ho called the foreigner into
Italy.

The final conquest of the Pope by the party of universal reaction
could only be effected by his isolation from all but one set of
influences; this is precisely what happened at Gaeta. There are
reasons for thinking that his choice of the hospitality of the King of
the Two Sicilies, rather than that of France or Spain or Sardinia, was
the result of an intrigue in which Count Spaur, the Bavarian minister
who represented the interests of Austria in Rome after that power
withdrew her ambassador, played a principal part. Even after Pius
arrived at Gaeta, it is said that he talked of it as the first stage
of a longer journey. He had never shown any liking for the Neapolitan
Bourbons, and the willingness which he expressed to Gioberti to crown
Charles Albert King of Italy if his arms were successful, was probably
duly appreciated by Ferdinand II. To save the Pope from absorption by
the retrograde party, and to avoid the certainty of a foreign
invasion, Gioberti, who became Prime Minister of Piedmont in November
1848, was anxious to occupy the Roman states with Sardinian troops
immediately after the Pope's flight, when his subjects still
recognised his sovereignty. Gioberti resigned because this policy was
opposed by Rattazzi and other of his colleagues in the ministry. It
would have been a difficult _role_ to play; Sardinia, while
endeavouring to checkmate the reaction, might have become its
instrument. The failure of Gioberti's plan cannot be regretted, but
his forecast of what would happen if it were not attempted proved to
be correct.

Soon after the arrival of his exalted guest, King Ferdinand with his
family, a great number of priests, and a strong escort, moved his
residence from the capital to Gaeta. The modified Constitution,
substituted for the first charter after the events of the 15th of May,
was still nominally in force; Parliament had met during the summer,
but the King solved the riddle of governing through his ministers, on
purely retrograde principles, without paying more heed to the
representatives of the nations than to the benches on which they sat.
Prorogued on the 5th of September, Parliament was to have met on the
30th of November, but when that date approached, it was prorogued
again to the 1st of February. 'Our misery has reached such a climax,'
wrote Baron Carlo Poerio, 'that it is enough to drive us mad. Every
faculty of the soul revolts against the ferocious re