his affidavit as to
the number of soldiers. The interior area of the building is not much
greater than the square of St. Mark in Venice. To go into the great
edifice is almost like going outdoors. Lines of soldiers kept a wide
passage clear from the front door away down to the high altar; and
there was a good mass of spectators on the outside. The tribunes for the
ladies, built up under the dome, were of course, filled with masses of
ladies in solemn black; and there was more or less of a press of people
surging about in that vicinity. Thousands of people were also roaming
about in the great spaces of the edifice; but there was nowhere else
anything like a crowd. It had very much the appearance of a large
fair-ground, with little crowds about favorite booths. Gentlemen in
dress-coats were admitted to the circle under the dome. The pope's choir
was stationed in a gallery there opposite the high altar. Back of the
altar was a wide space for the dignitaries; seats were there, also, for
ambassadors and those born to the purple; and the pope's seat was on
a raised dais at the end. Outsiders could see nothing of what went on
within there; and the ladies under the dome could only partially see, in
the seats they had fought so gallantly to obtain.

St. Peter's is a good place for grand processions and ceremonies; but it
is a poor one for viewing them. A procession which moves down the nave
is hidden by the soldiers who stand on either side, or is visible only
by sections as it passes: there is no good place to get the grand effect
of the masses of color, and the total of the gorgeous pageantry. I
should like to see the display upon a grand stage, and enjoy it in a
coup d'oeil. It is a fine study of color and effect, and the groupings
are admirable; but the whole affair is nearly lost to the mass of
spectators. It must be a sublime feeling to one in the procession to
walk about in such monstrous fine clothes; but what would his emotions
be if more people could see him! The grand altar stuck up under the dome
not only breaks the effect of what would be the fine sweep of the nave
back to the apse, but it cuts off all view of the celebration of the
mass behind it, and, in effect, reduces what should be the great point
of display in the church to a mere chapel. And when you add to that the
temporary tribunes erected under the dome for seating the ladies, the
entire nave is shut off from a view of the gorgeous ceremony of high
mass.