66 "The un of Sallust, the identical spot, called anciently Campus | are twenty-nine in number; and as they are called Sceleratus, where the unfortunates who had broken upon in succession, they come forward, like ghostly their vows ended their miserable days. shadows, covered from head to foot in their thick happy woman," say the authorities on this subject, black habit and veils, and sign their respective was brought hither in a close litter attired as a warrants of pension at the farther extremity of the corpse. A small vault underground had already hall by a half-light, keeping their backs to the been prepared for her, containing a couch, a lamp, officers, and then as instantly disappearing,-vague and a little food. The pontifex maximus having apparitions, mournful spectres which had disaplifted his hands in secret prayer, opened the litter, peared from the families of the living! Old were led forth the culprit, and placing her on the steps of they, or young? who could say? Nevertheless, they the ladder which led below, gave her over to the were treated with much consideration, and as their common executioner, who conducted her to her house was not immediately needed for the use of living tomb, then drew up the ladder, and filled up Government, they are allowed still to remain there. the mouth of the pit level with the surrounding earth, So there they still are, much more like characters in and she was left to perish." some novel of Mrs. Ratcliffe's than women of the present day. Such was the Roman code of morality against the sin of the priestess; and it has been said in Rome that the sin of the professed nun has been visited with a punishment almost more severe, because it may be prolonged through the years even of a long life. It does not, however, appear that the convent of Le Sepolte Vive is so much a place of punishment as an experiment as to the amount of severity to which gentle, and often tenderly nurtured, women will voluntarily submit themselves under the influences of their religious education. Nevertheless, how much suffering, what long and bitter regrets, what weariness, what misery of soul, what insanity, and even death, ensues there is never known. The buried tomb of the desecrated vestal in the Campus Sceleratus was not more silent regarding its inmate than have been the walls of Le Sepolte Vive. The Buried Alive in the Suburra having taken their vows might never again leave the walls of the convent, might never hear any other voice than that of the confessor, might never again behold the face of heaven, farther than the little space of sky which was visible above their lofty walls. The holy affection of the family ceased for them, and whilst the nuns of other orders were permitted to receive visits of relatives, though separated by the grating of the convent-parlour, to these it was not allowed. The convent, which stands in a cul-de-sac, at the end of which is painted a crucifixion, is thus as silent within as it is without. Yet this, in the Romish Church, is a high form of religious life, and they who are subjected to it are considered near to heaven. No religion but that of a priesthood alienated by a forced celibacy from all family ties and feeling, could thus strip away from life everything of life-all its hopes, charities, aspirations, and imaginings, all its purpose and usefulness-and reduce it to a death in life more horrible than death itself. The vows here are so strict that a double time of noviciate is allowed; but the black veil once assumed, it cannot be removed. It is said that Pope Gregory XVI, being desirous of proving the fidelity of the abbess, said to her, "Sorella mia, levate il velo" (Sister, lift your veil), to which she replied, No, mio padre, e vietato dalla nostra regola" (No, my father; it is forbidden to break our vows). 66 The Princess of Wales, on her late visit to Rome, is said to have succeeded where Clement XVI failed. She, it appears, having a great desire to visit the Sepolte Vive, and it being impossible otherwise to obtain permission, asked the favour from Pio Nono himself. He, charmed with her beauty and her sweet manners, readily gave her this unheard-of permission, granting her to see all those that she desired to see. Admission, however, being allowed, the stranger finds himself, after passing through silent, gloomy corridors, in a large, silent reception hall, the walls of which are inscribed with sentences of stern religious instruction, well suited for those whose daily occupation it is to dig a portion of their own graves, lie down in them, and employ the rest of their time in the adoration of the blessed sacrament. A doubly-ings grated opening in one of the walls reveals a perforated plate of zine, behind which the abbess, thickly veiled from head to foot, receives the visitor, herself unseen. As these unhappy Buried Alive can know nothing of what occurs without the walls, hardly, indeed, knowing of what occurs within, the consternation may easily be conceived that filled the entire community when the official announcement of a visit from the Government delegates was