the
troops then marched off to the rattle of drums. In the evening the
dome of St. Peter's was illuminated, first with lights under coloured
glasses, and then with white lights of greatest brilliancy. It was
difficult to conceive how the change could be effected with such
rapidity; however, the spectacle was as beautiful as it was
remarkable. The same evening, too, gorgeous fireworks were set off at
the castle of St. Angelo. Myriads of bombs and fire balloons were sent
into the air; the final display was the most magnificent to be seen of
the kind, and the reflection of these splendid fireworks in the Tiber
doubled their effect.

In Rome, where everything is grand, the great mansions have no
wretched lamps before them, but each palace is provided with enormous
candelabras, from which stream gigantic flames that shed day, so to
speak, over the whole city. This luxurious manner of lighting strikes
a stranger the more as the streets of Rome are mostly illuminated by
the lamps burning in front of the Madonnas.

Strangers are attracted to Rome far more by Holy Week than by the
carnival, at which I was not surprised. The masqueraders establish
themselves in tiers, disguised as harlequins, as pulcinellos, etc.,
just as we see them on the boulevards in Paris, the difference being
that in Rome they never stir. I saw only a single young man going
about the streets after the French fashion. He was giving a lifelike
imitation of a very affected exquisite whom we had no difficulty in
recognising. The carriages and wagons come and go full of richly
costumed people. The horses are adorned with feathers, ribbons, and
bells, the servants being dressed up as Scaramouche or Harlequin, but
it all passes off in the quietest way in the world. Finally, toward
evening, several discharges of cannon announce the horse-races, which
enliven the rest of the day.

There is no town in the world where one could pass one's time as
delightfully as in Rome, even were one deprived of all the resources
which good society offers. The walks within the walls are a joy, for
one is never tired of revisiting the Coliseum, the Capitol, the
Pantheon, the square of St. Peter's with its colonnades, its superb
obelisk, and its lovely fountains, across which the rays of the sun
often throw beautiful rainbows. The square is wonderfully impressive
at sunset and in the moonlight. Whether it was on my way or not, I
always took pleasure in crossing it.

What astonis