At length he was successful in gaining the very best position in the chapel, and here, unfolding a camp-stool which he had brought with him under his overcoat, he offered Blanka a seat, whence she could view the ceremonies in comfort, and without annoyance from the pushing and crowding multitude.
Alas, poor Blanka! She only learned later from her father confessor what a sin she had committed in thus yielding to the weakness of the flesh, instead of standing through all the weary hours of that morning.

A good Christian should not think of bodily comfort while his Saviour hangs bleeding on the cross.

But she did not know this at the time, and therefore her escort's kind attention was most grateful to her.
The Tenebrae is one of the most impressive of all the ceremonies of Holy Week in Rome.

The Sistine Chapel is draped entirely in black, and only the soft rays of thirteen wax candles serve to lessen the darkness, out of whose depths, as out of the blackness of the tomb, sounds the antiphony of mourning and lamentation.

The human forms moving to and fro before the cross are hardly distinguishable, but have the appearance of vague shadows.