On the Wednesday in Holy Week, Bassompierre and Du Fargis witnessed the Procession of the Crosses from the balcony of a house in the Calle Mayor, which had been reserved for them: “There were,” says Bassompierre, “more than five hundred penitents, who walked barefooted, drawing large crosses, like that of Our Lord, and, at intervals, were movable theatres, on which divers representations of the Passion were exhibited in a very lifelike manner.” Bassompierre pronounces this spectacle “_très belle_”; nevertheless, he soon appears to have had enough of it, and on being joined by the Ambassador of Lucca and two Spanish nobles, he rose, protesting that he could not remain seated and leave three such distinguished persons standing--for there were only two chairs on the balcony--but would resign his seat to one of them, leave M. du Fargis to represent France, and go and beg of a party of ladies whom he perceived below the favour of occupying one of their footstools. This he did, and the ladies were most kind and did him the honour to allow him to sit at their feet, and, we fear, paid more attention to his Excellency than to the procession. Nor was this all; for Fortune willed it that he should discover amongst them a flame of the days of his youth, a certain Doña Aña de Sanasara, whom he had known twenty-five years before at Naples, and who was now the wife of the Secretary of the Council of Finance. “They recognised each other with joy,” and Doña Aña, who was very rich, sent her old admirer handsome presents and invited him to her house, where she entertained him most sumptuously. On the following day--Maundy Thursday--Bassompierre witnessed another procession, that of the Penitents, “in which there were more than two thousand men who belaboured themselves with whips.” Afterwards he went to hear the _Tenebræ_ at Nuestra Señora de Constantinopoli and spent the night in visiting different churches. On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday Madrid was a city of mourning: “The bells of the churches were silent; the carriages ceased to pass through the town; no one rode on horseback; no one carried a sword; no one was accompanied by his servants; and all the women were veiled.”