Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/77

 to perform. The thrifty spirit of Clement XIII. included the gay bands of retainers amongst the items suppressed by his reform- ing Bull, so that now the Prince-Marshal has a less ostentatious, but also less costly guard, furnished by a contingent of Papal regulars. 'On coming home very tired and dying of cold,' is Stendhal's entry on the 14th February 1829, in his Promenades dans Rome, 'we observed that Don Agostino Chigi, Marshal of the Conclave, had at his door a guard of honour.'

It would be more than tedious to recount the prescriptive ceremonial for each of the nine days of preparation before entering Conclave. The first three are more particularly devoted to the obsequies of the Pope, which take place always at St. Peter's—the chapel of the Pontifical residence, and are marked by many striking rites, full of obscure symbolism, and quaint mementos of obsolete customs. Stendhal, who was in Rome at the death of Leo XII., and curiously followed the ceremonies of the interregnum, gives in his Promenades an excellent account of what is still practised. 'To-day the obsequies of the Pope began at St. Peter's,' he writes, 'and we were there from eleven