at six o’clock in the evening.  On the Pope’s entrance all persons, of both sexes, kneeled to receive his blessing.  Tea, ice, liqueurs, and confectionery were then served.  In the place of honour were three elevated elbow-chairs, and His Holiness was seated between the Emperor and Empress, and seldom spoke to any one to whom Napoleon did not previously address the word.  The exploits of Bonaparte, particularly his campaigns in Egypt, were the chief subjects of conversation.  Before eight o’clock the Pope always retired, distributing his blessing to the kneeling audience, as on his entry.  When he was gone, card-tables were brought in, and play was permitted.  Duroc received his master’s orders how to distribute the places at the different tables, what games were to be played, and the amount of the sums to be staked.  These were usually trifling and small compared to what is daily risked in our fashionable circles.

Often, after the Pope had returned to his own rooms, Madame Letitia Bonaparte was admitted to assist at his private prayers.  This lady, whose intrigues and gallantry are proverbial in Corsica, has, now that she is old (as is generally the case), turned devotee, and is surrounded by hypocrites and impostors, who, under the mask of sanctity, deceive and plunder her.  Her antechambers are always full of priests; and her closet and bedroom are crowded with relics, which she collected during her journey to Italy last year.  She might, if she chose, establish a Catholic museum, and furnish it with a more curious collection, in its sort, than any of our other museums contain.  Of all the saints in our calendar, there is not one of any notoriety who has not supplied her with a finger, a toe, or some other part; or with a piece of a shirt, a handkerchief, a sandal, or a winding-sheet.  Even a bit of a pair of breeches, said to have belonged to Saint Mathurin, whom many think was a sans-cullotte, obtains her adoration on certain occasions.  As none of her children have yet arrived at the same height of faith as herself, she has, in her will, bequeathed to the Pope all her relics, together with eight hundred and seventy-nine Prayer-books, and four hundred and forty-six Bibles, either in manuscript or of different editions.  Her favourite breviary, used only on great solemnities, was presented to her by Cardinal Maury at Rome, and belonged, as it is said, formerly to Saint Francois, whose commentary, written with his own hand, fills the margins; though many, who with me adore him as a saint, doubt whether he could either read or write.

Not long ago she made, as she thought, an exceedingly valuable acquisition.  A priest arrived direct from the Holy City of Jerusalem, well recommended by the inhabitants of the convents there, with whom he pretended to have passed his youth.  After prostrating himself before the Pope, he waited on Madame Letitia Bonaparte.  He told her that he had brought with him from Syria the famous relic, the shoulder-bone of Saint John the Baptist; but that, being in want of money for his voyage, he borrowed upon it from a Grecian Bishop in Montenegro two hundred louis d’or.  This sum, and one hundred louis d’or besides, was immediately given him; and within three months, for a large sum in addition to those advanced, this precious relic was in Madame Letitia’s possession.