The effect would be incomparable if one could stand in the door,
or anywhere in the nave, and, as in other churches, look down to the end
upon a great platform, with the high altar and all the sublime spectacle
in full view, with the blaze of candles and the clouds of incense rising
in the distance.

At half-past nine the great doors opened, and the procession began,
in slow and stately moving fashion, to enter. One saw a throng of
ecclesiastics in robes and ermine; the white plumes of the Guard Noble;
the pages and chamberlains in scarlet; other pages, or what not, in
black short-clothes, short swords, gold chains, cloak hanging from the
shoulder, and stiff white ruffs; thirty-six cardinals in violet robes,
with high miter-shaped white silk hats, that looked not unlike the
pasteboard "trainer-caps" that boys wear when they play soldier;
crucifixes, and a blazoned banner here and there; and, at last, the
pope, in his red chair, borne on the shoulders of red lackeys, heaving
along in a sea-sicky motion, clad in scarlet and gold, with a silver
miter on his head, feebly making the papal benediction with two upraised
fingers, and moving his lips in blessing. As the pope came in, a
supplementary choir of men and soprano hybrids, stationed near the door,
set up a high, welcoming song, or chant, which echoed rather finely
through the building. All the music of the day is vocal.

The procession having reached its destination, and disappeared behind
the altar of the dome, the pope dismounted, and took his seat on
his throne. The blessing of the palms began, the cardinals first
approaching, and afterwards the members of the diplomatic corps, the
archbishops and bishops, the heads of the religious orders, and such
private persons as have had permission to do so. I had previously seen
the palms carried in by servants in great baskets. It is, perhaps, not
necessary to say that they are not the poetical green waving palms,
but stiff sort of wands, woven out of dry, yellow, split palm-leaves,
sometimes four or five feet in length, braided into the semblance of
a crown on top,--a kind of rough basket-work. The palms having been
blessed, a procession was again formed down the nave and out the door,
all in it "carrying palms in their hands," the yellow color of which
added a new element of picturesqueness to the splendid pageant. The pope
was carried as before, and bore in his hand a short braided palm, with
gold woven in, flowers added