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THE SENATORS EQUIPAGES.

senator's equipages eclipsed all others in grandeur, brilliancy, and pageantry. The Senator and his retinue, and his attendant Conservatori, or Prefects, drive in three state coaches. He is attired in scarlet silk, and wears a massive gold chain and lace lappets, and over all a mantle of cloth of gold, lined with crimson silk, and with a very long train, which is supported by four beautiful little boys as pages, dressed in little silk small clothes, silk stockings, and crimson tunics, and little silk bonnets with waving plumes. As this gorgeous equipage swept past, and in a momentary gleam of sunshine, displayed those charming little cherubs, in their exquisite dresses, and the ringlets of their tresses round their sweet innocent countenances, they looked like a flitting, heavenly, visionary phantom of those "angel visits, few and far between". Thus those countless crowds of God's faithful people hurried on early this morning to the shrines of the Apostles, "to draw waters in joy from the fountains of salvation", to cleanse themselves from their imperfections, to put on the nuptial garment before the feast, to renovate their faith, and clothe themselves with every heavenly grace, and then bask during the midday Papal ceremonies in the heat and brilliancy of the meridian glories of the Resurrection! The gorgeous equipages, glowing in all the varnished colours of purple and gold, scarlet and vermillion, the occupants glittering in pendants and brilliants, the housings and liveries decorated with the richest laces, the tossing plumes from the horses' heads, and the waving ostrich feathers of the footmen, as they flitted past towards the waters of the Tiber in the distance, seemed to me like those flocks of birds of gorgeous plumage in tropical regions, the swan, the pelican, the parroquet, and bird of Paradise, flitting early on a summer's

BIRDS OF EASTERN CLIMES.

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"I have washed.

morning to the water, in one of those enchanting valleys of Ceylon, or of the Indian Isles, to sip of the limpid streamlet, to adjust their feathers by the reflection from the mirror of the placid lake, to bathe themselves, and renovate the brilliancy of their colours, and then retire to the groves of rhodedendrons to dry themselves and bask in the radiant glories of the meridian sun. "Lavi pedes meos, quomodo inquinabo illos ?"-Cant., v. my feet, how shall I defile them anew?" Those faithful people washed themselves, not in a limpid streamlet, but "in Mari Rubro", "in the Red Sea", "mirabile consecuti sunt iter, servientes præceptis tuis, ut invenirentur illæsi in aquis validis", and "Laverunt solas suas in sanguine Agni"." And they washed their garments in the blood of the Lamb". "Et assument pennas ut aquila". "And take wing as the eagle". The Papal banners were unfurled over the ramparts of the castle of San. Angelo, but fell from the staff-head in undisturbed, graceful folds of drapery, still and nerveless, in the motionless air on this calm, balmy morning. Nothing appears to me more expressive of calm repose and peace than a flowing banner, displaying no curve of motion, but perfectly at rest. The statue of the angel over the turrets displays an uplifted right arm, and a gesture potential and energetic. The contrast of the calm placidity of the banner with the energetic action of the angel warrior, seemed to me forcibly emblematic of the recent past struggle between St. Michael and the dragon, between the mighty Conqueror and death, which to-day has terminated in the triumph of the Omnipotent One. The angel's sword-arm is still and paralysed the banner is at rest-the serpent's head is crushed-death, I shall be thy death!-death is swallowed up in victory! O death! where is thy sting?-O grave!

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AGAPETUS I. AND PROCESSIONS.

where is thy victory? Peace on earth to men of good will! On the cardinals, princes, Senator, and ambassadors passing the guards, in front of the portcullis of the Castle of St. Angelo, they were saluted with presented arms, drooped colours, flourishing trumpets, and rolling drums. Thus the streaming floods of humanity flowed on as rolling rapids, till they lost themselves, as in a vast placid lake, in the piazza of St. Peter's.

The Procession.

