When all the Pontifical forces had returned from the outposts, on the
approach of the formidable Piedmontese invader, and were concentrated at
Rome, they numbered not more than some ten thousand men. Such an army was
quite inadequate to cope with the superior power of the Florence
government. Pius IX., therefore, in order to prevent an unavailing
conflict, placed an order in the hands of his general-in-chief, to the
effect that as soon as sufficient resistance was made, in order to show
that violence was used against the Holy See, he should surrender the city.
This was a trial to the devoted Papal Zouaves, who, during the few moments
that fighting was allowed, conducted themselves in the most gallant style,
and kept the enemy at bay. Their bravery deserved a better fate than that
which befell them and the Roman State. Two lieutenants, Niel and Brondeis,
fell, pierced with wounds, exclaiming with their last breath, “Long live
Pius IX.!” A brave Alsacian fell by their side. A Canadian Zouave,
Hormisdas Sauvet, was also wounded, and declared that he was more
fortunate than so many of his fellow-countrymen who had been two years in
the Pontifical service without the slightest accident. Another Zouave,
whose name was Burel, when wounded in the mouth, and his tongue was
destroyed, made a sign that he wished to write. Paper was brought to him,
and he thus wrote his will: “I leave to the Holy Father all that I
possess.” He died the following day. The paper, all covered with blood,
was taken to Pius IX., who, in his turn, bedewed it with tears, and
desired to keep it as a memorial.
The Italian general Cadorna, an apostate priest, commenced bombarding Rome
at five points. At one of these, between the gates Pia and Salara, they
speedily effected a breach in an old wall about two feet in thickness, and
built of bricks and tufa. It may be conceived with what feelings the brave
Papal soldiers beheld the storming column enter the city, whilst they, in
obedience to orders, remained inactive spectators. They bore in silence
and without moving an arm the insults and even the violence of the fierce
soldiery of Piedmont. Finally, after a white flag had been displayed for
some time on the Pontifical side, almost in vain, General Kanzler had an
interview with Cadorna, at the Villa Albani. It can hardly be said that a
convention was resolved on. It would be more true to write that the terms
of the conqueror were imposed on the vanquished, and, as a matter of
necessity, accepted. The soldiers were better treated than in such
circumstances could well be expected. They were allowed to march out of
Rome with the honors of war, bearing with them their colors, arms and
baggage. When once out of the city, however, they were all obliged to lay
down their arms and their colors, with the exception of the officers, who
were permitted to retain their swords, their horses and everything that
belonged to them. Such soldiers as were foreigners were to be sent to
their respective homes by the Italian government. The future position of
the Pope’s native troops was to be taken into consideration. By the
articles of capitulation, it was settled that the Pope should be allowed
only the Vatican Palace and that part of Rome which is called the Leonine
city. Thus were carried into effect the views of those revolutionists of
Paris and Turin who claimed to be moderate. Their programme was that which
Prince Napoleon had concocted in 1861.
It is deeply to be regretted that when so little resistance was required,
so many of the Pope’s brave defenders should have fallen. Some were basely
murdered in the streets on the nights of the 20th and 21st September.
Without counting these, however, there were sixteen killed, of whom one
was an officer, and fifty-eight wounded. Among these last there were two
officers, two surgeons and a chaplain. The troops having been so hastily
dismissed to their foreign homes, to Civita Vecchia, etc., it is possible
that the list may be incomplete. The losses of the Piedmontese were never
made known. It is certain, at any rate, that one hundred wounded were
received at the hospital “de la Consolation” alone.
Whilst Pius IX. neglected not to warn, remonstrate and use every fair and
loyal art of diplomacy, he failed not, at the same time, to have recourse
to the spiritual weapon of prayer. As the enemy approached his gates, he
repaired to the Lateran Basilica, and there most earnestly addressed his
supplications to the God of armies. Notwithstanding his great age, he
ascended, on his knees, all the time absorbed in prayer, the twenty-nine
steps of the _Scala Santa_, which, at the Palace of Pontius Pilate, was
consecrated by the footsteps of our suffering Saviour. On reaching the
chapel at the head of the holy stair, he poured forth a prayer by which
all who heard it were deeply moved. He beseeched our blessed Lord, whose
humble servant and representative he was, to turn aside the wrath of
heaven, to prevent the profanation of the holy places, to save his people.
