placed themselves in two rows, on either side of the enclosure where I was. Then the organ struck up its solemn psalmody, and was followed by the gay music of the band. Rockets were let off outside the church, and, at the same time, the Madrina and all the relations entered, and knelt down in front of the grating which looks into the convent, but before which hung a dismal black curtain. I left my chair, and knelt down beside the godmother.
Suddenly, the curtain was withdrawn, and the picturesque beauty of the scene within, baffles all description. Beside the altar, which was in a blaze of light, was a perfect mass of crimson and gold drapery; the walls, the antique chairs, the table before which the priests sat, all hung with the same splendid material. The Bishop wore his superb mitre and robes of crimson and gold; the attendant priests also glittering in crimson and gold embroidery.
In contrast to these, five-and-twenty figures, entirely robed in black from head to foot, were ranged on each side of the room, prostrate, their faces touching the ground; and in their hands immense lighted tapers. On the foreground was spread a purple carpet, bordered round with a garland of freshly gathered flowers, roses and carnations and heliotrope, the only things that looked real and living in the whole scene; and in the middle of this knelt the novice, still arrayed in her blue satin, white lace veil and jewels; and also with a great lighted taper in her hand.
The black nuns then rose, and sang a hymn, every now and then falling on their faces, and touching the
