es. But it was from no
reaction of feeling that they stopped short, only from respect for
the government. The "Tartuffe" of Moliere has been translated into
Italian, and was last night performed with great applause at the
Valle. Can all this be forgotten? Never! Should guns and bayonets
replace the Pope on the throne, he will find its foundations, once
deep as modern civilization, now so undermined that it falls with the
least awkward movement.

But I cannot believe he will be replaced there. France alone could
consummate that crime,--that, for her, most cruel, most infamous
treason. The elections in France will decide. In three or four days
we shall know whether the French nation at large be guilty or
no,--whether it be the will of the nation to aid or strive to ruin a
government founded on precisely the same basis as their own.

I do not dare to trust that people. The peasant is yet very ignorant.
The suffering workman is frightened as he thinks of the punishments
that ensued on the insurrections of May and June. The man of property
is full of horror at the brotherly scope of Socialism. The aristocrat
dreams of the guillotine always when he hears men speak of the people.
The influence of the Jesuits is still immense in France. Both in
France and England the grossest falsehoods have been circulated with
unwearied diligence about the state of things in Italy. An amusing
specimen of what is still done in this line I find just now in a
foreign journal, where it says there are red flags on all the houses
of Rome; meaning to imply that the Romans are athirst for blood. Now,
the fact is, that these flags are put up at the entrance of those
streets where there is no barricade, as a signal to coachmen and
horsemen that they can pass freely. There is one on the house where
I am, in which is no person but myself, who thirst for peace, and the
Padrone, who thirsts for money.

Meanwhile the French troops are encamped at a little distance from
Rome. Some attempts at fair and equal treaty when their desire to
occupy Rome was firmly resisted, Oudinot describes in his despatches
as a readiness for _submission_. Having tried in vain to gain this
point, he has sent to France for fresh orders. These will be decided
by the turn the election takes. Meanwhile the French troops are much
exposed to the Roman force where they are. Should the Austrians come
up, what will they do? Will they shamelessly fraternize with the
French, after prete