Opposite this stage, for ten successive days after Christmas, little children, previously instructed by the monks, mount on a kind of wooden pulpit, erected beside a column, and pronounce a discourse, or sermon, on the subject of the divine Saviour's lowly birth and humble infant years. Some of the children (all of whom are very young) perform their part admirably, and are full of fire and animation. They gesticulate with an energy, and scream with a vigour of lungs, quite Italian, as they stand opposite the mildly-illuminated Presepio, and point with their tiny fingers towards the image of Him through whom they, as well as ourselves, can alone find redemption.

Immediately over the high-altar is a curious inscription, in large golden letters, recalling a miracle remarkable in the medieval history of Rome. "Regina Cali latare alleluia" is engraven there, and thus runs the chronicle:-In the reign of Gregory the Great, that sainted and exalted Pope, a horrible pestilence ravaged the city. To intercede with the Almighty for his afflicted servants, a great procession was formed on Easter Sunday, A.D. 596, from the church of the Ara Cœli to St. Peter's, situated at extreme and opposite ends of the city, to implore mercy, and call on the people generally to repentance. The pontiff himself headed the assembled thousands, and as the sacred

pageant passed over the bridge and under the tomb of Adrian on the opposite side of the Tiber, celestial voices were heard in the air singing, "Regina. Cœli latare alleluia," the Pope and the vast multitude responding, as if by inspiration, "Ora pro nobis.” Gregory, it is said, beheld an angel radiant with celestial effulgence sheathing a fiery sword. That very day the plague ceased; in memory of which miraculous. event a procession takes place every year on St. Mark's day. A statue of bronze, representing an angel sheathing a sword, was placed on the summit of Adrian's. tomb, ever afterwards named, in memory of the vision, Castel San Angelo; the words "Regina Coeli" were incorporated by the Catholic Church into her offices; and the inscription I have mentioned was engraved on the arch over the high-altar in the church of the Ara Cœli.

But I have yet to mention another curious legend before leaving this church, so venerable by its ecclesiastical traditions. To the left of the high-altar I was shown a chapel dedicated to Helena, the mother of Constantine, and I read another inscription which excited my curiosity. It was in Latin, and stated that the chapel was called Ara Coeli, and was erected on the very spot where the Virgin appeared in a vision to the Emperor Augustus. This curious tradition arose from the following circum

stance :-Augustus is said to have demanded of the oracle of Apollo "who after him should be the master of the world." The oracle was silent. Again, a second time, he offered sacrifice, but the god deigned no reply. At length, still pressed by the emperor, after a solemn pause, it spake and said, "That a Jewish Child, God himself, and the Master of gods, is about to drive Apollo from his seat; therefore expect no longer any answers from his altars." Augustus, astonished and confounded at the reply, retired, and immediately caused an altar to be erected on the Capitol, bearing the inscription, "Ara primogeniti Dei." At the end of three days he beheld in a vision a virgin of surpassing beauty seated on the altar, holding a child in her arms, while a voice proclaimed, "Hæc ara Filii Dei est ;" and therefore, it is said, Augustus would allow no one afterwards to call him a god.

History informs us that a Sibyl (the Tiburtine) lived in early days at Tivoli, the ruins of whose beautiful temple, overhanging the precipice and water-fall, still remain. An oracle is known to have existed there as late as the time of the Emperor Adrian, who consulted it during his residence at his far-famed villa, whose gigantic ruins still extend over the plain at the foot of the neighbouring mountains. As to the vision which is said to have visited Augustus, it is no more incre

dible than the universally admitted fact that his successor, Constantine, was favoured with a similar miraculous revelation. Why not, therefore, Augustus? especially when the traditions of the East and West plainly pointed to the coming of the future Messiah.

I cannot tell how these legendary facts, half history, half tradition, read at a distance, but I can only say that, studied on the spot, supported by contemporaneous monuments, and consecrated by long ages of profound and unhesitating belief, they are very convincing.

III.

The Holy Week-The "Miserere"-The Lavandaia-The Cena-The Sepulchre Castel Fusano-Ostia-Modern Readings of Virgil.

EVER since Christmas, and even before, I had heard

about "the ceremonies of the Holy Week," until I was weary of the words. The crowd, the difficulty of obtaining tickets, the hours to be passed in waiting, the music of the "Miserere," all were so minutely discussed, so dinned into my ears by old and experienced Anglo-Romans, that at last I mentally resolved not to go at all, but to read instead some catalogue raisonné of the whole affair, and swear I was "charmed, delighted, rapt, inspired."

I have a general dislike to all grand religious ceremonies, where "the world, the flesh, and the devil" assert their unwelcome presence amid pillared aisles, hallowed sanctuaries, consecrated altars, and venerable tombs.

On such occasions the imposing ceremonial too often sinks into a mere dramatic representation; the music degenerates into sounds harsh and wearisome, "like