would of itself have created enough. Meanwhile, in the
earnestness of the clergy about the pretended loss of the head of St.
Andrew, in the ceremonies of the holy week, which at this juncture
excited no real interest, was much matter for thought to the calm
observer as to the restlessness of the new wine, the old bottles being
heard to crack on every side, and hour by hour.

Thus affairs went on from day to day,--the Pope kissing the foot of
the brazen Jupiter and blessing palms of straw at St. Peter's;
the _Circolo Romano_ erecting itself into a kind of Jacobin Club,
dictating programmes for an Italian Diet-General, and choosing
committees to provide for the expenses of the war; the Civic Guard
arresting people who tried to make mobs as if famishing, and, being
searched, were found well provided both with arms and money; the
ministry at their wits' end, with their trunks packed up ready to
be off at a moment's warning,--when the report, it is not yet known
whether true or false, that one of the Roman Civic Guard, a well-known
artist engaged in the war of Lombardy, had been taken and hung by the
Austrians as a brigand, roused the people to a sense of the position
of their friends, and they went to the Pope to demand that he should
take a decisive stand, and declare war against the Austrians.

The Pope summoned, a consistory; the people waited anxiously, for
expressions of his were reported, as if the troops ought not to have
thought of leaving the frontier, while every man, woman, and child
in Rome knew, and every letter and bulletin declared, that all their
thought was to render active aid to the cause of Italian independence.
This anxious doubt, however, had not prepared at all for the excess to
which they were to be disappointed.

The speech of the Pope declared, that he had never any thought of
the great results which had followed his actions; that he had only
intended local reforms, such as had previously been suggested by the
potentates of Europe; that he regretted the _mis_use which had been
made of his name; and wound up by lamenting over the war,--dear to
every Italian heart as the best and holiest cause in which for ages
they had been called to embark their hopes,--as if it was something
offensive to the spirit of religion, and which he would fain see
hushed up, and its motives smoothed out and ironed over.

A momentary stupefaction followed this astounding performance,
succeeded by a passion of indignati