The Argosy — page 158: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

146 A Day at Malta. Adam and la Valette. The sarcophagi of the two latter were opened when Queen Adelaide visited Malta, and the bodies were found to be embalmed. The Chapel of San Carlo contains most of the sacred relics, in- cluding a thorn from the crown placed on the head of our Saviour ; one of the stones with which St. Stephen was martyred; the right foot of Lazarus ; and some of the bones of the Apostles and Thomas A’Beckett. The church formerly contained the reputed right hand of St. John the Baptist, said to have been brought from Antioch to Constanti- nople by the Emperor Justinian ; whence it eventually found its way to Rhodes, and from thence was brought to Malta by L’Isle Adam. It was encased in a glove of gold, richly set with gems. Many offerings surrounded it: amongst others a large diamond ring, which Napoleon, on taking Malta, transferred to his own finger ; whilst the hand was carried away to Russia, and is now in the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. It was a strange and abrupt transition to go from this rich and costly building to. the poor and very ugly Church of the Monks. Down in the crypt we saw them, these miserable creatures, who, though dead, have never been buried, propped up in niches, ghastly skeletons, wearing for shroud the cloaks they had worn in life. It was a horrible and depressing sight. One of them was placed behind an iron grating, as if he had been more precious than the others, and we asked the reason. It was, said the Brother who accompanied us, because people who came would cut a piece of his garment to carry away as a memento. We were glad to escape back into pure air and sunshine, though the heat and the intense glare were almost unbearable as we went out into the country to see the garden of the Palace of S. Antonio, the Governor’s summer residence, given up for the present to the Duke of Edinburgh. On our way it was occasionally necessary to shut one’s eyes from the dazzling and blinding effect of the sun. Neither horse nor driver, however, seemed to feel it. The horse, indeed, went at a tremendous rate and kept it up for hours without turning a hair. .On reaching the residence we entered a long avenue between two high dead walls, which terminated in a paved courtyard. Beyond this was the famous garden. It was indeed a charming and refreshing sight after the apparent sterility of the island. The garden was large and crowded with trees of every description, some of which were new and unknown to us. Orange and lemon trees were in abundance ; a few specimens of the pepper tree ; the graceful linden ; the kharoub, with its hanging fruit or vegetable—which is it? for it seems to partake of the nature of both. Unseen cicalas apparently in millions kept up their incessant and curious noise. And what puzzled us, and always does puzzle us, is the way in which they all begin chirping and grating together, and ECOMiCcOOolkKS —_— (CO