made known to them-of men not only empowered to visit them, but to take possession of, and even turn them out of, their sealed and sacred domicile. What an excitement there must have been amongst them! Let us picture the scene. The men are in the house, and the women are summoned to their presence the very abbess herself must obey. They It is reported that when her wishes were made known to the cardinal in attendance upon them, he started at the request as impossible, but on hearing or seeing the Pope's authority, surprised and displeased as he was, nothing but obedience remained for him. To the melancholy Suburra accordingly the English prince and princess drove, accompanied by their cardinal; and, to the no small consternation of the portress, they were admitted, and, proceeding to the silent hall, with its ghostly warnin the heart of the tomb, presented their unheard-of demands to the veiled abbess behind the threefold grating. The princess wished to see the sisters. Impossible! But she had the permission of Holy Father. What the abbess said I know not, but obedience to the head of the Church is part of her vows, therefore she obeyed; and presently, nineand-twenty closely-veiled women, like mournful black spectres, entered the hall and took their silent stand in a long row, all their heads bowed down under their heavy impenetrable veils. "But I must see their faces," said the princess, no doubt touched to the heart by the sight. "Impossible! those veils never were lifted to the eye of man or woman.” But again she had the Pope's permission; and again, in obedience to the head of the Church, the abbess reluctantly yielded. For a moment every veil was lifted, and the nineand-twenty countenances, the heart-sick and the weary, the old and the young faces, unfamiliar to each other, were beheld for a moment by the stranger from another land-the heretic princess. Whether the affair is accurately told or not, it is given as a specimen of the stories current in Rome. The other day I learned a little fact regarding the interior life of this convent, which is curious. One woman, and one only, lives in the Vatican-the wife of the general of the Pope's guards,-and probably owing to the disturbance introduced in the Sepolte Vire by the pending changes, the rules there may be a little relaxed. At all events, this one lady of the Vatican took an American Catholic lady of her acquaintance to the Sepolte Vive. The stranger saw a few of the veiled women; and though not seeing their faces, heard their voices. They made their visitors welcome, and conversed with them with great animation-not on their religious duties, but about their cats. The whole interest of their life and living was apparently concentrated in the cats and their kittens; in this way the pent-up tenderness of their hearts has found an outlet. The lenity shown by the Government to this exaggerated religious order has been extended also to the Sacramentists, opposite the Quirinale. There were found to be thirty-six nuns; everything in perfect order. Donna Sordini was the virgo maxima, and the virgo seniora Donna Pfeifer, a Swiss lady, who, though seventy-eight years of age, signed the warrant for her pension with a steady hand. These women probably will be allowed to die out. THE CONVENT OF THE ARA-CŒLI. The church and monastery of the Ara-Coeli stand on the same eminence as the Capitol, and are on its left hand as you ascend to it. The church is said to occupy the site of the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, erected by Romulus. The Roman Catholic tradition is that it derives its name from an altar raised by Augustus to commemorate the prophecy of our Saviour by the Sibyl, a fact recognised in the ancient hymn by the words Joseph at her side, and the shepherds and the magi kneeling before her, all the size of life, with oxen, asses, angels, and cherubs around, and the Almighty Father, amidst clouds and celestial radiance, above. Beyond is a pleasant landscape, with palm-trees and meads, in which flocks and herds are feeding, with the town of Bethlehem in the background. The Virgin, of course, is attired as a queen, with a glittering crown on her head and rings on her fingers, whilst the child, a dark-coloured wooden doll, is also crowned and ablaze with jewels. The whole is tawdry and theatrical, but it attracts thousands, and the church is crowded on those days on which the bambino, or child, is carried by a procession of priests through the church and displayed to the kneeling thousands outside, where little wax dolls to represent the infant Christ, and little sheep wrapped round with cotton wool, and little holy pictures and rosaries, are being sold. This fetish idol was and still is believed by the ignorant papalini to possess miraculous power, and used to be carried out to the sick with great state of priests and candles burning until the Italians came in. It has been a source of great wealth to the monks. Leaving the superstitions of this venerable old church, over which we, perhaps, have delayed the reader too long, one little fact especially interesting