ue of Pope Gregory XIII and a magnificent
bas-relief, the subject of which is the reform of the calendar by that
Pope. Here too is a monument to Christina Queen of Sweden, and a bas-relief
representing her abjuration of the Lutheran Faith.

But why should I attempt to detail all these monuments, while it would
require folios for the purpose; let me rather introduce you to the hero and
tutelary saint of this sanctuary. St Peter, a superb bronze statue
something above the usual size of men, is seated on a curule chair in the
nave of the church on the right hand side as you approach the baldachin. He
holds in his hands the keys of Heaven. He receives the adoration of all the
faithful who enter into this temple, and this adoration is performed by
kissing his foot which, from the repeated kissings, is become of a bright
polish and is visibly wearing away. The statue was formerly a statue of
Jupiter Capitolinus, but on the grand revolution among the inhabitants of
Olympus and the downfall of Jupiter, it was broken to pieces, melted down
and fabricated into an image of St Peter, so that this statue has lost
little of its former sovereignty and still rules Heaven and Earth if not
with regal, with at least vice-regal power, tho' under a different name.

In the Sistine Chapel is the celebrated painting al fresco of the day of
Judgment by Michel Angelo, an aweful subject and nobly and awefully
executed.

In the porch under the facade of St Peter's are two marble statues on
horseback, one at each end of the porch: they represent Constantine the
Great and Charlemagne, the two great benefactors of the holy Catholic
Church; the one, in fact, its founder, the other its preserver.

As the Palace of the Vatican stands close to the Church of St Peter's and
communicates with it by an _escalier_, I ascended the _escalier_ in order
to behold and examine the famous Museum of the Vatican, the first in the
world, and unique for the vast treasures of the fine arts that it contains;
treasures which the united wealth of all Europe and India to boot could not
purchase at their just price. Here in fact it may be said are preserved the
riches and plunder of the whole world, which was stripped of all its
valuables by those illustrious brigands the ancient Romans. And mark in
this point the good fortune of Rome; instead of losing them again as other
nations have lost their trophies, Superstition came to her aid and caused
them to be respected and pre