terias_ were full; the streets were crowded with holiday-people in
holiday-attire, and the day was warm and bright like an early summer-day
in England, though it was only the 19th of March. The news of the
Romagna elections, with their overwhelming majority in favour of
annexation to Sardinia, had been just received in Rome with general
exultation. No doubt the festive appearance which marked the city
throughout the day was not altogether accidental, but was meant for, and
regarded as, an expression of public sympathy with the revolted
provinces. St Joseph happens to be the patron saint of the two great
Italian popular heroes, Garibaldi and Mazzini, and a demonstration on
this day was therefore considered to be in honour of the Three Josephs,
the Saint and his two proteges. It was known generally that the
adherents of the Liberal party would muster, as usual, on the Porta Pia
road, and that the more courageous partizans of the popular cause would
be distinguished by wearing a violet in their button-holes.

The Government had, it seems, decided that even these tacit expressions
of disaffection must be suppressed at all costs. With a happy irony of
cruelty which appears to distinguish a priestly despotism above every
other, the holiday of St Joseph was chosen as the opportunity for
striking terror into the hearts of the disloyal Romans; and as the policy
which sent out the executioner to excite the populace had not been
crowned with its coveted success, it was resolved to create a collision
between the police and the people. In the morning, five Roman gentlemen
of position and fortune, suspected of sympathy with the liberal cause,
received notice that they were exiled from the Papal States, and must
leave the city within twenty-four hours. Amongst these gentlemen was St
Angeli, who, not long ago, was arrested and imprisoned without charge or
trial, and who was but lately released on the remonstrance of the French
authorities. There was also Count Silverstrelli, a brother of the
gentleman of that name so well known to English sportsmen at Rome. The
news of these arrests did not check the proposed demonstration. Towards
four o'clock a considerable number of carriages and persons on foot
assembled outside the gates on the Via Nomentana; some patrols, however,
of French soldiers were found to be stationed along the road; and as it
is the great object of the liberal leaders at Rome to avoid any
possibility even of col