nd there confined as a prisoner of state almost in
cellular seclusion,[51114] subject to the entreaties and manoeuvres of
an adroit prefect who works upon him, of the physician who is a paid
spy, of the servile bishops who are sent thither, alone with his
con-science, contending with inquisitors relieving each other, subject
to moral tortures as subtile and as keen as old-time physical tortures,
to tortures so steady and persistent that he sinks, loses his head, "no
longer sleeps and scarcely speaks," falling into a senile condition and
even more than senile condition, "a state of mental alienation."[51115]
Then, on issuing from this, the poor old man is again beset; finally,
after waiting patiently for three years, he is once more brusquely
conducted at night, secretly and incognito, over the entire road, with
no repose or pity though ill, except stopping once in a snow-storm at
the hospice on Mount Cenis, where he comes near dying; put back after
twenty-four hours in his carriage, bent double by suffering and in
constant pain; jolting over the pavement of the grand highway until
almost dead and landed at Fontainebleau, where Napoleon wishes to have
him ready at hand to work upon. "Indeed," he himself says, "he is
a lamb, an excellent, worthy man whom I esteem and am very fond
of."[51116]

An improvised tete-a-tete may probably prove effective with this gentle,
candid and tender spirit. Pius VII., who had never known ill-will,
might be won by kindly treatment, by an air of filial respect, by
caresses; he may feel the personal ascendency of Napoleon, the
prestige of his presence and conversation, the invasion of his genius.
Inexhaustible in arguments, matchless in the adaptation of ideas to
circumstances, the most amiable and most imperious of interlocutors,
stentorian and mild, tragic and comic by turns, the most eloquent of
sophists and the most irresistible of fascinators, as soon as he meets
a man face to face, he wins him, conquers him, and obtains the
mastery.[51117] In effect, after seeing the Pope for six days, Napoleon
obtains by persuasion what he could not obtain afar by constraint. Pius
VII. signs the new Concordat in good faith, himself unaware that, on
regaining his freedom and surrounded by his cardinals, who inform him
on the political situation, he will emerge from his bewilderment, be
attacked by his conscience, and, through his office, publicly accuse
himself, humbly repent, and in two months withdraw