ch were
reconciled under constitutional liberty, and had an understanding
against the common enemy. They thus compromised the deliverance of
the land. The King of Naples, threatened by an insurrection in his
capital, retained his troops that were on the point of marching to
the theatre of war; the Pope ceased to give encouragement; the
King of Piedmont, already in full march, hesitated; and Italy,
agitated, without being free, became once more powerless, because
she was disunited, and beheld the Austrians reappear as
conquerors, and re-establish themselves anew as masters, in the
recovered plains of Lombardy."

These eloquent words confirm the view so generally entertained, that the
Red Republicans were all along the cause of Italy's disasters. In
consequence of the national weakness which their baneful operations
produced, Radetski was enabled to reconquer Upper Italy, whilst they
themselves directed their steps towards Rome, spreading terror as they
approached, even as if they had been an army of Goths and Vandals.
Swelling by their presence the numbers of men who held the same opinions,
who, like them, were dissatisfied, and whom nothing could satisfy, they
occasioned an extraordinary agitation of the people, caused fearful
disquietude, and excited inordinate hopes. They imbued the masses with
their subversive principles, and there was an end to all transaction with
the Papal government. They had already done all that lay in their power in
order to destroy monarchy in Piedmont. They now brought into play every
scheme that could be devised, in order to advance the sinister work of
dispossessing the Holy Father. They succeeded in gaining many Reformers,
who, too easily, allowed themselves to become their dupes.

At first, as has been shown, the popular demonstrations in honor of Pius
IX. were honestly expressive of gratitude to the beneficent Pontiff. The
Socialists now succeeded in gaining possession of this great influence,
and they employed it, certainly, with consummate ability. The masses, when
once under the spell of agitation, are at the disposal of the boldest
demagogues. The Reformers who had allowed themselves to be ensnared,
continued to sing their patriotic hymns, the Roman _Marseillaises_,
without heeding that Socialist radicalism was imperceptibly taking the
crown of the causeway, and that the popular demonstrations had undergone a
complete change. At an earlier