(M3) The revolution was everywhere. It had not yet conquered, but it
disturbed all Europe. The representatives of the Powers remained devotedly
with the Pope. But the countries which would have sustained them were
distracted by political commotions. The King of Naples was threatened on
all hands by revolution. Lombardy and Venice were in a state of
insurrection. Piedmont was making war on Austria, and all Hungary was in
rebellion. The Emperor Ferdinand was compelled twice over by civil
commotion to abandon his capital. Unable to face the revolutionary tide,
he handed over his tottering throne to a youth of eighteen years. The King
of Prussia and other German Sovereigns, who hoped at first to direct the
revolutionary movement as to derive from it new strength, were obliged
either to fly before it or to struggle against it in the streets. France,
who commenced the disturbance which was now so general, was compelled to
fight for her existence against her own children. Her chief city, Paris,
had become a battle-field, where wicked men and equally wicked women slew
the soldiers of the country with poisoned balls. A greater number of the
best officers of France fell in a single fight against Parisian anarchy
than during the whole time of the war with the wild Bedouins of Africa.
(M4) At Rome the revolutionary faction was gaining strength, and the
position of the Pope was becoming every day more perilous. It was the
opinion of his most devoted friends that he should leave the city. But to
what country should he repair? All Europe was agitated by revolutionary
troubles. The Holy Father was still undecided, when he received from the
Bishop of Valence a letter of wise counsel, together with a precious
gift—the Pyx which the venerable Pius VI. had borne on his person when an
exile and the captive of an earlier revolution. Pius IX., on receiving a
present which was so suggestive, resolved to remain no longer in the power
of his enemies. With the assistance of the Duke d’Harcourt, ambassador of
France, and the Bavarian Ambassador, Count de Spaur, he left the Quirinal
Palace and the city of Rome. He was safely conducted by the latter
personage to Albano, and thence in this ambassador’s carriage to Gaeta, in
the kingdom of Naples. As soon as his arrival there was intimated to King
Ferdinand, who was not yet deprived of his royal power, this monarch,
attended by a brilliant suite, embarked for Gaeta, in order to welcome the
Holy Father and assure him of protection. During seventeen months that
Pius IX. resided as a voluntary exile in the kingdom of Naples, Ferdinand
ceased not to afford all the comfort in his power to the Sovereign
Pontiff. His conduct towards him in every respect was beyond all praise.
As a fellow-man, he consoled him in his sorrows; as a prince, he
entertained him with truly royal magnificence, sparing nothing that was
calculated to lessen, even to do away with the pain and tedium of exile,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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