in the way of the real amusement of
the occasion.

At the part of the theatre furthest from
the stage, in the place where in Continental
theatres the royal box is situated, stands the
altar, with the great green crucifix of the Inquisition
erected on it, and a great display of
flowers and wax candles. And on each side of
this, are boxes for the musicians.

All these constructions are most superbly
adorned with all sorts of upholstery—crimson
velvet, blue velvet, cloth of gold, brocade, gold
lace, and embroidery—in carefully graduated
degrees of magnificence, from the plainer seats
of the clerks and ushers, to the culmination of
gorgeous splendour in the throne of the three
Inquisitors. In the midst of all this glow of
gold and colour, the box of the prisoners, and
the high stage to which they are conducted one
by one, are draped with black.

One portion of the edifice thus arranged has
not yet been mentioned; but it must by no
means be forgotten. Behind each of the various
compartments or boxes—that for the Inquisitors,
that for the senate, those for the religious corporations,
those for the ladies—behind each of
them, except indeed the dock of the prisoners,
there were large and commodious apartments,
in which elegant, and—as Canon Mongitore
again and again specially assures us—abundant
repasts were served. Thus, after all, the hours
occupied in reading the sentences of the minor
criminals were not altogether lost; for that
was the time of which the gay assemblage of
pleasure-seekers availed themselves, for enjoying
the good things prepared for them.

Canon Mqngitore is very particular in recording
who paid for all the feasting. The different
banquets, it seems, were provided by
different persons. Of course, the Inquisition
fed its own members. It also provided, in the
most elegant and gallant manner, for one large
party of ladies, invited by the wife of the noble
selected for the high honour of carrying the
great standard of the Inquisition on this occasion.
The noble senate provided their own
banquet. The viceroy feasted another large
party of ladies. The monastic bodies were
entertained: some at the cost of their own convents:
some at that of the Inquisition.

The first procession on the evening of the
5th of April, came off very successfully: the
rather as a great number of the first nobles of
the country—all the jeunesse dorée of Palermo
—had besought the Inquisition to allow them
the signal honour of enrolling themselves
among the " familiars" of the Holy Office for
the great occasion. Canon Mongitore carefully
records all their names. Colletta says that he
will abstain from repeating them, because those
who bore those names in his day would blush
too painfully at the infamy of their progenitors.

This first procession, however, was much less
interesting than that which was to take place
on the morrow; for the culprits did not appear
in it. The terrible green crucifix was carried
through the city, and stood all night on the
altar in the theatre. And all Palermo was on
the tip-toe of suspense and expectation of the
morrow.

From the earliest dawn the whole city was
afoot, and crowded into the streets and squares
through which the procession was to pass. At
nine in the morning it began to issue from the
palace of the Inquisition; the getting of it into
order and the passage of it through the streets
was a very long affair, for many thousands of
persons took part in it. But the people waited
with unwearying patience for the coming of the
most interesting part of the show—the criminals.
At last they made their appearance:
first the penitents, dressed in black, with yellow
mitres on their heads, walking one by one;
last the two impenitent heretics who were to
furnish forth the treat of the day. These last
were dressed in garments saturated with pitch,
and painted all over with flames. Their mitres
were similarly saturated with pitch. On either
side of each of them walked a learned theologian,
who ceased not, as they walked, to ply them with
the most learned arguments and the most pressing
exhortations to confess their errors even at
that eleventh hour.

Not that it is to be supposed that if either of
the unhappy wretches had been frightened into
a recantation, Palermo would have been on that
occasion deprived of its expected treat; but it
would have made all the difference as regarded
the prospects of the prisoners after the Inquisition
had done its worst upon them. The
strenuous efforts made for the saving of their
souls were considered quite a feature in the entertainment;
and so actively and urgently did
the priests on either hand of the prisoners
exert themselves that they were completely
knocked up before the procession had accomplished
half its course, and their places were
immediately supplied by two fresh divines, who
continued their efforts. But, as Canon Mongitore
says despairingly, " all this battering accomplished
nothing!"

It was between eleven and twelve, when the
different bodies who had taken part in the procession,
found themselves arranged in their
proper places in the theatre. Then the reverend
Maestro Pietro Antonio Majorana ascended
a pulpit prepared for the purpose, and
pronounced a discourse in praise of the Inquisition,
especially enlarging on its clemency
and mercy, and on the iniquities and enormities
of the prisoners condemned to the
fire. Canon Mongitore reports this discourse
at length.

Then began the reading of the sentences of
the twenty-six minor criminals, and everybody
made off in the direction of the viands. It was
deemed necessary, it would seem, that one Inquisitor
should remain in his place during this
part of the business. So the Inquisitors took
it by turns: two only at a time retiring, for,
Canon Mongitore says, " the necessary support
of the body."

It was between two and three, when the
sentences of the penitent culprits were got
through, and the feasted guests hastened back