The most earnest reformer most confess that immense progress has been
made during the present century. We are not speaking of mechanical or
physical arts, in which the advance is really wonderful, but we are
thinking solely of the political and moral achievements of the age.
The emancipation of the nations from the power of the priest is a
vast object not yet attained, but towards the accomplishment of which,
nevertheless, our generation is making gigantic strides.
Above all, this progress seems marvellous and divinely impelled, when
one remembers that the gradual destruction of priestcraft is the work of
the priesthood itself. What enduring consolidation would not the Papacy
have obtained, had Pius IX. continued the system of reform with which he
commenced his reign, and sincerely identified himself with the Italian
nation! An overruling Providence, however, blinded the eyes of the
wavering monk for the good of his unfortunate people, and left him to
travel on the perverse and misguided road of his predecessors--that is
to say, to trade away Roman honor and Christian spirit for the help of
the foreigner, vilely selling the blood of his countrymen. The Italian
nation, which might have been so well and long deceived, has now seen
these impostors, the priests, walking with cross in hand at the head of
the foreign troops pitted against Italian patriots. The writer has with
his own eyes more than once witnessed priests leading the Austrians
against the Liberals. To serve the Papacy they have excited and
maintained brigandage, devastating the southern provinces with horrible
crimes, and fomenting by every means in their power the dissolution of
national unity, so happily but hardly constituted.
Another sign of human progress in our day is the closer tie establishing
itself between the aristocracy and the people. There still exist some
oligarchs everywhere, more or lest callous, more or less insolent, who
affect the arrogance and authority of former times, when the outrageous
and intolerable feudal pretensions were in full force. But they are
few in number, and the greater part of the nobility (noble not only by
birth, but in soul) associate with os, and mingle their aspirations with
ours.
To this last type belonged the brother of Irene, who undertook the
unlucky military affair we related in the last chapter, with the idea
of rescuing his beloved sister from the brigands, into whose hands he
believed she had fallen an unwilling victim. But when he learned that
those he had fought against were Romans of noble and lofty spirit,
and very far from the assassins he had pictured, he did not fail to
compliment the valor of his countrymen; and when he further learned that
Qrazio, to whose generosity he owed his life, was the legal husband of
his sister, and that she loved him so tenderly, his maimer and opinion
changed entirely.
These considerations had pleaded already in favor of Irene, who, upon
seeing her brother, threw herself at his feet, clasping his knees in a
flood of tears, which flowed the faster at the remembrance of her dead
father, whom he represented in face and voice.
The Prince, raising her gently, mingled his tears with hers, as he
affectionately embraced her. Orazio, touched to the depths of his soul,
was also affected, and taking the Prince's sword by the point, handed it
back to him, saying, "So noble a soldier ought not to be deprived, even
by accident, of his weapon." The Prince accepted it with gratitude, and
shook the bronzed hand of this son of the forest amicably.
And Clelia! what had made her rush away from this charming scene? what
had she heard amid the noise of the conflict? She had recognized the
voice of her Attilio during the assault, and for her and him too this
was a supreme moment. Yes, during the battle, when the shouts of
the new-comers made the arches of the castle ring again, Clelia
distinguished her betrothed's voice. She threw down a gun which she was
loading, and rushed to a balcony, whence she could survey the scene of
action. For one second, through the smoke, she obtained a view of the
face engraven upon her heart, but that second was sufficient to make
her feel surpassingly happy. Attilio, indeed, it was, who, with Silvio,
Muzio, and some other companions, had thus charged and scattered the
Papal troops.
Silvio, it must be known, was well acquainted with the castle of
Lucullus, where he had often been a guest, as well as the associate
of Orazio in his hunting and fighting expeditions. Through him a
communication was kept up between the Liberals in the city and those in
the country. Before quitting Rome he had come to the determination of
taking the field, and placing himself under Orazio's flag, and, as we
have seen, he happily arrived with his associates just in time to give
the last blow to the Papal soldiers.
The gentle reader must himself imagine the joy in the castle caused by
the arrival of friends who could contribute so powerfully to the safety
of the proscribed--what interrogations! what embracings! what inquiries
after parents, relatives, and friends! what new and happy hopes! what
soft illusions, dreams of peace and rest!
"Oh, my own, my own!" whispered Clelia, when Attilio for the first time
imprinted a kiss upon her beautiful brow, "thou art mine and I am thine,
in spite of the wicked priests, in spite of the world."
The smell of the gunpowder had perhaps turned her dear little head, so
that we may pass over the slight indiscretion of such confessions. She
should have been more coquettish, but she was a Roman girl, and her love
was true. And is not true love sublime, heroic, such as these two
happy beings bore to one another? Is it not the life of the soul, the
incentive of all that is noble, the civilizer of the human race?
The Liberals had a glorious acquisition in the person of Prince T------;
he was entirely converted by the scenes he had witnessed and the
words which he heard; for, generous and brave by nature, he felt the
humiliation of his country, and desired to see her liberated from the
bad government of the priest and the foreigner. Educated away from Rome,
however, and moving in a different sphere from those patriots who held
in their hands the plot of the Revolution, he had remained in ignorance
of much that was passing, and had even accepted, at his father's desire,
a post in the Pontifical army, which removed him farther than ever from
the influence of our brave friends. But a film had now passed from his
sight, and he saw at last with clearer vision the greatness of Italy's
future, and how surely Italy--now divided into so many parts, despised
and scorned by the world--should yet be re-united, and become one grand
and noble nation, looked up to and respected as in the days of her past
glory, as the patriotic Italians of all periods have ever dreamed and
prayed she should be.
The Prince was enchanted with his new quarters and with his new
companions, and vowed to himself to live and die for the sacred cause of
his country.
Rich, powerful, and generous, he became in future the strongest
supporter of the proscribed, and they had reason to congratulate
themselves for having put faith and hope in so noble a patriot, and one
whom they had thus doubly conquered.