e
at once. In one case an infirm old man, who could not make off fast
enough, had his face cut open by a sabre-blow; while the backs of the
gendarmes' swords were used plentifully to expedite the departure of the
cafe frequenters. The exact number of wounded it is of course impossible
to ascertain. Persons who received injuries were afraid to show
themselves, and still more to call attention to their injuries, for fear
of being arrested for disaffection and immured in prison. If I believed
the stories I heard on good authority and on most positive assurance, I
should put down the number of persons who died from wounds or injuries
received during the melee at from twelve to fifteen. Still, long
experience has led me to place very little reliance on any Roman story I
cannot test; and I am bound to say, I could not sift any one of these
stories to the bottom. On the other hand, this fact by no means causes
me to disbelieve that fatal injuries may have been received. The extreme
difficulty, if not impossibility, of obtaining true information on such a
point may be realized from the circumstance, that a government official
was, within my knowledge, dismissed from his post for merely visiting one
of the victims who had been wounded by the police. By all accounts, even
by that of the Papal partizans, the number of severe injuries inflicted
was very considerable; indeed it is impossible it should have been
otherwise, when one considers that along a street so crowded that the
carriages could only move at a foot's pace, the gendarmes on horse and
foot charged recklessly, cutting at every one they could reach. In my
statement, however, of the casualties, I have sought to assert, not what
I believe, but only what (as far as one can speak with certainty of what
one did not actually see) I know to be the truth.

The worst part of the whole story, in my opinion, was the subsequent
conduct of the Government. These outrages, which might have been excused
as the result of an unforeseen disturbance, obtained in cold blood the
deliberate sanction of the Vatican. The Papal gendarmes received the
personal acknowledgments of the Pope for their conduct. The six horsemen
who distinguished themselves by clearing the Piazza Colonna were promoted
for their services, and all the police on duty that day received extra
pay. With unusual promptitude, in fact not more than a week after the
event, the _Giornale di Roma_ contained an official