“The lanterns which are profusely scattered over it, showing its whole form in lines of fire, glow brighter and brighter as the evening advances from twilight to dark, till it seems impossible for its brilliance to increase.  The crowds below, on foot and in carriages, are in breathless expectation.  The great bell of St. Peter’s at length strikes the hour of nine, and, at the first stroke, a great ball of light is seen ascending the cross to its pinnacle.  This is the signal for thousands of assistants, who are concealed over its vast extent, to light the great lamps, and in an instant all is motion, the whole mass is like a living thing, fire whirling and flashing over it in all directions, till the vast pile blazes as if lighted with a thousand suns.  The effect is truly magical, for the agents by whom this change is wrought are invisible.”

After the illumination of St. Peter’s he went to the Castle of St. Angelo where he witnessed what he describes as the grandest display of fireworks he had ever seen.

“Tuesday, June 29. This day is St. Peter’s day, the grandest festa of the Romish Church.  I went with Mr. B. early to St. Peter’s to see the ceremonies.  The streets were filled with equipages, among which the splendid scarlet-and-gold equipages of the cardinals made the most conspicuous figure.  Cardinal Weld’s carriage was the richest, and next in magnificence was that of Cardinal Barberini.

“On entering St. Peter’s we found it hung throughout with crimson damask and gold and filled with people, except a wide space in the centre with soldiers on each side to keep it open for the procession.  We passed up near the statue of St. Peter, who was to-day dressed out in his papal robes, his black face (for it is of bronze) looking rather frightful from beneath the splendid tiara which crowned his head, and the scarlet-and-gold tissue of his robes.

“Having a little time to spare, we followed a portion of the crowd down the steps beside the pedestal of the statue of St. Veronica into the vaults beneath the church, which are illuminated on this festival.  Mass was performing in several of the splendid chapels, whose rich decorations of paintings and sculpture are but once a year revealed to the light, save from the obscure glimmering of the wax-taper, which is carried by the guide, to occasional visitors.  It is astonishing what a vast amount of expense is here literally buried.

“The ornamented parts are beneath the dome; the other parts are plain, heavy arches and low, almost numberless, and containing the sarcophagi of the Popes and other distinguished characters.  The illumination here was confined to a single lamp over each arch, which rather made darkness visible and gave an awful effect to some of the gloomier passages.