"Next came monks of the Franciscan and Capuchin orders, with their brown dresses and heads shaved and such a set of human faces I never beheld. They seemed, many of them, like disinterred corpses, for a moment reanimated to go through this ceremony, and then to sink back again into their profound sleep. Pale and haggard and unearthly, the wild eye of the visionary and the stupid stare of the idiot were seen among them, and it needed no stretch of the imagination to find in most the expression of the worst passions of our nature. They chanted as they went, their sepulchral voices echoing through the vaulted piazza, while the bell of St. Peter's, tolling a deep bass drone, seemed a fitting accompaniment for their hymns." Later, on this same day, while watching a part of the ceremonies on the Gorso, he has this rather disagreeable experience:-- "I was standing close to the side of the house when, in an instant, without the slightest notice, my hat was struck off to the distance of several yards by a soldier, or rather a poltroon in a soldier's costume, and this courteous manoeuvre was performed with his gun and bayonet, accompanied with curses and taunts and the expression of a demon in his countenance. "In cases like this there is no redress. The soldier receives his orders to see that all hats are off in this religion of force, and the manner is left to his discretion. If he is a brute, as was the case in this instance, he may strike it off; or, as in some other instances, if the soldier be a gentleman, he may ask to have it taken off. There was no excuse for this outrage on all decency, to which every foreigner is liable and which is not of infrequent occurrence. The blame lies after all, not so much with the pitiful wretch who perpetrates this outrage, as it does with those who gave him such base and indiscriminate orders." CHAPTER XVII JUNE 17, 1830--FEBRUARY 2, 1831 Working hard.--Trip to Genzano.--Lake of Nemi.--Beggars.--Curious festival of flowers at Genzano.--Night on the Campagna.--Heat in Rome.-- Illumination of St. Peter's.--St. Peter's Day.--Vaults of the Church.-- Feebleness of Pope.--Morse and companions visit Naples, Capri, and Amalfi.--Charms of Amalfi.--Terrible accident.--Flippancy at funerals.-- Campo Santo at Naples.--Gruesome conditions.--Ubiquity of beggars.-- Convent of St. Martino.--Masterpiece of Spagnoletto.--Returns to Rome.-- Faints portrait of Thorwaldsen.--Presented to him in after years by John Taylor Johnston.--Given to King of Denmark.--Reflections on the social evil and the theatre.--Death of the Pope.--An assassination.--The Honorable Mr. Spencer and Catholicism.--Election of Pope Gregory XVI. During all these months Morse was diligently at work in the various galleries, making the copies for which he had received commissions, and the day's record almost invariably begins with "At the Colonna Palace all day"; or, "At the Vatican all day"; or wherever else he may have been working at the time.