ontificated; more precious than all
the bronze, gold, and gems with which it is hidden, not only from
impious, but holy eyes, and which once only, in the flight of ages, was
profaned by mortal inspection.

"The sacrilegious curiosity of the French, however, broke through all
obstacles to their seeing the chair of St. Peter. They actually removed
its superb casket, and discovered the relic. Upon its mouldering and
dusty surface were traced carvings, which bore the appearance of
letters. The chair was quickly brought into a better light, the dust and
cobwebs removed, and the inscription (for an inscription it was),
faithfully copied. The writing is in Arabic characters, and is the well
known confession of Mahometan faith--'There is but one God, and Mahomet
is his prophet.' It is supposed that this chair had been, among the
spoils of the Crusaders, offered to the church at a time when a taste
for antiquarian lore, and the deciphering of inscriptions, were not yet
in fashion. The story has been since hushed up, the chair replaced, and
none but the unhallowed remember the fact, and none but the audacious
repeat it. Yet such there are, even at Rome!"--_Ireland's Anecdotes of
Napoleon._

THE SAGRO CATINO, OR EMERALD DISH.

"The church of St. Lorenzo, at Genoa, is celebrated for containing a
most sacred relic, the 'Sagro Catino,' a dish of one entire and perfect
_emerald_, said to be that on which our Saviour ate his last supper.
Such a dish in the house of a Jewish publican was a miracle in itself.
Mr. Eustace says, he looked for this dish, but found that the French,
'whose delight is brutal violence, as it is that of the lion or the
tiger,' had carried it away. And so indeed they did. But that was
nothing. The carrying off relics--the robbing of Peter to pay Paul, and
spoliating one church to enrich another--was an old trick of legitimate
conquerors in all ages; for this very '_dish_' had been carried away by
the royal crusaders, when they took _Cesarea_ in Palestine, under
_Guillaume Embriaco_, in the twelfth century. In the division of spoils,
this emerald fell to the share of the _Genoese Crusaders_, into whose
holy vocation some of their old trading propensities evidently entered;
and they deemed the vulgar value, the profane price, of this treasure,
so high, that on an emergency, they pledged it for nine thousand five
hundred livres. Redeemed and replaced, it was guarded by the _knights of
honor_ called _Clavi