Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/43

Rh there is still the Campagna with its wild brilliant vegetation, beyond lies the sea glistening in the sun, and above the brightest of skies, for since Sunday the weather has been glorious. So we came into Velletri, our first sleeping-place; there we found it was a great feast-day of the Church. Charming women with pretty, piquant faces were going in groups up and down the alleys, men with mantles on their shoulders stood grouped about the streets, the churches were hung with garlands of fresh leaves, and as we went by one of them we heard a serpent and several fiddles being played inside. A piece of fireworks had been prepared on the piazza. Then there was a clear, quiet sunset, and over the Pontine Marshes, now glowing with many tints, we could see our route of to-morrow stretching to the lonely points of rock that stand up on the horizon. After supper it occurred to me to go out again, and I discovered a sort of illumination; the streets were all alive, and when at last coming near the church I turned the corner, all of a sudden I saw the whole street lighted up on both sides with flaming torches, and a stream of people going along the middle of it closely packed together and quite delighted to see each other so clearly at night-time. I cannot describe how pleasant it was. The press was at its height in front of the church. I made my way inside, and found the little building full of people kneeling, all adoring the host exposed on the altar; no one said a word, and there was no music; the silence, the church flaming with light, the crowds of white-hooded women on their knees, all made an admirable picture.