to the English may be mentioned. It was in this church, as Gibbon himself relates, that on the 15th of October, 1764, as he sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, whilst barefooted friars were singing vespers, the idea of writing "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" first occurred to him. One was When the municipal guards, to whom this convent was made over, came to take possession, they found a locked door, which the custodian appeared unwilling to open. He was, however, compelled to do so, when it was found that the room to which it led contained two old imprisoned monks, but for what cause-crime or otherwise-could not be discovered. secretly conveyed away before he could be questioned; the other appeared to be a lunatic. The clerical journals which admitted the fact stated that the latter had been so confined for eight or ten years. In any case it is one of the most ancient religious Of the one that was secretly removed nothing has transites in Rome, and many great historical events-spired. The walls of the prison cell were covered, it even before the Christian era-have taken place around it. The great monastery belonged originally to the Benedictines, but in 1252 it came into possession of the Franciscans, and at once assumed a high position as the residence of the General of the Order of Minor Franciscans, or Grey Friars, and thus for these many centuries has been the head or centre of this important order throughout the world. "Teste David cum Sibylla." As you approach the Campidoglio you see to the left a long flight of 124 steps, ascending to the door of the church. These steps at Christmas are the scene of a kind of religious fair, through the immense crowd of which devout people may be seen ascending on their knees as on the steps of the Scala Santa at the Lateran, which, indeed, may be witnessed any day in the year. The interior of the church is rich, gloomy, and picturesque-intensely interesting to the pious Catholic, especially of the lower class, for here is the chapel of the Presepio, or Manger, an idea which originated with St. Francis of Assissi. This is a theatrical representation, occupying the interior of one of the chapels, of the stable at Bethlehem, the Virgin seated in the centre with the babe on her knee, is said, with lamentations and imprecations on the oppressive rule under which the writer had suffered. These probably were from the hand of the prisoner who was removed. The old lunatic refused to leave the place, saying that he was about to build the New Jerusalem. The whole interior of this famous old monastery was found to be very dirty, with the exception of the refectory, on the wall of which a Latin inscription recorded the fact that Benedict XIII (1724) deigned to dine there with the monks. Great was the labour therefore required to bring the place into anything like decent condition. In some of the lower cells old iron instruments of so-called Christian devotion wero found, but in such a rusty condition as to prove that they had been little used of late years. There were plenty also of cords and thongs of discipline, thrown into heaps; and the curious say that, if not here, at all events in some of the convents, whips have been found of so ingenious a contrivance that even though used for the most violent self-flagellation, they would inflict no suffering. The rule must have been somewhat lax amongst these old Grey Friars, for during the winter of 1872 a couple of monks at least were implicated in an extensive forgery of the Roman paper money, which they contrived to get into the hands of the farmers of the Campagna, who became great losers. Though the discipline seemed to be lax, and the whole condition of the place forlorn and dirty, yet one praiseworthy circumstance was discovered. The monks were not all of them idle. They had a woollen manufacture in the convent, furnished with good looms and a steam-engine. They employed several Roman weavers, and supplied woollen cloth to twentysix convents of the province, together with a considerable quantity of flannel. CONVENT OF THE URSULINE NUNS. Via Vittoria opens into the Corso, near the Piazza del Popolo; it is supposed by some to have been so called because two brothers and a third youth, always victors in the races of the Corso, were conducted to their home in this street by the crowd, shouting, "Vittoria!" Here stood the convent of the Ursulines, founded by a Princess Borghese about 1600, and afterwards enlarged by the niece of Cardinal Mazzarini, who, after many vicissitudes, died here in 1687. Her daughter, Maria Beatrice, who married James II of England, also passed some years in this convent, as did Clementina, the wife of "the old Pretender" acknowledged in Rome as James III. And as if it were a place of refuge for destitute royal ladies, hither, at the terrible commencement of the great French Revolution, fled Madame Victoire and Madame Adelaide, "the aunts of the king." But it will be so no longer. When the Committee of Liquidation entered to take possession, Donna Entizzi, a Roman lady of distinguished, though