44 
MEXICO, 
FRIAR AND PRIESTS. 
In the shadow of a pillar of the Portales sneaks a miserable looking 
wretch, wrapped in his tattered blanket — a lepero, porter, beggar, thief, as 
the occasion offers ; and he takes the advantage of the latter. employment 
in this moment of excitement, to ease an unsuspicious stranger of his 
handkerchief! 
A tinkle of a bell at the door of the Cathedral sacristy, and a roll of 
drums calling out the guard of honor at the palace gate, give warning of 
a change of scene. 
Slowly issues a gayly-painted coach with glass windows on all sides, 
drawn by spotted mules ; a priest in his vestments sits within ; a band 
of boys walk on each side, chanting a hymn ; and in a moment, a 
deathlike stillness pervades the whole square. From the tradesman, sel- 
ling his tapes under the Portales, to the thief, who has barely time to 
conceal the handkerchief in his dirty blanket, the whole crowd is un- 
covered and kneeling : the Host is passing to the house of some dying 
Catholic ! 
The carriage turns a corner, and the square is alive again ; the trades- 
man to sell, the lepero to steal, and the lesson of death is forgotten for 
ever ! 
