Milan, Venice, Modena, and Parma were driving out their
tyrants; and in Rome, men and women were weeping and dancing for joy at
the news. Abroad, Louis Philippe had lost his throne, and Metternich his
power. Margaret saw the Austrian arms dragged through the streets, and
burned in the Piazza del Popolo. "The Italians embraced one another, and
cried, _Miracolo!_ _Providenza!_ The Tribune Ciceruacchio fed the flame
with fagots. Adam Mickiewicz, the great poet of Poland, long exiled from
his country, looked on." The double-headed Austrian eagle was torn from
the front of the Palazzo di Venezia, and in his place was set the
inscription, "Alta Italia." By April 1st the Austrian Viceroy had
capitulated at Verona, and Italy appeared to be, or was for the time,
"free, independent, and one."

Poor Pope Pius, meanwhile, had fallen more and more into the rear of the
advancing movement, and finally kept step with it only as he was
compelled to do, secretly looking for the moment when he should be able
to break from the ranks which he himself had once led. On May 7th,
Margaret writes of his "final dereliction to the cause of freedom," by
which phrase she describes his refusal to declare war against Austria,
after having himself done and approved of much which led in that
direction. The position of the Pontiff was now most unhappy. Alarmed at
the agitation and turmoil about him, it is probable that he bitterly
regretted the acts in which he had been sincere, but of which he had not
foreseen the consequences. Margaret describes him as isolated in his
palace, guided by his confessor, weak and treacherous in his movements,
privately disowning the measures which the popular feeling compelled him
to allow, and secretly doing his utmost to counteract them.

In the month of May Margaret enjoyed some excursions into the environs
of Rome. She visited Albano, Frascati, and Ostia, and passed some days
at Subiaco and at Tivoli. On the 28th of the same month she left Rome
for the summer, and retired to Aquila, a little ruined town in the
Abruzzi Mountains, where, after so many painful excitements, she hoped
to find tranquillity and rest.

CHAPTER XIV.

MARGARET'S MARRIAGE.--CHARACTER OF THE MARCHESE OSSOLI.--MARGARET'S
FIRST MEETING WITH HIM.--REASONS FOR NOT DIVULGING THE
MARRIAGE.--AQUILA.--RIETI.--BIRTH OF ANGELO EUGENE OSSOLI.--MARGARET'S
RETURN TO ROME.--HER ANXIETY ABOUT HER CHILD.--FLIGHT OF POPE PIUS.--THE
CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBL