Page:Life in Mexico vol 1.djvu/217



 Palm Sunday — Holy Thursday — Variety of costumes — San Francisco — Santo Domingo — Santa Teresa — Nuns — Stone bust — The Academy — Religious procession — Pilgrimage to the Churches — Santa Clara — Nun's voice — Orange-trees and rose-bushes — The Cathedral illuminated — Our Saviour in chains — Good Friday — The great Square towards Evening — Dresses of men, women and children — Approach of the Host — Judas — Great Procession — Misèrere — The square by moonlight — A lonely walk — Sabado de gloria — Ball in contemplation — Weekly Soirées — Embroidered muslins — A Tertulia at home.

21st April.

the morning of Palm Sunday, I went to the Cathedral, accompanied by Mademoiselle de daughter of the  Minister. We found it no easy matter to make our way through the crowd, but at last, by dint of patience and perseverance, and changing our place very often, we contrived to arrive very near the great altar; and there we had just taken up our position, when a disinterested man gave us a friendly hint, that as the whole procession, with their branches, must inevitably squeeze past the very spot where we were, we should probably be crushed or suffocated; consequently we followed him to a more convenient station, also close to the altar and defended by the railing, where we found ourselves tolerably well off. Two ladies, to whom he made the same