Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/123

 Rh they met and walked up and down together for recreation or for consultation. Also, the same hall has been the scene of many stirring encounters and sly colloquies. In the Pauline Chapel it was usual to erect six supplementary altars, whereat each Cardinal and Conclavist performed his appointed daily mass, while the Sistine was always set apart for voting operations. It was the polling-booth of the Conclave, and popular tradition even ascribes the injured condition of the painting on its walls and ceiling in great degree to the effect of the smoke from the balloting-papers regularly set on fire in the chapel after every unsuccessful ballot. No plea could enable a Cardinal, or anyone belonging to the establishment in Conclave, to extend his steps beyond the precincts of the first floor, all windows and apertures in which—especially the arches of the Loggie, running round the court of Saint Damasus—were jealously walled up, with only so much window left as must needs be preserved to let in an indispensable amount of light,—the spared panes being, however, protected against an illegitimate gaze by a covering of oilcloth. The doors at the top of the Scala Reggia, leading into the great