He conjured our most loving Saviour, by virtue of His passion, by the pain
especially which He suffered when spontaneously ascending that same stair
in order to undergo the mockery of judgment by His erring creatures, to
have mercy on afflicted Rome, on His people, on His Church—His
well-beloved and stainless spouse, to save her temples from desecration
and her children from the sword. “Pardon,” he concluded, “pardon my
people, who are also Thy people. If Thou desirest a victim, O God! take
Thy unworthy servant! Have I not lived long enough? Mercy! O God! have
mercy, I beseech Thee! But whatever may happen, Thy holy will be done!”
As was always the case when Pius IX. appeared among his people, he was
received on this occasion with every demonstration of welcome. As soon as
the inhabitants of the locality became aware of his presence, they
thronged around his carriage in order to do him honor, and, urged by the
circumstances of the time, with that freedom and familiarity of manner
peculiar to the Romans, they added to their acclamations and cordial
_vivats_ words of encouragement and even advice. “Defend yourself. Holy
Father! defend us! courage! courage!” A parting benediction, and he left
his people of Rome to be with them no more.
All the representatives of foreign States, with the exception of Von
Arnim, the Prussian Ambassador, remained with the Holy Father, protesting
by their presence against the flagrant violation of a solemn treaty which
the Florence government was committing. It is not known that Von Arnim was
instructed by his government to act as he did. But none are ignorant that
since that time it has dealt severely with him. The diplomatist who
rejoiced over the fall of Rome has himself incurred disgrace, and
undergoes the punishment of a banished man.
Pius IX., complimenting the ambassadors, called to mind how they had
afforded him much comfort on a similar occasion. This was in 1848, and at
the Quirinal Palace. He informed them also that he had written to King
Victor Emmanuel, but did not know whether he had received his letter. At
any rate, he had little hope that it would have any result. His mention of
the notorious Bixio, who was with the Italian army, was not without
significance. This rabid red republican had threatened that if ever he
entered Rome he would throw the Pope and cardinals into the Tiber. “His
ideas,” the Holy Father observed, “were now probably modified. He was with
a king. May it please Heaven to effect a complete transformation and
convert this Bixio and so many others.”
The students of the American College at Rome, the ambassadors were then
told, had offered to take up arms in the service of Pius IX. The Holy
Father would not allow them to serve otherwise than by attending to the
wounded.
“I wish I could say that I count on you,” said the Pope, addressing the
ambassadors, “and that one of you will have the honor, as formerly, to
extricate the Church and her Chief from difficulty. But the times are
changed. The aged Pope, in his misfortunes, cannot rely on any one in this
world. But the Church is immortal. Let this never be forgotten.”
General Kanzler now brought the intelligence that a breach was made, and
the assault on the point of commencing. The Pope having conferred a few
moments apart with Cardinal Antonelli, resumed his discourse: “I have just
given the order to capitulate. We might still defend ourselves. But to
what purpose? Abandoned by every one, I must yield sooner or later; and I
must not allow any useless shedding of blood. You are my witnesses,
gentlemen, that the foreigner enters here only by violence, and that if my
door is forced, it is by breaking it open. This the world shall know, and
history will tell it, one day, to the honor of the Romans, my children. I
speak not of myself, gentlemen; I weep not for myself, but for those
unfortunate young men who have come to defend me as their Father. You will
take care, each of you, of those of your country. There are some from all
countries. I recommend them all to you, in order that you may preserve
them from such maltreatment as others had to suffer ten years ago. I
absolve my soldiers from their oath of fidelity. I pray God to give me
strength and courage. Ah! it is not they who suffer injustice that are
most to be pitied.” Having thus spoken, he took leave of the ambassadors,
with tears in his eyes. On the same day, Cardinal Antonelli, by his order,
intimated the sad tidings to the governments of all civilized nations.
Pius IX. also protested by an allocution to the cardinals. It only remains
to chronicle the shameful violation of the treaty, which bound the French
nation to protect the Holy Father, by the government temporarily
established in France. “The September agreement,” wrote a representative
of the French republic, under the date of 22nd September, 1870, “virtually
ceases to exist by the proclamation of the French republic. I congratulate
the King of Italy, in the name of the French government and in my own
name, on the deliverance of Home and the final consecration of Italian
unity.” Thus was disgrace added to the misfortunes of a great country.
