erson, and returns in it to his parsonage. The monarch himself
forms no exception to this rule. Ferdinand VII., after his return from
France, subject entirely to the clergy, and desiring to give them his
support, performed this customary duty on several occasions. But as the
clergy abused this courtesy and the facility with which the sovereign was
made to lend himself to their wishes, and as it became a fixed plan to
set out at such a time and in such a direction as to make these
processions fall in his way as he was returning from the Prado, the
custom was at last found insupportable; and, therefore, it frequently
happened that, on seeing the lights preceding the _Viatico_, the king
ordered his coachman to turn back and take another direction, so as to
avoid the inconvenience of coming in contact with the procession. Queen
Isabella II. has been frequently obliged to discharge this act of
devotion. On those occasions she not only placed her carriage at the
disposition of the officiating priest, but, with a wax candle in her
hand, formed part of the procession, entered the house of the patient,
however humble, assisted in the ceremony, kneeling on her knees, and if
the sick person was poor, defrayed the expenses attendant on the illness,
and, if death ensued, on the burial of the sufferer. To those who
believe in the doctrine of the bodily presence of Jesus Christ in the
eucharist this act contains a sublime lesson of humiliation and
reverence; for to see the pomp and power of an earthly potentate
resigned, so to speak, before the presence of God, must certainly be to
them a spectacle both moving and edifying.

Those persons who are prevented by acute, although not dangerous,
diseases, from attending the churches in compliance with the paschal
precept, are also privileged to have the _viatico_ in a splendid
procession once a-year. This ceremony is attended by all the
brotherhoods and principal people of the parish. The grandees of Spain,
and the richest inhabitants of the neighbourhood, send the best of all
their carriages on those occasions. The balconies are covered with
ornaments, and the fair occupants scatter abroad a profusion of flowers,
and copies of rude engravings of devout subjects, which are called
_aleluyas_, towards the coach in which the priest is conveyed. Numerous
bands of music accompany the cavalcade, which is escorted by a strong
detachment of troops. Every time that the priest descends from