Pliments are exchanged, and appointments made. Meanwhile masses are
being said at all the side altars, which are surrounded by knots of
people who fall on their knees at the sound of a little bell, and say
their prayers quite undisturbed by the general murmur going on around
them. "Presently there is a stir in the crowd surrounding the choir
chapel; the organ is at its loudest, and then comes a long procession of
vergers in purple and scarlet facings, and cross and torch bearers, and
censer bearers, and acolytes and deacons and priests and canons and
bishops, and a red-robed cardinal in vestments of cloth of gold wrought
and figured with many a sacred sign, and, moreover, adorned with
precious stones; and High Mass at St. Peter's, on Christmas Day, is at
an end. "During the day most of the shops and all the Government offices
were open. Soldiers were drilled all day long in the Piazza Vittorio
Emanuele, and were formally marched to their various barr
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