DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0195
st. peter’s.
157
going round to all the altars in succession, and kneeling
before them to offer up his pompous prayers. The ser-
vants, dressed in sumptuous liveries, were on their knees
behind, but some of them growing tired of the length of
his devotions, were in this posture making grimaces at
each other, and cutting jokes, sotto voce; and one or
two of them in the rear had got up again, when the car-
dinal’s eye glanced round, and down they plumped, more
deep in apparent prayer than ever. Near this princely
priest, as near as they could get, were some wretched
diseased cripples, covered with rags and filth, and crawl-
ing on their hands and knees over’ the marble pavement
of this superb edifice, vainly demanding charity in the
most abject terms of misery and supplication. One of
these unfortunate wretches, finding his petitions disre-
garded, at last, at a distance and in silence, began to
worship at the same shrine, as if to implore from Heaven
that mercy which man had denied. * * * Some
pilgrims, too, were among the supplicants of the mani-
fold shrines, and it would be a curious task to analyse
the motives that led them hither. They were chiefly
young, strong men, apparently from the lower classes of
society, whose appearance certainly did not denote that
they had suffered much from the hardships and priva-
tions of the way. * * * Some of them were very
fine-looking men. Their large black eyes and expressive
countenances overshadowed by their broad-brimmed hats,
their oil-skin tippets, cockle-shells, scrip, rosaries, and
staff, had to us a novelty that was poetical as well as
picturesque. Some of them had come from the moun-
157
going round to all the altars in succession, and kneeling
before them to offer up his pompous prayers. The ser-
vants, dressed in sumptuous liveries, were on their knees
behind, but some of them growing tired of the length of
his devotions, were in this posture making grimaces at
each other, and cutting jokes, sotto voce; and one or
two of them in the rear had got up again, when the car-
dinal’s eye glanced round, and down they plumped, more
deep in apparent prayer than ever. Near this princely
priest, as near as they could get, were some wretched
diseased cripples, covered with rags and filth, and crawl-
ing on their hands and knees over’ the marble pavement
of this superb edifice, vainly demanding charity in the
most abject terms of misery and supplication. One of
these unfortunate wretches, finding his petitions disre-
garded, at last, at a distance and in silence, began to
worship at the same shrine, as if to implore from Heaven
that mercy which man had denied. * * * Some
pilgrims, too, were among the supplicants of the mani-
fold shrines, and it would be a curious task to analyse
the motives that led them hither. They were chiefly
young, strong men, apparently from the lower classes of
society, whose appearance certainly did not denote that
they had suffered much from the hardships and priva-
tions of the way. * * * Some of them were very
fine-looking men. Their large black eyes and expressive
countenances overshadowed by their broad-brimmed hats,
their oil-skin tippets, cockle-shells, scrip, rosaries, and
staff, had to us a novelty that was poetical as well as
picturesque. Some of them had come from the moun-