It was some time before order could be restored at Rome. From four
thousand to five thousand vagrants and bandits, chiefly Garibaldians,
entered the city at the heels of the invading force. The prisons were
thrown open, and swelled the ranks of these disorderly bands. During two
whole days that these lawless hordes were allowed to commit all kinds of
excesses, houses were fired, valuable property destroyed or carried off,
some eighty unoffending citizens put to death, and such of the Roman
soldiers as were recognized cut down or thrown into the Tiber. Nor was the
Italian general in any hurry to repress such proceedings. “_Lasciate il
popolo sfogarsir_,” coolly said Cadorna to the parties who entreated him
to put an end to such horrors. This general and the men with whom he acted
were only robbers on a greater scale. Their commissioners lost not a
moment. When tranquillity was somewhat restored, and complaints were made
against housebreakers, it was found that everything was already
confiscated—libraries, archives, colleges, museums, etc.
Victor Emmanuel had need of the mob which followed his troops. Anxious to
give a coloring of right to his brigandage, he resolved, according to the
fashion of his Imperial patron and accomplice, to hold a _plebiscitum_. In
the city of Rome, with the help of his numerous assemblage of vagrants, he
had forty thousand votes, whilst against him there were only forty-six.
Something similar was done in the landward part of the Roman State.
Better, surely, no right beyond what the sword could give, than such a
transparent semblance of right. No wonder that Victor Emmanuel’s best
friends condemned such an impolitic and ridiculous proceeding. None could
be so simple as to believe that there were only forty-six voters against
him, when all the numerous officials, both civil and military, protested
against his aggression by resigning their offices. It is bad enough when
men in authority play fantastic tricks. When the play is badly played, the
trickery becomes ridiculous.
It now remained to adhibit the seal of permanency to the _fait accompli_.
This was done by the following decree:
Art. 1st. Rome and the Roman Provinces constitute an integral
portion of the kingdom of Italy.
Art. 2nd. The Sovereign Pontiff retains the dignity,
inviolability, and all the prerogatives of a sovereign.
Art. 3rd. A special law will sanction the conditions calculated to
guarantee, even by territorial franchises, the independence of the
Sovereign Pontiff and the free exercise of the spiritual authority
of the Holy See.
Thus was sacrificed to Italian unity the city of the Popes. Was the
sacrifice essential? Florence might have well sufficed. It was of little
avail that the brigands who followed the Piedmontese army were compelled,
by superior power, to moderate their violence. Their robberies were, for
the most part, of a private nature, and committed on a small scale. Those
of their superiors—the Piedmontese usurpers—were grander and more
extensive. They astonished, if they did not terrify, by their magnitude
and the daring which achieved them. There were palaces at Rome and
soldiers’ quarters which had satisfied all the requirements of Papal
grandeur. These were nothing to the republican simplicity of the new order
of things. No doubt the parliament which had just arrived from Florence
required ample space. The costly equipages and hunting studs of a
constitutional king were also to be provided for. Could not all this have
been done, especially in such a vast city, without expropriating convents,
desecrating churches, and even seizing for their purposes the refuges of
the sick? It was more than an idea that required such spoliation. But what
shall we say when we call to mind that the mere desire to modernize
everything threatened the destruction of all those monuments which
rendered Rome so dear to travellers from every clime? It had been hitherto
the city of the Consuls, of the Emperors, of the Popes. It must now become
a commonplace town, with straight lines, rectangles and parallelograms,
like Philadelphia, New York, or the _Haussmanized_ Paris of Napoleon III.
The Royal Palace of the Popes, the Quirinal, was unscrupulously seized, in
order to make a city mansion for the King of Italy. It was too
magnificent, apparently, for this gentleman prince. He seldom entered it.
It may be that he dreaded offending the revolution, to which he owed so
much, by too great an affectation of royal style. If the gratitude of such
a heartless thing could be relied on, he had no need to fear. Without the
sword of Piedmont the revolution never could have entered Rome.
Meanwhile, the Pope was engaged in most anxious deliberation. At last,
considering the disturbed state of Europe generally, he concluded that it
was better for him to remain at Rome. A Pontifical ship, which had not
been included in the articles of capitulation, awaited his orders in the
waters of Civita Vecchia. This vessel was named the “Immaculate
Conception;” and two years later, by order of his Holiness, was laid up at
Toulon, under the protection of the flag of France. A French ship, the
“Orenoque,” was then placed at the disposal of Pius IX., in case he should
wish, at any time, to leave Rome: and later, the “Kleber,” which was
stationed in the waters of Bastia (Corsica).
