THE POPE WILL NOT HEAR REASON

Plus IX. to Victor tnmEanuel.

Your Majesty, — The Count Ponza di San Martine has consigned to me a letter which your majesty has been pleased to address to me ; but it is not worthy of an affectionate son who boasts himself a professer of the Catholic faith, and who glories in a kingly loyalty, I will not enter into the particulars of that letter, not to renew the pain the first reading occasioned me. But I bless God, who has suffered your majesty to fill with bitterness the last period of life.

For the rest, I cannot admit the demands of your letter, nor accept the principles contained therein. I address myself to God, and place my cause in His hands, for it is entirely His. I pray Him to concédé abundant grâce to your majesty, deliver you from every péril, and render you a participator in ail the merdes of which you may hâve need.

Plus PP. IX.

From the Vatican, Sept, ii, 1870.

The day this letter was written General Cadoma had orders to march. He was received with ovations in ail the small towns of the Roman State, and took up his quarters outside the capital in the Villa Spada. Here the Prussian ambassador, Count Arnim, visited him . to beg that he would suspend hostilities till the diplomatie body should try médiation with the Pope. Next day he informed the general by letter that the attempt had been fruitless. The Pope was resolved to make a feint of defending the city, to show the world that it had

l80 LIFE OF VICTOR EMMANUEL IL

been taken by violence. Early in the moming the attack was begun at the Leonine Gâte, and at ten o’clock the Pia Gâte gave way before the artillery. A breach was opened in the wall, and the infantry threw themselves into it, while the defenders poured grapeshot from the bastions. It was not much of a fight, but some killed and wounded there were, and, seeing how utterly futile the résistance was, the foreign ambassadors thought it a pity that one life should be lost, and entreated the Pope to send out a flag of truce. He did not yield at first ; not till he heard the invaders were inside the walls. When the white flag was hoisted on St Peters the diplomatie body drove in haste to ask General Cadorna to put a stop to the conflict. Ail the male inhabitants of the city were in the streets ; they now rushed to the Capitol, where the royal troops were disarming the last papal Zouaves. The great bell rang out while the tricolour was hoisted on the palace, and the multitude broke into rapturous applause. They could hardly yet believe that the temporal power was fallen. No more foreign légions, no more spies, no more Holy Offices ! Castel Sant’ Angelo and San Michèle opened to let out the political prisoners ! AU this eflected in five hours, after so many years of heartburning and bittemess, and fruitless conspiracies ! It scemed a dream, so easily was Rome lost and won at the last. But September 20, 1870, marks a great epoch in the history of the World,

The Pope bore this last blow, as ail the preceding ones, with wonderful fortitude. He was a brave old

‘A ROMA CI SIAMO.’ l8l

man, and, strong in the faith that his cause was just, he never yielded an inch. ‘ I cede only to force,’ he had said in 1848; and now, at eighty years of âge, he presented the same resolute front to ail persuasions and remonstrances,

The vote of the Romans was taken as follows : —

FortheKing . . . 40,785

For the Pope .... 46

This vote was enough to satisfy Victor Emmanuel’s highest expectations. The dream of his life was accomplished, and in a manner most flattering to a monarch’s pride. Yet this rose was not without its thorn either. To be ail sweetness he should hâve had Pio Nono’s blessing, and be crowned, like Charlemagne, by the hands of the venerable Pontiflf in that city of glorious memories where he was henceforth to reign. But he grasped the rose, thorn and ail, with the mémorable exclamation, ‘ A Roma ci siamo e ci resteremo ! ’

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