selves
on that occasion, above a hundred persons,, nearly all females,
came forward, uttering howlings and groans, so terrible that I
shall never cease to shudder when I recall them. They appeared
to drag each other forward, and on the word being given, "let us
pray," they all fell on their knees; but this posture was soon
changed for others that permitted greater scope for the
convulsive movements of their limbs; and they were soon all
lying on the ground in an indescribable confusion of heads and
legs. They threw about their limbs with such incessant and
violent motions, that I was every instant expecting some serious
accident to occur.

But how am I to describe the sounds that proceeded from this
strange mass of human beings? I know no words which can convey
an idea of it. Hysterical sobbings, convulsive groans, shrieks
and screams the most appalling, burst forth on all sides. I felt
sick with horror. As if their hoarse and over strained voices
failed to make noise enough, they soon began to clap their hands
violently. The scene described by Dante was before me:-

"Quivi sospiri, pianti, ed alti guai
Risonavon per l'aere--
--Orribili favelle
Parole di dolore, accenti d'ira
Voci alti e floche, e suon di man con elle."

Many of these wretched creatures were beautiful young females.
The preachers moved about among them, at once exciting and
soothing their agonies. I heard the muttered "Sister! dear
sister!" I saw the insidious lips approach the cheeks of the
unhappy girls; I heard the murmured confessions of the poor
victims, and I watched their tormentors, breathing into their
ears consolations that tinged the pale cheek with red. Had I
been a man, I am sure I should have been guilty of some rash
act of interference; nor do I believe that such a scene could
have been acted in the presence of Englishmen without instant
punishment being inflicted; not to mention the salutary
discipline of the treadmill, which, beyond all question, would,
in England, have been applied to check so turbulent and so
vicious a scene.

After the first wild burst that followed their prostration, the
meanings, in many instances, became loudly articulate; and I then
experienced a strange vibration between tragic and comic feeling.

A very pretty girl, who was kneeling in the attitude of Canova's
Magdalene immediately before us, amongst an immense quantity of
jargon, broke out thus: "Woe! woe to the bac