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heart of the Virgin, who is therefore painted with sever daggers sticking in her breast, and adored as 'Nostra Signora de' sette dolori'-Our Lady of the seven Sor rows. The service of the Tre Ore is therefore divided into seven acts, between each of which there is a hymn. In every act, one of the seven set disserta tions, upon the sette parole' of Christ, is read-o begun to be read by a priest, who goes on until his lecture is interrupted by the preacher, who breaks in upon it at whatever part he pleases with a sermon (as they call it), or rather a tirade, of his own, which seems to be extempore, but which is previously learnt by rote. These dissertations drawing to a close, and the three hours having nearly expired 'Ecco il momento' cried the priest, and every body sank prostrate on the ground in tears; and sobs and groans, and cries, and one loud burst of agon filled the church- Ecco il momento! Già spir Gesù Cristo!-Già muore il nostro Redentore!-Gi finisce di vivere il nostro Padre !'-(The momen is come! Now Jesus Christ expires! Now our Re deemer dies! Now our Father ceases to live!)

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At length the preacher cried, Here they comethe holy men-to bear the body of our Redeemer t the sepulchre;' and from the side of the scene.issue forth a band of friars, clad in black, with whit scarfs tied across them, and, gradually climbin Mount Calvary by a winding path among the rock and bushes, reached the foot of the cross unmo lested by the paper centurions. But when they be gan to unnail the body, it is utterly impossible t describe the shrieks, and cries, and clamours c grief, that burst from the people. At the unloos ening of every nail, they were renewed with fres vehemence, and the sobs and tears of the me were almost as copious as those of the wome -Five prayers, separately addressed to the fiv

at of the right foot, and so of the two hands, astly, of the side, were next repeated. They nearly the same, and all began, 'Vi adoro, Santissima'-(I adore you, most holy wound.) ody of Christ being laid on a bier, decked rtificial flowers, and covered with a transpaeil, was brought down Mount Calvary by the en, as the preacher called them,-who ded it on the front of the stage, where all the › thronged to kiss the toe through the veil, and over it'. The congregation consisted of all from the prince to the beggar, but there was a derance of the higher classes".

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Illuminated Cross of St. Peter's, and the adoof the Pope and the cardinals, form the atons on the evening of Good Friday. On this on,' says Lady Morgan, thousands of all ranks ountries pour into the church, where no tickets mission are required; yet the mighty temple, for the universe, still seems half empty. Many dim aisles afford an asylum for retiring piety; e vastness of the whole, contemplated through -managed obscurity, seems to extend beyond al limits, and to be lost in immeasurable disThe hundred lamps, which, in their bright sockets, burn day and night round the sepulof St. Peter's, are this day extinguished. A of flame suspended from the cupola, before ldachin of the high altar, alone lights the imte space over which it hangs, and leaves all n the majesty of darkness, here and there dispersed by a twinkling lamp. That illu

body was made of pasteboard, extremely well painted for it had real hair on the head, and it was so well executed, ʼn when closely viewed, it was marked with the agony of nature, med to have recently expired.

'Rome in the Nineteenth Century,' vol. iii, pp. 146-152; partipp. 148-149, for some specimens of the very extraordinary e used by the priest on this occasion.

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minated spot seemed like a magic circle. It is he metically closed by three files of armed men, and th beams shed from the cross fall only on spears an bayonets. This place is kept clear for the pontiff princes, and cardinals, who now appear, accompa nied by a guard, to clear a passage through the ga thering multitude. The troops that await them ope their files, and close again upon their charge. Th Pope falls prostrate before the Cross, on cushions down and velvet. The princes and princesses, wit their attendant courtiers, take their station on h right; on his left kneel the cardinals.

During this singular prostration the most profoun silence reigned. The Pope seemed unfeignedly al sorbed in holy abstraction; and as the light fell upo his venerable head and faded face, and tinged h flowing robes, there was something mystic and ide in his appearance; and to a faith which fancy ha warmed, or fanaticism deranged, his translation fro a mortal coil at that moment might have appear possible. In the centre of the church crowded t beau monde of London, Paris, Vienna, and St. P tersburgh, laughing and chattering, through all t philological varieties which might be supposed make a conversazione in the tower of Babel. The too, Roman beauties, who disdained the flaunt rites of noonday ceremonial, moved in their le black veils; and there, in true sincerity of heart faith, knelt within view of that cross, to wh alone her eyes are directed, one alike the we forgetting, by the world forgot.' Whole families the middle classes were seated on the steps of alt or at the feet of monuments, gazing on the va spectacle; and there bands of peasantry, breath aves, were seen walking about, and added much the effect of the scene, whose grotesque group they aptly filled up.

"As night thickens, and St. Peter's thins, the s

a bands and confraternities, afford a picturesque urious addition to the Good Friday sights. pilgrims are wretched ragged creatures, led on he Roman lady of condition, who gives out the ntial psalm as she moves along, and is an1 by her followers. As their dark bands sweep the banks of the Tiber, and their red torches n the walls of the castle of St. Angelo, they the deep-toned, and, when softened by disoccasionally melodious psalmody, that with site skill they suffer to die away along those s over which Pagan priests have raised their eans, or chaunted the funeral obsequies for ath of Adonis.'-(Italy, vol. ii, p. 300.)-An nt of a singular representation of the cruci, in Portugal, on this day, may be seen in our olume, pp. 98-101.

4. SAINT AMBROSE.

r saint was born about the year 340, and was ted in his father's palace, who was Prætorian ect of Gaul. He ruled over the see of Milan great piety and vigilance for more than twenty ; during which time he gave all his money to uses, and settled the reversion of his estate the church. He converted the celebrated St. stine to the faith, and, at his baptism, composed divine hymn, so well known in the church by name of Te Deum. He died, aged fifty-seven, 396.

5. A.D. 33.—RESURRECTIon of our LORD.
Come hither, fool, who vainly think'st
Thine only is the art to plumb the depth

Particular mortifications were enjoined to the ear liest Christians on this day. From the third century the fast was indispensible and rigid, being protract ed always to midnight, sometimes to cock-crowing and sometimes to the dawn of Easter day; and the whole of the day and night was employed in religiou affairs.

On the day preceding Easter Sunday, it is the an