citizen family, and as the superior called virgo maxima, received, as if noblesse oblige even under the most disastrous and trying circumstances, the Marquis Carcano and the notary, with the two customary municipal witnesses, with the utmost courtesy; caused the protest, which it was only seemly for her to make, to be entered by the notary, and then, throwing open the doors, introduced those gentlemen into the hall of the convent, where the nuns were assembled to receive the warrants of their pensions. Of these there were twenty-three, of whom twenty-one were called the choir, and twelve lay sisters. The greater part of them were aged; one only was young and handsome, a member of the Grazioli family, but not the ducal one. Amongst the others was one of the Cenci, and another of the Lepri family. CONVENTS OF THE TOR DI SPECCHI AND STA. FRANCESCA ROMANA. The convent of the Tor di Specchi was an especially aristocratic one. It was imagined that ecclesiastical influence might probably exempt this convent, as also that of Sta. Francesca Romana, from suppression; but the decree was regularly carried out in their case also. One of the sisterhood-for they are not professed nuns, only taking upon themselves a Vow of obedience to the resident mother was the grand-neice of the Pope, the Countess Maria MastaiFerretti, who only made her profession the previous spring. This convent stands in a narrow lane, turning off to the right as you approach the ascent to the Capitol. Its front looks neglected and gloomy; yet within, it possesses beautiful cloisters and charming gardens. In front, however, the lane widens into an open space, from which a passage leads up to the Tarpeian Rock, of which it also affords a view. The Tor di Specchi, or Tower of Mirrors, obtained this extraordinary name from the medieval legend that Virgil lived here in his character of magician, and lined the tower with mirrors in order that all private transactions of the city might thus be exhibited to him. The convent of Sta. Francesca Romana was founded in the fifteenth century by Francesca Romana, a noble lady of the Ponziani family, for the order of Oblate Nuns. The sisterhood was under the direction of the Olivetan Monks, but acknowledged no authority except that of the Pope. The dress-that of the Benedictinesa long black gown and white hood, was extremely picturesque. The dissolution of this convent deprives not only the pious Romans, but the sight-loving strangers, of one of the most pleasing celebrations of the Church, though in fact it was shorn of most of its splendour as soon as the Italian rule commenced in the city. For eight days following the anniversary of the death of the patron saint, the beautiful halls and galleries were thrown open to the public, filled with flowers and flowering shrubs, and the ground strewn with box twigs. All was open to visitors— relics of the saint, her veil, her shoes, and the bowl in which she prepared ointment for the poor, displayed on the table; and passing through the cloisters, set with flowering shrubs and orange-trees, the chapel was reached, where a sermon was preached on the life of the saint, where her body embalmed might be seen lying beneath the altar. The tomb of the saint, however, is in the church dedicated to her, and belonging to the convent of the Olivetan Monks, which stands in the Forum, exactly opposite to the Arch of Titus. This church is said to stand upon the exact spot where Peter and John rebuked the magician Simon Magus, though in the Acts of the Apostles this event is related as having occurred in Samaria. But no matter, the Romish Church says that Simon Magus came to Rome, and claims this as one of Peter's miracles when he visited their city; in confirmation of which two hollow stones, set in the wall retain, it is believed, the depression made by the knees of the Apostle when he prayed for the defeat of the blasphemous sorcerer;—and indeed nothing short of a miracle could have made the solid stone pliant as a cushion for the time; whilst the knees of Peter must have been those of a giant, so enormous are the impressions they have left. The windows of the monastery command a charming view over the Arch of Titus, the Palatine Hill, and the ruins of the Palace of the Cæsars. Adjoining the convent are the remains of the Temple of Rome and Venus, facing the Colosseum, over which, and even including the Colosseum itself, the ambitious Olivetan Monks formerly stretched their hands and enclosed all within the convent wall. But under the pontificate of Nicholas v, in the fifteenth century, the wall was demolished, and now their successors are themselves ejected. In one of the pleasantest rooms of this monastery the composer Liszt lived for some time, being himself a Catholic abbé. **Our illustration represents the convent of Santa Sabina on the Aventine. The gardens which surround it command magnificent views of the city, the Campagna, and the distant hills. It was granted by Honorius III to Dominic in the year 1216 for the monks who enrolled themselves in the order which he founded, and it has been ever