CHAPTER XXVI

THE KING AND POPE. — FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. — MARRI AGE OF PRINCE AMADEUS. A.D. 1867.

The French army being withdrawn from Rome, the Pope had no other defenders than his foreign mercenaries ; his Httle State was hemmed round on ail the land sides by the possessions of the robber-king, who had undertaken to defend him against foreign aggression and protect him in the exercise of his spiritual authority. As temporal sovereign he was tottering on his throne ; his subjects were thoroughly disafifected, and in that ancient seat of priestly power which once ruled Christendom, the Pope could not now command the willing obedience of other than his Swiss guards and ecclesiastics. Not daring to trust himself without the protection of a large military force, he again raised a foreign légion, to take the place of the French troops. This proceeding irritated the Romans more than ever ; and instead of practising that patience which the king recommended, they lost ail hope in diplomacy, and took to their old expédient of conspiracy.

‘ The internai tempest which rages in Rome,’ writes