While Cæsar's chambers and the Augustan halls
Grovel on earth in indistinct decay.

And thou didst shine, thou rolling Moon, upon

All this, and cast a wide and tender light,
Which soften'd down the hoar austerity
Of rugged desolation, and fill'd up

As 'twere anew, the gap of centuries;
Leaving that beautiful which still was so,
And making that which was not, till the place
Became religion, and the heart ran o'er
With silent worship of the great of old!

The dead but scepter'd sovereigns who still rule
Our spirits from their urns."

Beautiful, however, as is the aspect of the splendid amphitheatre by moonlight, there are no circumstances under which it is more interesting than when religion has entered within its precincts, and the arena is hallowed with the footsteps of a prayerful multitude, as they follow the barefoot friar through the mournful stations of the Via Dolorosa. Any Friday and Sunday, between three and four o'clock, if you are walking near the Coliseum, you may catch the soul-touching words of the Stabat Mater as they float melodiously through arch or window; and entering, you may behold some poor Franciscan father, with coarse brown garb and shorn head, leading a pious and attentive congregation through the beautiful form of devotion I have mentioned. If we have any desire for the triumph of religion and the fall of pride and cruelty, we must be pleased indeed at this holy sight. Here, on this very arena, which was once red with her blood, the Church of God is now victorious; and the great monument of fallen power that so often resounded with the barbarous applause

D

of the Pagan Romans, now re-echoes with no other sound save the pious chant or solemn prayer of their Christian descendants. You will easily represent to yourself the purposes for which this devout band would have appeared here in other days: the poor monk perhaps to be consumed by fire or torn by the jaws of ravening beasts, and his followers to fall beneath the sword, or to expire amid the more horrid tortures which the odious spirit of persecution and fanaticism sometimes invented. The groups around will help you to form many a picture, too, of those cruel days when the mild spouse of Christ was infamous in the eyes of a Roman. You may imagine that strong man with arms folded on his breast, some heroic youth, who with firm determination stands prepared to meet all the fury of his relentless persecutors; and the tender girl by his side you may fancy some feeble virgin, whose burning faith inspires her with courage, beyond her age and sex, to endure the inhuman sufferings which await her. That aged couple, bent in prayer, will bring to your imagination scenes where a long life, adorned with every virtue, received its final reward in the crown of martyrdom; and the infant that clings to its mother's knee will remind you that not even the innocence of children sheltered them from that hell-born hate and rage which pursued everything that bore the name of Christian. And then looking to the ruined benches, you may picture to yourself the brutal crowd, who, with scoffing shout and gesture of scorn, applaud the horrible spectacles enacted for their amusement, and insult the agonized victims of their cruelty.

From these thoughts, perhaps, you are awakened by the impressive voice of the friar, who is delivering a discourse to his attentive auditory; and at such a moment how striking is the contrast to the subjects of your imagining! You start from your awful dreams to rejoice that they are no longer true, but that the very persons whom in fancy you saw "butchered to make a Roman holiday," enjoy the benefits of their religion on the same spot where their forefathers, in terrible reality, shed the last drop of their blood for professing it. I well recollect, one bright spring evening that I came here, how much I was pleased with the simple but touching sermon of one of those good fathers. He spoke on "Humility," and eloquently, indeed, he drew for his hearers an appropriate lesson from the fall of their proud ancestors, whose greatness of power and vastness of dominion were typified by the splendid ruin in which they stood. He exhorted them to put their glory in naught save the Cross of Christ, and to pursue with patience the way of suffering and humiliation which He had traced for them with His blood. His words were peculiarly affecting, and coming from such a man, whose order is one of the most zealous in cultivating this heavenly virtue, I am sure they made a deep impression on all who heard them. When he descended from the pulpit to perform the "Stations," looking at his poor dress and mild demeanour, I could not but feel that he at least practised what he preached.

And now let us take our leave of the Coliseum. As we follow the procession that moves slowly out through its mighty arch, and glance at the massive masonry and

enduring grandeur of the stupendous amphitheatre, we feel inclined to cry out in the proverbial language of the Venerable Bede :-"Quamdiu stabit Colyseus, stabit et Roma; quando cadet Colyseus, cadet Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus."-"As long as the Coliseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Coliseum falls, Rome will fall; when Rome falls, the world will fall.'

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CHAPTER V.

MY FIRST VISIT TO THE VATICAN.

The Royal Staircase-Reflections-The Sala Regia-Brilliant Assembly -Capella Sistina-The Frescoes-The Last Judgment-The Cardinals-Anecdote of an Englishman-The Pope-Feelings on first beholding the Sovereign Pontiff-His Appearance-Opinion of a Protestant Clergyman-Anecdote of a noble Lady-Allusion to the Generosity of the Pope towards the Irish-Dignified Assembly of the Pope and the Princes of the Church-Midnight Mass-Mass at S. Luigi-Remark of a French Gentleman on the Appearance of the Holy Father and the Cardinals.

I ENTERED the Vatican* for the first time on the night of the Vigil of Christmas,† having come thither to attend the mass which is celebrated in the Capella Sistina on that occasion. Passing by the party-coloured halberdiers that kept guard upon the entrance, I soon reached Bernini's wonderful staircase-La Scala Regia, the royal staircase! and truly a royal work it is. With a bold spring it reaches the great entrance-hall by four majestic flights of marble steps, adorned with a doube row of beautiful Ionic pillars, and, taken altogetuer

* The name of this palace, which it takes from the hil or whe: stands, will not fail to remind the reader of those beaut. I Horace :