Apart from the duty or the curiosity which takes you to attend a reception of the Cardinal Secretary, or the Maggiordomo in his apartments, it is well to pay the visit to appreciate the atmosphere of the Papal Court, its dignity, tempered with approachability; its simplicity, tempered by quiet richness; its unmistakable air of a Royal presence.
Though it may be visited without leave, it is only on one day in the week, and therefore, where a hundred see the Apollo Belvedere, barely one sees the storied arras richly dight, which Raffaelle designed for Leo x. to hang under the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. These tapestries, woven in the looms of Flanders four hundred years ago, suffered from fire and sword in the evil days of the Constable of Bourbon and his Protestant Landsknechts, but they are still the world's premier tapestries: their colours still glow: their genius is such that we can only think of the Apostles in the forms in which Raffaelle created them: and in the Gallery of the Candelabri, which you visit with them, is a collection of masterpieces.
Nor are these the only tapestries in the Vatican, for there are two other rooms where the Pope and his Cardinals robe, and State banquets are held, and the officers of the Swiss Guard have their mess, which are hung with the noblest
