Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/226

236 Such music as that I never heard before, but it is true that I have felt love and suffering, the desire of self-sacrifice and the joy of self-sacrifice, which resembled these penetrating tones! The darkening of the church during the music, added in no small degree to the impression on my mind, which lay entirely in the power of the tones, in those spiritual depths which they revealed. It would not be possible to linger long upon them and live.

The throng and the fatigue, subdued, however, the feelings. No sooner was the mass over, than they were hurled out of the kingdom of heaven, and transformed into a corps de garde, by the rude behavior of the Swiss guard to the auditors, in their officious zeal to make room for Queen Maria Christina, who, panting and short of breath, and now looking very ugly, staggered down the stairs.

Later in the day, we saw the splendid illumination in the chapel of St Paul.

Easter Sunday.—The gallery erected for strangers, in St. Peter's, was already filled from 7 to 8 o'clock in the morning. The ladies wore black dresses and vails, the whole church, however, had laid aside its mourning array, and shone out in full splendor, as did also the sun, which seems to smile upon all the festivals of Rome. Ladies who arrive after 8 o'clock, are obliged, spite of their entrance cards, to stand or sit upon the floor of the church. One sits or stands, and waits till twelve o'clock, when the Pope first makes his entrance, borne aloft, as usual, on men's shoulders, surrounded by peacock's feathers and