Ten thousand wax tapers emit their bright rays,
And at first you are almost struck blind as you gaze:
The Abbot is clad in his finest attire
Of satin and silk, at a price rather higher
Than an un-worldly man, one might think, would desire;
But what puzzled one most—and what seemed very queer,
Was—that all the fat Monks of Jacopolo there,
Instead of performing prescribed genuflexions,
Or praying to Saints, to forgive their defections:
Or joining (melodious old souls!) in the quire,