The place into which the relics
were brought, one by one, by a party of three priests, was a high
balcony near the chief altar. This was the only lighted part of
the church. There are always a hundred and twelve lamps burning
near the altar, and there were two tall tapers, besides, near the
black statue of St. Peter; but these were nothing in such an
immense edifice. The gloom, and the general upturning of faces to
the balcony, and the prostration of true believers on the pavement,
as shining objects, like pictures or looking-glasses, were brought
out and shown, had something effective in it, despite the very
preposterous manner in which they were held up for the general
edification, and the great elevation at which they were displayed;
which one would think rather calculated to diminish the comfort
derivable from a full conviction of their being genuine.
On the Thursday, we went to see the Pope convey the Sacrament from
the Sistine chapel, to deposit it in the Capella Paolina, another
chapel in the Vatican;--a ceremony emblematical of the entombment
of the Saviour before His Resurrection.
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