The form is a Greek
cross, having a dome in the centre; but the proportions are ill-
preserved; the dome is too low, and the arches which support it
are flattened, and too wide for their height. On each side of
the high altar are chapels to the Saviour and the Virgin. The
altars in these, as well as the high altar, are of native marble
of different colours, and some of the specimens are very
beautiful. The decorations of the altar are elegant and costly.
The prelate is a cardinal, and bears, moreover, the title of
"Archbishop of Baltimore."

There are several paintings in different parts of the church,
which we heard were considered as very fine. There are two
presented by Louis XVIII; one of these is the Descent from the
Cross, by Paulin Guirin; the other a copy from Rubens, (as they
told us) of a legend of St. Louis in the Holy Land; but the
composition of the picture is so abominably bad, that I conceive
the legend of its being after Rubens, must be as fabulous as its
subject. The admiration in which these pictures are held, is an
incontestable indication of the state of art in the country.

We attended mass in this church the Sunday after our arrival, and
I was perfectly astonished at the beauty and splendid appearance
of the ladies who filled it. Excepting on a very brilliant
Sunday at the Tuilleries, I never saw so shewy a display of
morning costume, and I think I never saw any where so many
beautiful women at one glance. They all appeared to be in full
dress, and were really all beautiful.

The sermon (I am very attentive to sermons) was a most
extraordinary one. The priest began by telling us, that he was
about to preach upon a vice that he would not "mention or name"
from the beginning of his sermon to the end.

Having thus excited the curiosity of his hearers, by proposing a
riddle to them, he began.

Adam, he said, was most assuredly the first who had committed
this sin, and Cain the next; then, following the advice given by
the listener, in the Plaideurs, "Passons au deluge, je vous
prie;" he went on to mention the particular propriety of Noah's
family on this point; and then continued, "Now observe, what did
God shew the greatest dislike to? What was it that Jesus was
never even accused of? What was it Joseph hated the most? Who
was the disciple that Jesus chose for his friend?" and thus he
went on for nearly an hour, in a strain that was often perfectly
unintelligible to me, but which,