For my own part, I decided to go on with hesitation and regret, and I believe, had one been ready to return, I should have borne him willing company. I preferred even the hard service and dubious chance of General Walker to the alternative of going amongst the Costa-Ricans, where a cowardly populace would probably kick and spit upon us as dirty filibusters and deserters; and should their government even keep its promises, I had no stomach for being set ashore in the city of New York, without money in my pocket, or home that I wished to go to. My health had been good in Nicaragua, and, I believed, would remain good. The motive which sent me there was still in force; and, withal, I wished to see the filibuster game played out,--with Henningsen, or some other man than General Walker, as military director. I believed it might even take a turn so, and a _sans-culotte_ man be furnished at last with a two-hundred-and-fifty-acre home in Nicaragua,-- "'Mid sandal bowers and groves of spice, Might be a Peri's paradise"; and plantain food without sweat, and the elixir of joy called _aguardiente!_ Nevertheless it was all left behind; and Samuel Absalom tore the large, dirty canvas letters M.R., signifying Mounted Ranger, off from his blue flannel shirt-breast; and his experience as filibuster in Nicaragua closed,--somewhat ingloriously. * * * * * ROBA DI ROMA. [Continued.] CHAPTER V. CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS. The Christmas Holidays have come, and with them various customs and celebrations quite peculiar to Rome. They are ushered in by the festive clang of a thousand bells from all the belfries in Rome at Ave Maria of the evening before the august day. At about nine o'clock of the same evening the Pope performs High Mass in some one of the great churches, generally at Santa Maria Maggiore, when all the pillars of this fine old basilica are draped with red hangings, and scores of candles burn in the side chapels, and the great altar blazes with light. The fuguing chants of the Papal choir sound into the dome and down the aisles, while the Holy Father ministers at the altar, and a motley crowd parade and jostle and saunter through the church. Here, mingled together, may be seen soldiers of the Swiss guard, with their shining helmets, long halberds, and party-colored uniforms, designed by Michel Angelo,--chamberlains of the Pope, all in black, with their high ruffs, Spanish cloaks, silken stockings, and golden chains,--_contadini_ from the mountains, in their dully brilliant costumes and white _tovaglie_,--common laborers from the Campagna, with their black mops of tangled hair,--_forestieri_ of every nation,--Englishmen, with long, light, pendant whiskers, and an eye-glass stuck in one eye,--Germans, with spectacles, frogged coats, and long, straight hair put behind their ears and cut square in the neck,--then Americans, in high-heeled patent-leather boots, a black