ho has
had the courage to sustain his innocence in presence of a judge
prejudiced or corrupted.... Command this living tomb to be opened,
and ask an unhappy man the cause of his misfortunes."

And concludes thus,--

"But, holy father, neither the prolonged imprisonment of ten years,
nor separation from my family, nor the total ruin of my earthly
prospects, should ever reduce me to the baseness of admitting a
crime which I did not commit. And I call God to witness that I am
innocent of the accusation brought against me; and that the true
cause of my unjust condemnation was, and is, a private pique and
personal enmity.... Listen, therefore, to justice,--to the humble
entreaties of an aged father,--a desolate wife,--unhappy
children,--who exist in misery, and who with tears of anguish
implore your mercy."

Did the heart of Gregory relent? Did he hasten to the prison, and beg
his prisoner to come forth? Ah, no: the petition was received, flung
aside, and forgotten; and Pietro Leoni continued to lie in the dungeons
of St Angelo till death came to the Vatican, and Gregory went to his
account, and the prison-doors of St Angelo were opened, as a matter of
course, not of right, on the accession of a new Pope. No wonder that
Lambruschini and Marini, the chief actors in the atrocities committed
under Gregory, resisted that amnesty by which Pietro Leoni, and hundreds
more, were raised from the grave, as it were, to proclaim their
villanies. I give this case because it occurred before the Revolution,
and is a fair sample, as a Roman advocate assured Mr Whiteside, of the
calm, every-day working of the Pontifical Government under Gregory XVI.
I come now to relate other cases, if possible more affecting, which came
under my own cognizance, more or less, while in Rome.

But let me first glance at the rejoicings that filled Rome on the
accession of Pius IX. A bright but perfidious gleam heralded the night,
which has since settled down so darkly on the Papal States. The scene I
describe in the words of Mr Stewart, who was an eye-witness of it:--"I
was at Rome when Pope Pius IX. made his formal triumphal entrance into
the city by the Porta del Popolo, where was a magnificent arch entering
to the Corso. The arch was erected specially for the occasion, and
executed with much artistic skill. Banners were waving in profusion
along the Corso, bearing, some of them, very far-fe