n if turned into money to give her
grandchildren education and prospects in life. The same old lady
left her vineyard, not to these children, but to her confessor, a
well-endowed Monsignor, who occasionally asks this youth, his
godson, to dinner! Children so placed are not quite such devotees to
Catholicism as the new proselytes of America;--they are not so much
patted on the head, and things do not show to them under quite the
same silver veil.

The church of Ara Coeli is on or near the site of the temple of
Capitoline Jove, which certainly saw nothing more idolatrous than
these ceremonies. For about a week the Bambino is exhibited in an
illuminated chapel, in the arms of a splendidly dressed Madonna doll.
Behind, a transparency represents the shepherds, by moonlight, at the
time the birth was announced, and, above, God the Father, with many
angels hailing the event. A pretty part of this exhibition, which I
was not so fortunate as to hit upon, though I went twice on purpose,
is the children making little speeches in honor of the occasion.
Many readers will remember some account of this in Andersen's
"Improvvisatore."

The last time I went was the grand feast in honor of the Bambino. The
church was entirely full, mostly with Contadini and the poorer people,
absorbed in their devotions: one man near me never raised his head
or stirred from his knees to see anything; he seemed in an anguish of
prayer, either from repentance or anxiety. I wished I could have
hoped the ugly little doll could do Mm any good. The noble stair
which descends from the great door of this church to the foot of the
Capitol,--a stair made from fragments of the old imperial time,--was
flooded with people; the street below was a rapid river also, whose
waves were men. The ceremonies began with splendid music from the
organ, pealing sweetly long and repeated invocations. As if answering
to this call, the world came in, many dignitaries, the Conservatori,
(I think conservatives are the same everywhere, official or no,) and
did homage to the image; then men in white and gold, with the candles
they are so fond here of burning by daylight, as if the poorest
artificial were better than the greatest natural light, uplifted high
above themselves the baby, with its gilded robes and crown, and made
twice the tour of the church, passing twice the column labelled "From
the Home of Augustus," while the band played--what?--the Hymn to Pius
IX. and "Sons of Rome