eters and attended by the Cardinals
and the ambassadors and other dignitaries in the full dress of their
ceremonial costumes and their orders, the reality is less impressive.
Some feminine enthusiasts fare forth at the heroic hour of eight,
although the procession is not announced to pass until a quarter after
ten (which in Italy should be translated as a quarter after eleven, at
the earliest, if not after twelve, which would be the more probable), in
order to secure good standing room. For everybody is to stand--of
course, comfort being a thing conspicuous only by its absence in Italy!
Those of us too well aware by the experiences of previous visits to
Italy that no Italian function was ever on time, from the starting of a
railway train to the crowning of a king, only betake ourselves to the
glories of the Palazzo Vaticano at the hour named, and we have then--as
one's prophetic soul or his commonplace memory warned him--to wait more
than an hour wedged into a dense crowd of all nationalities, none of
whom seem at this particular juncture, at least, to be at all
overburdened with good manners. And what went they out for to seek?
Instead of an impressive spectacle--a thing to remember for a
lifetime--one merely sees Pius X walking, surrounded by his Cardinals in
a group,--not a procession,--he alone in the centre with his mitre on
his head,--the whole scene hardly lasting over a minute, and as his
Holiness is not as tall as most of his Cardinals, he is almost hidden
from view. It had been rumored that the Pope was to be borne aloft in
the Papal chair, preceded by the traditional white fan and the silver
trumpets; but the present Pope is temperamentally inclined to minimize
all the ceremonials investing his sacred office.

Yet there is always a thrill in entering the Vatican. To ascend that
splendid _Scala Regia_ designed by Bernini, with one of the most
ingeniously treated perspective effects to be found, it may be, in the
entire world; to cross this _Scala_ with its interesting frescoes by
Salviati and others; to see at near range the picturesque Swiss
Guard,--surely any pretext to enjoy such a morning is easily accepted of
whatever occurrence one may grasp in order to obtain the hour.

One curious feature of the past is to-day equally in evidence in Rome.
Strolling at any time into the Church of San Agostino one beholds a
curious spectacle. It is in this church that is placed the beautiful
bronze statue of the Virgin