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thirteen candles are burning, as a symbol of the candelabrum in the temple of Jerusalem; others however, say of our Savior, and his twelve disciples. Every eye is directed towards the throne; the Pope giving the signal, the "miserere mei" is commenced, and at once the chapel is rendered vocal by a hundred voices. To describe the effect, and impression which it produces upon the senses, is beyond the power of human language. Ecclesiastical splendor flashing on every side in a thousand forms, military, and diplomatic decorations of all the courts of Europe, the display of the ladies, and other fascinations beggar all des cription. In addition to this, the paintings of the most renowned masters of Italy, the best performers of the theatrical artists, and choresters, and the most unrivalled voices of Eunuchs, are too overpowering to be depicted. After every psalm a candle is extinguished, until the last, which remains the only one burning in the whole chapel. We can see the colors gradually darken, and the figures of the paintings by degrees lose their form, a striking symbol of the papal power, which is loosing its influence, and gradually fading away like the twilight of the evening.

Saturday before Easter, at twelve o'clock the bells are heard from every steeple, the clouds are

rent by their sounds, and the earth trembles from the roaring of the canon from Fort St. Angelo; the ears are deafened by the merry clamors of the children in the streets, and the reports of pistols fired nearly in every house. The remembrance of that joyful spectacle produces now a very different sensation in my heart, for I know the Savior has risen from the dead, and I with him.

Saturday evening at seven o'clock, P. M. every dwelling, where an image of a Madonna, or any saint is stationed for the houses are illuminated,1 altars are erected, lytanies are sung; and prayers upon bended knees are offered to those saints, all these in the middle of the streets. In the meantime the multitude of the (so called) better class of the inhabitants of Rome are directed toward St. Peter's, where the grandest, and most imposing spectacle is to be seen. But at the same time the most revolting to every moral sense, and religious feeling.

A cross (covered with brass, semetrically illuminated with thousands of lamps) is suspended

'It is the custom in Italy to have niches in the walls; the outside of the houses, in which the Virgin Mary, or some saint is placed, as a protector of the house, and family.

in the middle of the church. The reader may form some kind of an idea of the colossal height of that cross, when he is informed that its magnitude does apparently, not diminish even after be ing suspended at a tremendous height above the heads of the people. Round that cross you can see, promenading arm in arm, the lover with his dulcinea, as though promenading in a dancing saloon; chatting, laughing, and indulging in most irreverent acts, which would be considered an offence in a respectable hotel, these are committed publicly in the sanctuary, under the cross of Christ. As the church is entirely dark, except the light which the cross reflects in it, there are sometimes lovers of darkness, rather than of light; who often lose their way in the adjacent collonades, and chapels, where they perpetrate the most wicked acts, of which every honest man would blush, except the adorers of the cross in the church of St. Peter's. This spectacle lasts until eleven o'clock in the night; decency forbids me to say more, and constrains me to relinquish the subject of the adoration of the cross in St. Peter's at Rome.

Easter morning. The roaring of the cannon announces the ushering in of the morn; the har

monious sounds from the thousand steeples mitigate the roughness of the first, and invite the slumbering beauty to leave her couch, and prepare for the rendezvous given the last night under the illuminated cross.

Nine o'clock, A. M. The square of St. Peter's presents the most varied, and interesting spectacle, State carriages of all descriptions; the cardinals in their full dress, and suit, the ambassadors of all the foreign courts, with all the particular characteristics of their nations; carriages of the innumerable prelates, bishops, and chiefs of the monastic orders; two regiments of soldiers in arms; martial music, the spouting of the gigantic fountains; thousands, and ten thousands of pedestrians of every sex and class, dressed in their best garments, take their posts under the colonades, or other spots, as they think the most convenient; this lasts until one o'clock, P. M., so that the whole square is thronged with people. One o'clock is usually the time of the appearance of the Pope on the balcony of the church; a dead silence prevails throughout the whole mass of the people; every eye is directed to the spot, with watches in the hand, the minutes are counted; in the mean time the balcony

is filling with cardinals, bishops, and monks; the attention becomes so rivetted, that a sigh might be heard; at length the Pope appears in an arm chair carried upon the shoulders of eight persons between two gigantic fans. Then the deafening shouts of the people, the sonorous martial music, the roaring of the cannon rend the clouds. "Padre la santa benedizione," (father the holy blessing,) bursts from every mouth; the handkerchiefs are waved by the ladies, and the hats by the men. All prostrate themselves upon the ground, they receive the blessing from the Pope; a prelate then reads the so called "Bulla Coena Domini," in which the most horrible curses against the heretics, and infidels are pronounced, and a blessing upon all the faithful. Thus ends the spectacle for this time.

In the afternoon all the promenades are visited, the wine houses filled; the places of amusement enjoyed until the evening, when all again repair to the square of St. Peter's to enjoy the illumination of the cupola.' It is horrible to think, that

'The cupola is illuminated by three hundred persons, who are stationed with lightened torches within the interior, in order that they should not be seen, and as soon as the first stroke of seven o'clock is heard, they rush forward and light the lamps assigned unto each of them, so that in one minute the whole cupola

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