e vaults,
seem like pigmies, compared with the images of the dead. There is around
the cross, a space which it lights up, where the Pope clad in white is
seen prostrate, with all the cardinals ranged behind him. They remain
there for half an hour in the most profound silence, and it is
impossible not to be moved at this spectacle. We know not the subject
of their prayers; we hear not their secret groanings; but they are old,
they precede us in the journey to the tomb. When we in our turn pass
into that terrible advance guard, may God by his grace so ennoble our
age, that the decline of life may be the first days of immortality!

Corinne, also,--the young and beautiful Corinne,--was kneeling behind
the train of priests, and the soft light reflected on her countenance,
gave it a pale hue, without diminishing the lustre of her eyes. Oswald
contemplated her as a beautiful picture--a being that inspired
adoration. When her prayer was concluded she arose. Lord Nelville dared
not yet approach her, respecting the religious meditation in which he
thought her plunged; but she came to him first with a transport of
happiness; and this sentiment pervading all her actions, she received
with a most lively gaiety, all those who accosted her in St Peter's,
which had become, all at once, a great public promenade, and a
rendezvous to discuss topics of business or pleasure.

Oswald was astonished at this mobility which caused such opposite
impressions to succeed each other; and though the gaiety of Corinne gave
him pleasure, he was surprised to find in her no trace of the emotions
of the day. He did not conceive how, upon so solemn, a day, they could
permit this fine church to be converted into a Roman _cafe_, where
people met for pleasure; and beholding Corinne in the midst of her
circle, talking with so much vivacity, and not thinking on the objects
that surrounded her, he conceived a sentiment of mistrust as to the
levity of which she might be capable. She instantly perceived it, and
quitting her company abruptly, she took the arm of Oswald to walk with
him in the church, saying, "I have never held any conversation with you
upon my religious sentiments--permit me to speak a little upon that
subject now; perhaps I shall be able to dissipate those clouds which I
perceive rising in your mind."

Chapter v.

"The difference of our religions, my dear Oswald," continued Corinne,
"is the cause of that secret censure which you cannot