Pius IX. to Victor mmEanuel.

Your Majesty,-The Count Ponza di San Martino 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 professor 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 concede abundant grace to your majesty, deliver you from every peril, and render you a participator in all the mercies of which you may have need.

From the Vatican, Sept. 11, 1870.

PIUS PP. IX.

The day this letter was written General Cadorna had orders to march. He was received with ovations in all 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 diplomatic body should try mediation 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

been taken by violence.

Early in the morning the attack was begun at the Leonine Gate, and at ten o'clock the Pia Gate 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 resistance 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. Peter's the diplomatic body drove in haste to ask General Cadorna to put a stop to the conflict. All 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 legions, no more spies, no more Holy Offices! Castel Sant' Angelo and San Michele opened to let out the political prisoners! All this effected in five hours, after so many years of heartburning and bitterness, and fruitless conspiracies! It seemed 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 all the preceding ones, with wonderful fortitude. He was a brave old

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 age, he presented the same resolute front to all persuasions and remonstrances.

The vote of the Romans was taken as follows:

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 all sweetness he should have had Pio Nono's blessing, and be crowned, like Charlemagne, by the hands of the venerable Pontiff in that city of glorious memories where he was henceforth to reign. But he grasped the rose, thorn and all, with the memorable exclamation, 'A Roma ci siamo e ci resteremo!'

CHAPTER XXXI.

M. THIERS' APPEAL TO THE KING.-AMADEO ACCEPTS THE CROWN OF SPAIN.-LAST PARLIAMENT IN FLORENCE. A.D. 1870.

THE provisional government of Paris had sent an ambassador to Florence, M. Sénard, to whom the king had shown such deep feeling for the misfortunes of France that M. Thiers was encouraged to make a journey to Italy to appeal to the king for help for his unhappy country. He had never been friendly to the House of Savoy, and had always opposed Italian unity; so he felt the mission a trying and painful one.

It is needless to say that Victor Emmanuel was not influenced by what the Frenchman had said about him when he met his appeal by a negative. He received him kindly, and explained that the reasons of state which prevented him aiding the emperor must prevent him aiding the Republic. You have been a constitutional minister,' said the king, and you know what are the duties of a constitutional monarch.' And he defined those duties with such precision and discernment that Thiers was much struck by his cleverness.

what passed in the interview.

He related to a friend

The king [he said] avoided disagreeable allusions, but he let me know delicately, that he had not forgotten what I had said of him in the tribune. He discussed politics with the most elevated views, and as a man who understands the profession. I thought I should have to do with a soldier, but I found an accomplished statesman.

Spain, still in an unsettled state, with a provisional government, once more thought of applying to Italy for a king. Victor Emmanuel considered the task of rescuing Spain from anarchy, and putting her on the road of civilisation and progress, would be one worthy of a prince of Savoy. He had thought of his nephew, the Duke of Genoa, but his extreme youth was an objection, and he finally decided on sending Amadeo. Some Italian statesmen opposed the idea, urging that the prince would be uselessly sacrificed, that Spain was so hopelessly divided and torn by factions, there were so many pretenders to the throne, that the dangers and difficulties would be insurmountable. But the king replied that he knew one of his family would only yield to impossibilities, and he would like to make the trial.

Amadeo shrank from the undertaking with a repugnance which seemed prophetic of disaster, and it took all Victor Emmanuel's influence to persuade his son to accept the proffered crown.

As soon as it was known in Spain that he had consented, a deputation from the Cortes, headed by the