her event, in which the Emperor
Napoleon was directly and personally interested. To do him justice, he was
from this time anxious that matters should be settled advantageously to
the Holy See, but without prejudice to the revolution. The idea was
chimerical. But that is no reason for supposing that it was not sincerely
entertained.

(M89) The venerable Pontiff derived some comfort from the resolve of the
French nation, in which all parties, as has been seen, concurred, and the
determination of its Imperial head to check the career of revolution, and
leave Rome to its legitimate sovereign. But meanwhile more abundant
consolations in the spiritual order were showered upon him. In the course
of the great struggle in which there was now, at length, a pause, he was
practically abandoned, even by the most friendly nations. It now fell to
his lot to fulfil a high duty incident to the Pontifical office, and the
nations, through their numerous representatives, flocked around him. No
earthly prince was ever so sustained by the sympathies of mankind. The
time had now arrived, all research and investigation having come to a
close, when those heroes of the Christian faith who, in the year 1597, had
suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Japanese, should be solemnly
canonized. They were twenty-six in number. One of these was an American,
and suffered at Nagasaki in the year just mentioned. Another process of
canonization had also been concluded--that of the blessed Michael de
Sanctis, a Trinitarian, and member of the order for the Redemption of
Captives. Pius IX. had invited the bishops to attend the important
ceremony. The Sardinian government, which took credit to itself for having
established a "free church in a free state," forbade the Italian bishops
to visit Rome on this occasion. No fewer than ninety bishops protested
against this mockery of liberty, and declared that nothing but the strong
hand of power could have prevented them from repairing to the holy city.

Notwithstanding the forced absence of so many bishops, there were at Rome
three hundred and twenty-three cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops and
bishops, more than four thousand priests, and one hundred thousand
strangers of various nations and classes. Humble curates of the Alpine
regions, who were too poor to undertake the journey, subscribed in order
to send a few of their number in the name of the rest. Numerous ships
which were, for the time, as floating convents,