Page:Impressions of Spain in 1866.djvu/147

Rh mostly women (were not women the first at the sepulchre ?), kneeling before the tabernacle, or by the little lamps burning here and there in the side chapels. Each heart was pouring forth its secret burden of sorrow or of sin into the Sacred Heart which had been so lately pierced to receive it. At two in the morning matins began, ^ Haec dies quam fecit Dominus ;' and after matins a mag- nificent Te Deum, pealed forth by those gigantic organs, and sung by the whole strength of the choir and by the whole body of voices of the crowd, which by that time had filled every available kneel- ing space in the vast cathedral. Then came a procession ; all the choristers in red cassocks, with white cottas and little gold diadems. High mass followed, and then low masses at all the side altars, with hundreds of communicants, and the Kussian salutation of * Christ is risen ! ' on every tongue. It was ' a night to be remembered,' as indeed was all this Holy Week : and now people seemed too happy to speak ; joy says short words and few ones. Many have asked : ^ Is it equal to Jerusalem or Kome ? ' In point of services, 'Yes;' in point of interest, ' No : ' for the presence of the Holy Father in the one place, and the vividness of recollection which the actual scenes of our Blessed Lord's Passion inspires in the other, must