After mass, the Pope gave the benediction to the people assembled in the Grand Court before the church of St. Peter's. It was a remarkably fine day; an immense multitude filled that spacious and magnificent area […] The silk hangings and gold trappings with which the chair was embellished, concealed the men who carried it, so that to those who viewed him from the area below, his Holiness seemed to sail forward from the window, self-balanced in the air, like a celestial being. The instant he appeared, the music struck up, the bells rung from every church, and the cannon thundered from the castle of St. Angelo, in repeated peals. During the intervals, the church of St. Peter's, the palace of the Vatican, and the banks of the Tiber, re-echoed the acclamations of the populace. At length his Holiness arose from his seat, and an immediate and awful silence ensued.