since regarded as the most hallowed home of the Dominicans. An edifice going back to the date of our Magna Charta would, in any other part of Europe, be regarded as possessing a very respectable antiquity. But in Rome this is only a first step into the past. Prior to its concession to the Dominicans, it had been for generations a stronghold of the great Savelli family, to which the Pope himself belonged, and many parts of the building remain exactly as they left it. It had previously been a palace of the Imperial period, the splendour of which is attested by the frescoes, mosaics, delicate carvings, and choice marbles in which it abounds. But we have not even yet reached the period of its first erection. The palace had been a mansion when Rome was yet a republic. The subterranean chambers had been used as prisons. In a rudely scratched inscription yet remaining upon the wall, a prisoner invokes curses upon his enemies; another vows a sacrifice to Bacchus if he recovers his liberty. A skeleton found in one of the chambers darkly shadows forth the fate of one victim of Roman cruelty; and skulls and bones seem to show that this was no uncommon termination of incarceration in these dungeons. Further back still, we find massive walls of peperino which formed part of the fortifications commenced by Tarquinius Priscus, and completed by Servius Tullius. THE MANDARIN'S DAUGHTER. EVER-VICTORIOUS ARMY." A STORY OF THE CHINESE GREAT REBELLION, AND THE 100 A-LEE and her father were assiduous in As soon as this was observed, a little cotton wool was put into the nostrils to see if there was still breath to move it. No movement being perceptible, the body was laid out on a mat upon the floor, and covered with a shroud. The eldest son then took a porcelain bowl, into which he put two coins, and covered it with a cloth. With this he went into the garden to a picturesque pond in the middle, and throwing the coins into the water, dipped the bowl in and filled it. Returning to the hall, he washed the corpse, and afterwards gave orders to announce his mother's death to all their kindred, and suspend a tablet at the portals of the entrance, inscribed with her name, age, and honours. These preliminaries having been done, the whole household assembled in the hall and commenced wailing for the dead, most of them, both male and female, casting off their ornaments, dishevelling their hair, and baring their feet, in token of their grief. The eldest son then presented a food-offering to the deceased, and poured a libation of wine at her feet. For three days the dutiful sons of the deceased lady remained by the side of her corpse, dressed in white sackcloth, which is the costume of grief and mourning amongst the Chinese, as it was with the ancient Jews. During that period the friends of the bereaved family visited them, also clothed in white mourning apparel, the texture of the female garb being finer, than that of the males, and all having white bandages round their heads. These mourners, on entering the chamber of the dead, joined their lamentations with those of the family, and afterwards silently took their departure. Meanwhile an elegant coffin, made of scented wood, elaborately carved with flowers and gilded figures, was placed in the hall, upon which the visitors put tokens of respect for the deceased. On the third day these were removed, the lid taken off, and little packages of lime placed in the bottom and sides. Then the body was uncovered and dressed in the best robes worn in its lifetime, with a willow twig in the right hand, a fan and handkerchief in the left hand, bracelets on the arms, and ear-rings in the ears. At last a piece of money was put in the mouth, and the body placed in the coffin, which was afterwards hermetically sealed. After this the remains lay in state for "thrice seven" days, according to the ritual laid down by law. During that period there was an incessant arrival and departure of visitors, who came to condole with the family, and when these were persons of distinction their presence was announced by three loud reports of fire-crackers. When the twenty-one days had expired, there was a great assemblage of relatives, friends, and hired people to assist at the burial. As the funeral procession proceeded from the house along the streets, it was accompanied by a band of musicians, chiefly playing upon a kind of clarionet, who performed solemn dirges at intervals. These were preceded by a person scattering paper money to buy the goodwill of malicious, wandering elves, that they might not molest the spirit of the deceased on its way to the grave. Following the musicians were men carrying ornamental banners and flags bearing inscriptions of a general nature, with notices to the people to retire aside from the procession. Then came a number of light wooden structures in the shape of pavilions, each containing fruit, cakes, comfits, or animal food, as portions of the sacrifice, and one superbly decorated sent forth volumes of fragrant incense. After the sacrificial viands came a retinue of priests, preceded by lanterns showing the |