Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Travel -- Italy; Italy -- Description and travel; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Biography
The ladies were particularly ferocious, in their struggles for places.
One lady of my acquaintance was seized round the waist, in the ladies’
box, by a strong matron, and hoisted out of her place; and there was
another lady (in a back row in the same box) who improved her position by
sticking a large pin into the ladies before her.
The gentlemen about me were remarkably anxious to see what was on the
table; and one Englishman seemed to have embarked the whole energy of his
nature in the determination to discover whether there was any mustard.
‘By Jupiter there’s vinegar!’ I heard him say to his friend, after he had
stood on tiptoe an immense time, and had been crushed and beaten on all
sides. ‘And there’s oil! I saw them distinctly, in cruets! Can any
gentleman, in front there, see mustard on the table? Sir, will you
oblige me! _Do_ you see a Mustard-Pot?’
The apostles and Judas appearing on the platform, after much expectation,
were marshalled, in line, in front of the table, with Peter at the top;
and a good long stare was taken at them by the company, while twelve of
them took a long smell at their nosegays, and Judas—moving his lips very
obtrusively—engaged in inward prayer. Then, the Pope, clad in a scarlet
robe, and wearing on his head a skull-cap of white satin, appeared in the
midst of a crowd of Cardinals and other dignitaries, and took in his hand
a little golden ewer, from which he poured a little water over one of
Peter’s hands, while one attendant held a golden basin; a second, a fine
cloth; a third, Peter’s nosegay, which was taken from him during the
operation. This his Holiness performed, with considerable expedition, on
every man in the line (Judas, I observed, to be particularly overcome by
his condescension); and then the whole Thirteen sat down to dinner.
Grace said by the Pope. Peter in the chair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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