iff and the free exercise of the spiritual authority
of the Holy See.

Thus was sacrificed to Italian unity the city of the Popes. Was the
sacrifice essential? Florence might have well sufficed. It was of little
avail that the brigands who followed the Piedmontese army were compelled,
by superior power, to moderate their violence. Their robberies were, for
the most part, of a private nature, and committed on a small scale. Those
of their superiors--the Piedmontese usurpers--were grander and more
extensive. They astonished, if they did not terrify, by their magnitude
and the daring which achieved them. There were palaces at Rome and
soldiers' quarters which had satisfied all the requirements of Papal
grandeur. These were nothing to the republican simplicity of the new order
of things. No doubt the parliament which had just arrived from Florence
required ample space. The costly equipages and hunting studs of a
constitutional king were also to be provided for. Could not all this have
been done, especially in such a vast city, without expropriating convents,
desecrating churches, and even seizing for their purposes the refuges of
the sick? It was more than an idea that required such spoliation. But what
shall we say when we call to mind that the mere desire to modernize
everything threatened the destruction of all those monuments which
rendered Rome so dear to travellers from every clime? It had been hitherto
the city of the Consuls, of the Emperors, of the Popes. It must now become
a commonplace town, with straight lines, rectangles and parallelograms,
like Philadelphia, New York, or the _Haussmanized_ Paris of Napoleon III.
The Royal Palace of the Popes, the Quirinal, was unscrupulously seized, in
order to make a city mansion for the King of Italy. It was too
magnificent, apparently, for this gentleman prince. He seldom entered it.
It may be that he dreaded offending the revolution, to which he owed so
much, by too great an affectation of royal style. If the gratitude of such
a heartless thing could be relied on, he had no need to fear. Without the
sword of Piedmont the revolution never could have entered Rome.

Meanwhile, the Pope was engaged in most anxious deliberation. At last,
considering the disturbed state of Europe generally, he concluded that it
was better for him to remain at Rome. A Pontifical ship, which had not
been included in the articles of capitulation, awaited his orders in the
waters of Civita Vec