ss which
weighed down my own heart, had quite deadened my once quick sense of
pleasure, but left me still some perception of the splendour and
classical interest of the glorious scenes around me, combined as it
was with all the enchantment of natural beauty--

"----The music and the bloom
And all the mighty ravishment of spring."

TOLSE AI MARTIRI OGNI CONFIN, CHI AL CORE TOGLIER POTEO
LA LIBERTA DEL PIANTO!

O ye blue luxurious skies!
Sparkling fountains,
Snow-capp'd mountains,
Classic shades that round me rise!

Towers and temples, hills and groves,
Scenes of glory,
Fam'd in story,
Where the eye enchanted roves!

O thou rich embroider'd earth!
Opening flowers,
Leafy bowers,
Sights of gladness, sounds of mirth!

Why to my desponding heart,
Darkly thinking,
Sadly sinking,
Can ye no delight impart?[Q]

_Sunday, 31._--To-day the Holy week begins, and a kind of programma of
the usual ceremonies of each day was laid on my toilette this morning.
The bill of fare for this day runs thus:--

"Domenica delle Palme, nel Capella Papale nel Palazzo Apostolico,
canta messa un Cardinal Prete. Il Sommo Pontefice fa la benedizione
delle Palme, con processione per la Sala Regia."

I gave up going to the English service accordingly, and consented to
accompany R** and V** to the Pope's Chapel. We entered just as the
ceremony of blessing the palms was going on: a cardinal officiated for
the poor old pope, who is at present ill.

After the palms had been duly blessed, they were carried in procession
round the splendid anti-chamber, called the Sala Regia; meantime the
chapel doors were closed upon them, and on their return, they (not the
palms, but the priests) knocked and demanded entrance in a fine
recitative; two of the principal voices replied from within; the choir
without sung a response, and after a moment's silence the doors were
opened, and the service went on.

This was very trivial and tedious. Rospo said, very truly, that the
procession in Blue Beard was much better _got up_. All these
processions sound very fine in mere description, but in the reality
there is always something to disappoint or disgust; something which
leaves either a ludicrous or a painful impression on the mind. The old
priests and cardinals to-day looking like so many old beggar-women
dressed up in the cast-off finery of a Christmas p