o, was the number of
carriages which followed the Royal cortege to the Pontifical palace of St
Peter's."

To this I can only say, that many things are visible to the eye of faith,
and hidden to the common world. To my unenlightened vision, the crowd of
three miles in length was composed of a thousand persons in all; and the
infinite number of carriages looked uncommonly like sixty.

And now for the converse picture.

The "Promised Land."

Out of chill clouds and dull gloom, I passed into summer sunshine. Across
barren moor-land and more barren mountains, by the side of marshy lakes,
deserted and malaria-haunted, through squalid villages and decayed
cities, my journey brought me into a rich garden-country, studded with
thriving towns swarming with life, and watered with endless streams. I
came into a land such as children of Israel never looked upon from over
Jordan, after their weary wanderings in the wilderness; a land rich in
oil and corn, and vineyards and cattle; a very "land of promise." This,
indeed, is the true Italy, the Italy of which all poets of all time have
sung; and whose likeness all artists have sought to draw, and sought in
vain. The sight, however, of this wondrous beauty was not new to me who
write; still less is its record new to you who read. With this much of
tribute let it pass unnoticed. Fortunately, it was my lot to see the
promised land of Italy as for centuries past she has not been seen. I
saw her free, and rejoicing in her freedom. Then let me seek to recall
such of the epochs in that right royal progress--when the chosen King
came to take possession of his promised land--as stand most clearly
forth.

I remember once seeing a collection of Indian portraits. There were
rajahs and dervishes, jugglers and dancing-girls, depicted in every
variety of garb and posture. For the whole set, however, there was but
one face. Each portrait had a hole where the face should have been, and
the picture was completed by placing the one head beneath the blank
opening. In fact, you had one face beneath a hundred different
draperies. So also, in my wanderings, I saw but one picture in a dozen
frames; one sight in many cities. At some, the flags may have waved more
gaily; at some again the lamps may have sparkled more brilliantly, and at
others the crowd may have cheered more lustily; but the substance of the
sight was the same throughout. Everywhere, some half-dozen of dusty open
car