He is then set down, with his face fronting the
baldachin, when he immediately takes off the tiara, and begins the
ceremony. That ended, he leaves the church in the same state, and then
ascends the staircase, in order to prepare to give the benediction, which
is usually given from a window above the facade of the church. The Pope is
there seated on a chair with the triple Crown on his head. Troops of
cavalry and infantry are drawn up in a semi-circle before the facade of the
church, and the whole vast _arena_ of the _Piazza di San Pietro_ is covered
with spectators. On a sudden his Holiness rises, extends his hands towards
heaven, then spreads them open, and seems as if he scattered something he
held in them on the crowd below; a silly young Frenchman who was standing
next to me said: _Le voila! Le voila qui arrache la benediction au ciel, et
qui la repand sur tout le monde!_ I could not refrain from laughing at this
sally, tho' I was much impressed with the solemnity of the scene, which I
think one of the grandest and most sublime I ever beheld. This ceremony
concluded, salves of ordnance were fired. The Pope retires amidst clouds of
smoke, and seems to vanish from the Earth.
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