n the time of
Gregory XVI. an officer refused to allow a Cardinal's
carriage to pass down a certain street. Such were his
orders. The coachman drove on, and the officer was sent to
the castle of St. Angelo, for having done his duty. A single
instance of this sort is quite enough to demoralize an army.
But the King of Naples shows the Pope his mistake. He had a
sentry mentioned in the order of the day, for giving a
bishop's coachman a cut with his sword. You are scandalized
because certain military administrators curtail the
soldiers' poor allowance of bread; but they have never been
told that peculation will be punished by dismissal."

"Well, the scheme of reorganization is in hand; you will see
a new order of things in 1859."

"I am glad to hear it, Monsignore; and I will answer for it
that a judicious, well-considered reform--slowly
progressive, of course, as everything is at Rome--will
produce excellent results in a few years. It is not in a day
that you can expect to change the face of things; but you
know the gardener is not discouraged by the certainty that
the tree he plants to-day will not produce fruit for the
next five years. The morals of your soldiers are, as you
say, none of the best: I hear it said everywhere that an
honest peasant thinks it a dishonour to wear your uniform.
When you can hold out a future to your men, you need no
longer recruit them from the dregs of the population. The
soldier will have some feeling of personal dignity when he
ceases to find himself exposed to contempt. These poor
fellows are looked down upon by everybody, even by the
servants of small families. They breathe an atmosphere of
scorn, which may be termed the _malaria_ of honour. Relieve
them, Monsignore; they ask nothing better."

"Do you think, then, the means are to be found of giving us
an army as proud and as faithful as the French army? That
were a secret for which the Cardinal would pay a high
price."

"I offer it to you for nothing, Monsignore. France has
always been the most military country in Europe; but in the
last century the French soldier was no better than yours.
The officers are pretty much the same, with this difference
only,--that formerly the King selected them from the
nobility, whereas now they