His person as a Pope is still
respected, though his character as a man is despised. All the people
compare him with Pius VII. saying to the French, "Slay me if you will;
I _cannot_ yield," and feel the difference.
I was on Monte Cavallo yesterday. The common people were staring at
the broken windows and burnt door of the palace where they have so
often gone to receive a blessing, the children playing, "_Sedia
Papale. Morte ai Cardinali, e morte al Papa!_"
The men of straw are going down in Italy everywhere; the real men
rising into power. Montanelli, Guerazzi, Mazzini, are real men; their
influence is of character. Had we only been born a little later!
Mazzini has returned from his seventeen years' exile, "to see what he
foresaw." He has a mind far in advance of his times, and yet Mazzini
sees not all.
* * * * *
_Rome, May_ 7, 1848.--Good and loving hearts will be unprepared, and
for a time must suffer much from the final dereliction of Pius IX.
to the cause of freedom. After the revolution opened in Lombardy,
the troops of the line were sent thither; the volunteers rushed to
accompany them, the priests preached the war as a crusade, the Pope
blessed the banners.
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