Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 125.djvu/391

breath; mute reproof, utter weariness, uncomplalning suffering are all in the face."

The figure passes slowly up the square, severing the thronging populace, and is followed by one hundred Roman soldiers, marching two-and-two, some mounted on fiery Andalusian chargers, some on foot. These are "the centurion's guard." The band steps to one side, the Roman soldiery form round the condemned, the penitents once more clear a way, and Saint Veronica comes to make her lowly obeisance, and stooping down to wipe the sweat and dirt and blood from the Lord's face. As she does the handkerchief is rolled up by means of a spring, and another appears in her hands, with the image of Jesus upon it. Now comes the Virgin Mother, and the foreigner, looking out from a balcony upon the crushed-up crowd cannot discern one covered head or single standing figure. The image of the Virgin is a marvel of art. "Her arms move, she wipes her eyes, her pale face is expressive of simple, sheer, unapproachable grief; and as the many bands play the most plaintive strains of Bach's Passion-music, at the most wailing note she draws near, and puts her arms round the neck and across the breast of her fallen, fainting, and bleeding son." So the first procession of Holy Friday passes out of sight, amid an orderly, eager crowd, and when it has vanished the prisoners, manacled indeed, but free in a sense, during the blessed hours, walk about the city, and solicit alms. A little before nightfa11, with the same crowds, lights, and music, come the final scenes. Through the way cleared by the penitents comes the Saviour and washes Peter's feet; the attitudes beautifully expressed, and the music exquisite. Then he comes, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane; a figure bowed with anguish, amid real shrubs, dexterously lighted. Again he is bound to a pillar, and the fearful scourging is represented with a realism almost too dreadful to be borne. Then he carries his cross, fainting, lacerated, weary beyond all telling. Night has fallen now; the crowds are denser, the Plaza is all dark; but in the centre are moving forms, and the blaze of lighted candles. Profound silence reigns, so that the night-wind, blowing in fitful gusts from the mountains to the south-ward, can be distinctly heard. For the last time a way is cleared, for this:—

"Now the Christ was raised aloft, in that dim, silent, but teeming Plaza, nailed upon the cross,—a public spectacle, his dying figure barely lit up by the torch of a penitent or a ruthless soldier. Little, thin, red streams of blood flowed down from his nail-pierced hands, crossing each other at the wrist, and passing to the armpit, and thence trickling down the sides, and soaking in gore the linen cloth at the waist. It was too frightfully real. The two thieves were on either side, and beyond them stretched the long line of penitents, whose lighted candles shed a fitful ray over the whole." When the scene was finished, a troop of children with silver wings went by, carrying banners inscribed with the words (in Latin), "For our salvation he hath died." Then passed the centurion's guard, and the Virgin Mother, with the dead Christ in her arms; and a hush of awe fell upon the crowd, as the cleared space remained quite empty for a while. At ten o'clock a beautifully illuminated glass coffin was borne along the pathway, bordered by the kneeling crowd, and in it lay a figure, with pale peaceful features, wrapped in a linen winding-sheet. When Mary of Magdala, Saint John and Saint Veronica have followed the glass coffin, all is over, and the Plaza is speedily and noiselessly deserted. The "watch" has begun, to be maintained until it shall be exchanged for the noisy congratulations and rejoicings of Easter Day.

A few notes on the vegetation of the Arctic regions may not be out of season at the present time. For fuller details we may refer to Dr. Hooker's exhaustive essay on the distribution of Arctic plants, published in the "Transactions of the Linnean Society," vol. xxiii., 1862. Since the appearance of this article very little has been added to our knowledge of Arctic vegetation, if we except the flora of Spitzbergen. Several naturalists have since visited the islands of this group, and about thirty additional species of flowering plants have been discovered. The greater part of these additions have been published in the "Journal of Botany," vol. ii. pp. 130 to 137 and 162 to 176, and vol. i., series 2, p. 152; but a few interesting plants new to the group, collected by the Rev. Mr. Eaton, and now in the Herbarium at Kew, do not appear to have been