A correspondent of the Temps, in a letter dated Rome, October 17, describes the following scene as having been witnessed by himself: —On one of ' the many fine days with which we have been blessed this autumn, the Pope, in a special good humour, was walking in the country and saying all sorts of kind things to little school children who were allowed to kiss his feet. A chamberlain by his side carried a box laden with little paper packets, in the form of horns of plenty filled with medals which His Holiness had blessed. The Pope benignly distributed these among all the children who approached him, after having asked them some little questions from the Catechism, or about the Immaculate Conception, the number of gods, &c. One very little boy, who was not tall enough to reach the cornecopia which the Pope held in his hand, attracted his attention. His Holiness, turning the three-cor-nered paper upside down, and at the same time squeezing it in the middle, so as to prevent any of the medals from tumbling out, said to the I child, ' Oh, dear ! —you see there are no more 1' ' Yes, I see,' said the boy. ' Well, now,' resumed tha Holy Father, ' if you love the blessed Virgin very much, she will make some come.' ' JSvviva Maria!' cried the young shaver, who appears to have been a sharp one. 'There !' exclaimed'the head of the Church, taking hold of the cornucopia by the point, and letting the medals fall out, ' here they are.' The Pope, turning round to the prelates following him, laughed at his own wit. Such mild jokes as these please Mm, and essentially belong to his character." The " Court Journal" says that the " incognita ' rambles of Her Majesty are becoming so common that the humblest peasant in the land has no security when he rises but that his hovel may be honoured as a palace before night by the reception of royalty, and himself converted into a semi-hero who had looked face to face, and exchanged com-mon-place words with the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 49, 11 January 1862, Page 2
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351Untitled Otago Daily Times, Issue 49, 11 January 1862, Page 2
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