is, it
is a beautiful place,--a delightful, sunny, and serene seclusion.
Whatever it may be to the pope, two young lovers might find the Garden of
Eden here, and never desire to stray out of its precincts. They might
fancy angels standing in the long, glimmering vistas of the avenues.