The Holy Father had made up his mind so early as the first days of
September, 1870, to remain in the city. His presence, he felt confident,
would so far prevent the evils which he feared. If he were gone, there
would be less restraint on the usurping power, when it might wish to
confiscate more convents, churches and church property generally. Almost
all the foreign ambassadors remained with him; and this circumstance
presented another cause why the new government would be more moderate and
circumspect in its attacks on property.
A beautiful legend which the Holy Father recounted, at an interview with
Cardinal De Bonnechose, was well calculated to reconcile the Catholic
world to the stay of Pius IX. at Rome, even although he was there as a
prisoner of the victorious king. And a prisoner he really was; for he
could not have removed to any other country except by a successful
stratagem, so closely guarded were all the approaches to the city by the
myrmidons of the conqueror. Taking the cardinal aside, he informed him
that he wished to present him with a memorial. “The object in itself is of
little value. The intention with which I give it is all its worth.” It was
a small plate of ivory, framed in gold, surmounted by the arms of the Holy
See, and representing in the most exquisite manner a moving scene in the
life of St. Peter. “You behold the subject of my frequent meditations for
many years. When the prince of the apostles, fleeing from persecution,
quitted Rome, he met, not far from the gate of Saint Sebastian, our Lord
Himself, carrying His cross and looking extraordinarily sad: ‘_Domine quo
radis?_’ ‘Lord, where are you going?’ exclaimed Peter. ‘I am going to
Rome,’ replied our blessed Lord, ‘In order to be there crucified anew to
die in your place, as your courage has failed you.’ ” “Peter understood,”
continued the Holy Father, “and remained at Rome. I also remain. For if,
at this moment, I left the eternal city, it would seem to me as if our
Lord addressed to me the same words of reproach. The representation of
this scene I am anxious to leave with you as a memorial. It may, in
reality, be nothing more than a pious legend. But for me it in a decisive
instruction.” Pius IX. then delivered the precious medallion to the
cardinal.
GUARANTEES WHICH GUARANTEED NOTHING—£120,000 WITH WHICH NOTHING WAS
PAID—PETER’S PENCE WHICH PAID EVERYTHING.
In order to give a coloring to his usurpation in the eyes of Christian
Europe, and to set at rest any scruples which may have remained in the
minds of his adherents, Victor Emmanuel caused a law to be enacted on the
13th March, 1871, which is known as _the law of guarantees_. This law
declared the person of the Sovereign Pontiff sacred and inviolable,
recognized his title and dignity of sovereign, assured to him an annual
endowment of 3,225,000 francs (£120,000), together with the possession of
the Vatican and Lateran Palaces, as well as the Pontifical Villa of Castel
Gandolfo, and provided for the complete liberty of all future Conclaves
and Œcumenical Councils. It requires two parties to every contract or
agreement. _The law of guarantees_ had no such condition, the Holy Father
not being a party to it. He could not accept the honors which the new
government pretended to confer, nor the money which it offered. It was not
a government by any other law than that of the sword—that of a war not
only undertaken against the unoffending, but also in violation of a solemn
treaty. Neither was the treasure which it proffered its rightful property.
It held it, indeed; but only as the robber holds the purse of his victim,
whilst he mocks him by an offer of alms. It was also the merest mockery to
pretend to recognize the Pope as a sovereign, whilst, in reality, he was
detained as a prisoner, who could not pass beyond the gate of his garden
without coming into the custody of the armed police or soldiery of the
usurper, By the provisions of this same law of guarantees, full liberty
was secured to the Sovereign Pontiff in the exercise of his spiritual
office. The persecutions to which the ministers of the Church were
frequently subjected, when they dared to obey the orders of the Pope in
fulfilling the duties of his and their ministry, show to what extent the
framers of the law were sincere. It need only be added, without further
comment, that article eighteen confiscated, by anticipation, all
ecclesiastical properties, under the pretence that they were to be
reorganized, preserved and administered. No wonder that the Pope
stigmatized such a law as hypocritical and iniquitous. In the supposition
that he could have derived any benefit from accepting it, he would still
have been at the mercy of a fickle king and parliament, to whom it was
competent, at any moment, to change the law which they had made. The
safety of the Holy Father, under Heaven, lay in this, that the newly
erected kingdom of Victor Emmanuel was most ambitious to figure as a State
among the States of Europe. To none of these would it have been pleasing
to see the venerable Pontiff forcibly driven from the city of the Popes.
