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The room appointed for the exhibition was the great hall of the palace,
which in other days had evidently been a ball-room. The ceiling was
frescoed in the manner of the last century, with Cupids and Venuses, Vices
and Virtues, fruits and fiddles, dwarfs and blackamoors; and the painted
faces looked down on a scene of as curious interest as ever the
extravagant loves and graces of Tiepolo might hope to see, when the boys
of the college, after assisting at _Te Deum_ in the chapel, entered
the room, and took their places.
At the head of the hall sat the archbishop in his dark robes, with his
heavy gold chain about his neck--a figure and a countenance in all things
spiritual, gracious, and reverend. There is small difference, I believe,
between the creeds of the Armenians and the Roman Catholics, but a very
great disparity in the looks of the two priesthoods, which is all in favor
of the former. The Armenian wears his beard, and the Latin shaves--which
may have a great deal to do with the holiness of appearance.


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