It must be very
tedious to listen, day after day, to the minute and commonplace
iniquities of the multitude of penitents, and it cannot be often that
these are redeemed by the treasure-trove of a great sin. When her
confession was over the woman came and sat down on the same bench with
me, where her broad-brimmed straw hat was lying. She seemed to be a
country woman, with a simple, matronly face, which was solemnized and
softened with the comfort that she had obtained by disburdening herself
of the soil of worldly frailties and receiving absolution. An old woman,
who haunts the cathedral, whispered to her, and she went and knelt down
where a procession of priests were to pass, and then the old lady begged
a cruzia of me, and got a half-paul. It almost invariably happens, in
church or cathedral, that beggars address their prayers to the heretic
visitor, and probably with more unction than to the Virgin or saints.
However, I have nothing to say against the sincerity of this people's
devotion.
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