It was necessary, as far as possible, to blindfold them.
“I have, indeed, great need of money.” said Pius IX., when the sum
appropriated by the law of guarantees was first presented for his
acceptance; “my children, everywhere, impose on themselves the most
serious sacrifices in order to supply my wants, at all times so great, but
to which you are daily adding. As it is a portion of the property that has
been stolen from me, I could only accept it as restitution money. I will
never sign a receipt which would appear to express my acquiescence in the
robbery.” Every succeeding year the form, or rather the farce, of offering
the subsidy was renewed and as often rejected. That the offer of so large
a sum was hypocritical, and intended only for show, is well proved by the
circumstance that the liberal Italian government deprived of their incomes
and drove from their places of residence many bishops, whose wants were
supplied in their great distress from the resources of the Holy Father.
Love is stronger than hate; and so well-beloved was Pius IX. throughout
Catholic Christendom, that contributions of money from every country where
there were any Catholics were poured into his treasury, in such abundance
as more than compensated for the loss of his Italian revenue. Not only
were these contributions, under the name of Peter’s pence, sufficient to
maintain the venerable Pontiff during the remainder of his days, without
its being necessary to accept, as a royal benefaction, any portion of the
property that was stolen from him, they also sufficed to enable him to
continue their salaries to his former employees, who had almost all
remained faithful, as well as to those still required for his service and
for transacting the business of the Church. In addition to this, he
retained on half or quarter pay a number of the soldiers of his former
army, and maintained his establishment of Vigna Pia, together with the
hospital of Tata Giovanni, from which the new Roman municipality had
meanly withdrawn the subsidy, for no other reason than that in former
times it had been a favorite institution of Pius IX. This was not all. The
Holy Pontiff maintained, by means of popular schools, a necessary warfare
against both Protestant and Atheistic propagandism. The former had been
very active ever since the occupation of Rome by the Piedmontese. The
various Protestant societies actually spent £100,000 yearly in the vain
attempt to Protestantize the Romans. By 1st January, 1875, they had
erected three churches and founded twelve missionary residences in the
interest of divers denominations—Anglicans, Methodists, American
Episcopalians, Vaudois, Baptists, Anabaptists, etc. The Italians have
little taste for Protestantism in any of its forms. So there was no danger
of discordant and jarring sects coming to prevail. It cannot be denied,
however, that the movement increased the number of free-thinkers—a result
no less calculated to afflict tho Holy Father.
When to these expenses are added those of sustaining the Sacred College,
the prelature, the guards, the museums, and bishops that were exiled for
the faith, there is shown a monthly expenditure of more than six hundred
thousand francs, which is equal to seven millions and a half yearly. These
expenses always increased as the elder bishops passed away. Pius IX.
appointed successors. But as none of these could, in conscience, ask the
royal _exequatur_, which, notwithstanding article sixteen of the notorious
guarantees, was still in force, Victor Emmanuel had no hesitation in
suppressing the revenues of the bishops. Pius IX. sent to the bishops who
were thus deprived of their legitimate incomes five hundred francs
monthly, and to archbishops from seven hundred to one thousand francs. He
also labored to establish foundations for the education of ecclesiastical
students whom a revolutionary and anti-Christian law made subject to
military service, thus rendering morally impossible the following out of
clerical vocations and the recruiting of the priesthood. From this and
such like proceedings, it can easily be seen that the revolutionary
_regime_, and the Italian government was nothing less, aimed at the
extirpation of Christianity, and that civilization, the only possible
civilization which follows in its train.
Misfortune, meanwhile, was not neglected by the Holy Pontiff. He sent
vestments to the churches of Paris which had been pillaged by the Commune.
He provided, habitually, in like manner, for the churches of poor and
remote missions. In July, 1875, he sent twenty thousand francs to the
people who had suffered by inundations in the southwest of France, and
five thousand francs to such as had similarly suffered at Brescia, in
Upper Italy. He bestowed, likewise, large sums for the rebuilding of
churches—for instance, eight hundred francs for this pious purpose to the
Bishop of Sarsina, and two thousand to the Bishop of Osimo. Charitable
institutions were not overlooked, and the Princess Rospigliosi Champigny
de Cadore received fifty thousand francs towards the support of the house
of St. Mary Magdalen, the object of which was the preservation of young
women in the city of Rome.
