On the second night, the grand Procession of the Veil took place.  I witnessed this imposing spectacle from the balcony of Prince Gessina’s palace.  Long lines of waxen torches led the way, followed by a military band, and then a company of the highest prelates, in their most brilliant costumes, surrounding the Bishop, who walked under a canopy of silk and gold, bearing the miraculous veil of St. Agatha.  I was blessed with a distant view of it, but could see no traces of the rosy hue left upon it by the flames of the Saint’s martyrdom.  Behind the priests came the Intendente of Sicily, Gen. Filangieri, the same who, three years ago, gave up Catania to sack and slaughter.  He was followed by the Senate of the City, who have just had the cringing cowardice to offer him a ball on next Sunday night.  If ever a man deserved the vengeance of an outraged people, it is this Filangieri, who was first a Liberal, when the cause promised success, and then made himself the scourge of the vilest of kings.  As he passed me last night in his carriage of State, while the music pealed in rich rejoicing strains, that solemn chant with which the monks break upon the revellers, in “Lucrezia Borgia,” came into my mind: 

  “La gioja del profani
  ’E un fumo passagier’—­”

[the rejoicing of the profane is a transitory mist.] I heard, under the din of all these festivities, the voice of that Retribution which even now lies in wait, and will not long be delayed.

To-night Signor Scavo, the American Vice-Consul, took me to the palace of Prince Biscari, overlooking the harbor, in order to behold the grand display of fireworks from the end of the mole.  The showers of rockets and colored stars, and the temples of blue and silver fire, were repeated in the dark, quiet bosom of the sea, producing the most dazzling and startling effects.  There was a large number of the Catanese nobility present, and among them a Marchesa Gioveni, the descendant of the bloody house of Anjou.  Prince Biscari is a benign, courtly old man, and greatly esteemed here.  His son is at present in exile, on account of the part he took in the late revolution.  During the sack of the city under Filangieri, the palace was plundered of property to the amount of ten thousand dollars.  The museum of Greek and Roman antiquities attached to it, and which the house of Biscari has been collecting for many years, is probably the finest in Sicily.  The state apartments were thrown open this evening, and when I left, an hour ago, the greater portion of the guests were going through mazy quadrilles on the mosaic pavements.