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LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

the convent. The church is a very magnificent structure,the interior entirely covered with the most precious andvariegated marbles, verdeantico, giallo antico, lapis lazzuli,&c., in as great profusion as in St. Peter’s at Rome . Butthe arrangements of the colours and the general effect ismost wretched, in the worst possible taste, and entirelydestructive of the effect intended.

Our visit to the library repaid us for the pain we hadfelt at the bad taste of the church. Here we gazed withdelight on that most exquisitely beautiful production ofRaffaeli, “ La Madonna della seggia.” We also admiredthe execution of a large Christ crucified, executed in ivoryby, I think, Benvenuto Celini . Of the many holy relics, theleast remarkable certainly was not the thigh bone of thebig St. Christopher; but from lack of “ faith” both Smirke andI suspected it to have belonged to an elephant or Mammoth.My plan will not allow me to say more about this place, oneof the most distinguished of the abodes of idleness andsuperstition, which are now most rapidly and happily beingswept away by the progress of civilization.

Before leaving the convent I bethought me of ascertain-ing, if possible, the cause of the mitigated respect withwhich we thought we had been entertained. I thereforedeputed our guide to hand our present to the servant whohad attended us, and gave him liis cue, together with themunificent donation of two dollars for the said servant.The result was, that the monk who had received our letterof introduction, not knowing the writer, took it into hishead that we were strolling players. We wore short coats,white hats, green silk neck-cloths, leather gaiters, &c., andwe arrived on foot!—all this, added to our being so hungry,proved enough to puzzle the sleek silk-petticoated monks,and set them a guessing for want of better information.

The library of Monte Cassino is said to contain more