Dined at the French Ambassador’s. After the second course a great noise was heard in the streets, which the Ambassador did not wish us to notice. But Madame de Gabriac knew that it was the procession they call here ‘La Casacchia,’ and that it was well worth the seeing. It was passing at the time, and we and more than half the company went out upon the terrace to see it. It is a confraternity of St. James, which every year makes this procession to some convent about a mile from Genoa ; then half a dozen other fraternities of penitents, all distinguished by their dress; and Capuchins, more brilliant the one than the other, carrying enormous metal crosses, highly ornamented, and so heavy that one could scarcely conceive it possible one man could carry them; then came what they call ‘La Caisse,’—a representation in coloured figures as large as life of the good deeds of their saint. This enormous ‘caisse’ is carried also upon the backs of men; and all this is accompanied by bands of not very good music, and by an immense crowd of men and women.