HE origin of religious processions dates from a very early period of the Christian ages. Tertullian mentions that this usage existed so early as the year 250. Allusion is also made to its

prevalence by St. Augustine, St. Leo, and St. Ambrose. In those early ages the bishops, priests, and the entire congregation went in public procession to the cathedral for the celebration of all the solemn festivals, or to supplicate the divine clemency, as well as to express their thanksgiving for any signal favours. The word "procession" is derived from the word "processio", from procedendo, the Latin word signifying progressing, or advancing in the order of a lengthened line. Processions, as religious ceremonies, were first introduced, and ordered to be observed on Sundays and festival days, by Pope Agapetus I., who succeeded to the chair of Peter in the year 535, and was in order of succession the fifty-ninth Pope, and is venerated as a saint.

The Swiss, in their full dress vari-coloured uniform, in their burnished helmets and frills, and with halberds erect, stood attention as a guard of honour at the foot of

PRELATES, KNIGHTS, ESQUIRES.

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the royal staircase. For an hour previously to the commencement of the ceremonies, one continuous, culminating, moving column of cardinals, princes, ambassadors, prelates, generals, dignitaries, esquires, knights, and various officials, all draped in their ecclesiastical, military, diplomatical, and in their most brilliant and gorgeous costumes and uniforms, adorned with ribbands of different orders, heraldic insignia, crosses and stars, pendants and brilliants, sparkling like crystallizations in the rays of the gleaming sun, ascended in quick succession, and assembled in the royal and ducal halls, where they were marshalled in order of procession. The vast number of superb equipages and liveries, waving plumes from the horses' heads, and gaudy trappings, dispersed through the piazza, a waiting the return of their late princely occupants, converted the great area apparently into a parterre of blooming hyacinths, carnations, tulips, and roses, all bathed in the dews of a summer's morning, whose trickling drops flickered in prismatic sparkles brighter than jets of the most precious diamonds.

When all those entitled to walk in this most august of earthly processions had been marshalled in order by the heralds, the signal was given in the royal hall to move forward. The route passed the portals of the Paoline chapel, down the royal stairs to the foot of the colossal statue of Constantine, thence through the great vestibule, entering the Basilica by the bronze gates, and passing up the nave, through a passage lined by a double file of military, to the Confessional and Papal throne.

The procession assumed the most graceful serpentine curves as it wound from the first to the second flight of the gentle incline of this majestic stairs, passed into the towering vestibule and through the bronze gates. Seen

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A MOVING PYRAMID.

from the foot of the steps, looking upwards, it appeared like a moving pyramid, continually displaying its summit in a new, ever-varying, and flitting apex, crested by another and another gorgeously attired military chief, knight, cardinal, prince, or kingly potentate. It kept the mind strung to its utmost tension of anxious suspense and sensational excitement as to what it was next to expect, till eventually its lofty crest was crowned by the appearance of the Sovereign Pontiff, seated aloft on the "sedia gestatoria", or moveable throne draped in crimson velvet and gold, and borne by twelve "sediari”, dressed in red damask, whilst the Vicar of Christ himself wore a rich lama cope, and his most precious tiara all glittering with diamonds of the purest water. What a crest for such a pyramid! The view of the procession, with all its moving diversified officials and exalted dignitaries, terminating with the representative of Christ, vested in scarlet and crimson, purple and gold lace, damasks and bullion, military uniforms, shining swords, and halberd spears and lances, mitres, shorn heads, cowls, helmets, and tossing plumes, a tiara, and the flabelli or fans of peacocks' feathers borne behind the Pope, now shrouded in sombre passages, and again emerging thence into broad lights, seen in the distance under the fretted arches, and flanked by rows of Ionic columns, lined by the soldiers of the Grenadiers and Swiss Guards, presented to the eye every contrast of brilliant and subdued tint, all blending in harmony, and revealed a perspective of such singularly picturesque effect, of such grandeur and sublimity, as to transcend all that we have read of the pageantry of eastern story, or rather to seem as some visionary glimpse of the glories of the heavenly Jerusalem! Ah! words, language, powers of description, how you fail in