As regarded works of art or of public utility, the venerable Pontiff was
no less munificent. He completed the restoration of the Church of Saint
Ange in Peschiera, together with the magnificent contiguous portico called
Octavia, and rebuilt the altar with the marbles found by Visconti in the
emporium of the Emperors. The tomb of his illustrious predecessor Gregory
VII., at Salerno, having become dilapidated, he undertook to restore it at
his own cost, and renewed the fine epitaph which Pope Gregory himself had
caused to be engraved on the sepulchral stone; _Dileri justitiam et odici
iniquitatem, et ecce in exilio mortor_. (I loved righteousness and hated
iniquity, and lo! I die in exile.)
Quite a number of people were employed in the manufacture of mosaics at
the Vatican. On this the Romans justly prided themselves. Pius IX.
continued to employ these artists, and, as in former times, presented
their works to his guests or to the churches of Italy. If he was not still
a king, he retained, at least, a truly royal prerogative—that of
conferring gifts in every way worthy of royalty. Nothing could exceed the
delicacy and graciousness with which he did so. Of this the two Russian
Grand Dukes, brothers of the reigning Emperor, were witnesses, when he
made a present to them of a splendid table, in mosaic, which they were
observed to admire among the more humble furniture of his apartment. The
funds must have been, indeed, abundant which could meet so many demands.
Although despoiled of his revenues and property, the Holy Father was a
richer monarch than the prince who robbed him. So liberally were Peter’s
pence bestowed and so economically managed, that Pius IX. was able to
invest money for the benefit of his successor, although not to such an
extent as to render the collection of Peter’s pence in the future
unnecessary.
It has long been customary, on occasion of the august ceremony of the
coronation of the Popes, to address to them, with due solemnity, the
words: _Annos Petri tu non ridebis_. (Thou wilt not see the years of
Peter.) It is related that one of the Popes thus replied to the ominous
address: _Non est de fide_. (That is no article of faith.) Pius IX.,
however, was the first who showed that the words were not strictly
prophetic. His Pontificate was prolonged beyond the years of Peter at
Rome. Already, on the 10th of June, 1871, when he was enabled to celebrate
the twenty-fifth anniversary of his election to the Pontifical chair, he
had enjoyed more than the years of Peter. The great apostle, it will be
remembered, spent two years after our Lord’s ascension in preaching the
Gospel at Jerusalem and throughout Judea. After this, Antioch, at the time
the capital of the Eastern world, became the scene of his apostolic
labors. He was bishop there for seven years when he established the
central seat of Christendom at Rome, the metropolis of the known world.
The apostle remained there till his martyrdom under Nero, A. D. 67. Thus,
Peter was Pope thirty-four years or so, whilst he was Bishop of Rome only
twenty-five years and some days. A festival at Rome could not now be held
with the wonted circumstance of outward religious pomp. The remarkable
anniversary was not, however, less devoutly observed at the Basilicas of
St. Peter and St. John Lateran. These immense edifices were crowded with
people of all classes and of every age. Nor in this did the Romans stand
alone. Prayers and communions were offered up in every diocese of the
world, supplicating Heaven for a continuation of the years which had been
already so auspiciously granted to the venerable Pontiff. More than a
thousand congratulatory messages were flashed along the telegraph lines.
All the sovereigns of Europe, with scarcely an exception, paid their
dutiful compliments to Pius IX.; the telegram of Queen Victoria being the
first that reached him. From the New World as well as from the Old there
came numerous deputations. One day, in replying to them, the Holy Father
delivered no fewer than twelve discourses in Latin, French, Spanish and
Italian. To many of the addresses was appended a singularly great number
of signatures. The Bishop of Nevers presented one with two millions of
names.
A few days later, 20th September, the Holy Father had to lament the death
of his brother, Count Gaetano Mastai. So little, however, was his grief
respected by Victor Emmanuel and his government, that their cannon were
heard booming joyously in honor of the violent occupation of the city. All
Rome was indignant. Patrician and plebeian, all citizens alike, hastened
to the Vatican, protesting and presenting addresses of condolence. The
_Riforma_ (a Roman journal) said, on the occasion: “After two years’
sojourn Italy was still as much a stranger as on the first day, so that
there was no appearance of friendliness, but rather of a city that still
groaned under a military occupation, which it bore with the greatest
impatience.”