"One was not conscious of time and it was all unreal," wrote one who was present. "Suddenly the deep notes of St. Peter's great bell boomed out, tolling '_pro pontifice agonizzante_,' and at that signal Exposition began in all the patriarchal basilicas, with special prayers. The hot _scirocco_, the buzz from the Piazza San Pietro far below, whispering prelates and attendants, the boom of the bell--how strange it all seemed; and behind everything the catastrophe of the present public situation and war."
So the hours of the afternoon wore on into the night. The pope could not speak, but he recognized those who approached him, received the clasp of their hands with an answering pressure, raised his own to bless them, and from time to time made slowly on his brow and breast a long sign of the cross. At a little after 1.15 a.m., in deepest peace and calm, Pius X passed away.
He died as he had lived, quietly and simply; and few strangers, had they seen the plain, austerely furnished bedroom where he lay, majestic in death, could have believed that this was the death-chamber of a pope. Opposite the bed, which was surrounded by four great candles, stood an altar, where from the small hours of the morning Mass succeeded Mass; two Noble Guard were on duty beside the dead pontiff. The grief felt for his loss was deep and universal; cardinals, prelates, servants, all sorts and conditions of men, wept openly as they went about their duties. Diplomats expressed in heartfelt accents to Cardinal Merry del Val their admiration, veneration and love for the saintly pope who had passed away. "The whitest soul in this blood-stained tempest-torn world has left us," wrote an Italian prelate to a friend. "The Holy Father has died of a broken heart," said another.
The body of the pope lay in state in the Sala del Trono and afterwards was carried to St. Peter's, where it was placed in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, raised aloft and visible to the crowd. A continuous stream of people passed through the basilica, getting thicker and thicker as the day went on. Pius X had asked that he might be buried in the crypt of St. Peter's, absolutely forbidding the embalming of his body. His wish was carried out on the 23rd of August.