ned enemies. They had sworn its overthrow. They met, however, with
a formidable opponent in the ministry, which was resolved to sustain the
new order of things, and prepared to defeat all the schemes of the radical
faction. The constitution itself was also a serious impediment to their
contrivances. Both constitution and ministry accordingly became the
objects of violent attacks at street meetings and in the revolutionary
journals. The minister was undaunted. "To reach the Holy Father," said he,
"they must pass by my lifeless body." This noble determination only
rendered him more odious to the revolutionists. The leaders of the Red
Republic party, on their return from a scientific Congress at Turin, where
the name of science was only used as a cloak the better to conceal their
plots, decreed that Rossi should be put to death. Mazzini, in a letter
which was published, declared that his assassination was indispensable. In
one of the clubs of Rome the Socialists selected by lot the assassins who
should bear a hand in the murder of the minister. The wretched man who was
appointed to be the principal actor in the deed of blood actually
practised on a dead body in one of the hospitals. The day on which
Parliament was summoned to meet, 15th November, was to see the full
purpose of the faction carried into effect. As almost always occurs in
such cases, warnings reached the ears of the intended victim. Some of the
conspirators, struck with remorse, had so far revealed the plot. Others
boasted cynically that they would soon be rid of the oppressor. The
Duchess de Rignano conjured the minister to remain at home. Equally solemn
and urgent words of warning came from other quarters, and were alike
unheeded. If, indeed, he believed that there was a plot, he relied on
disarming the hatred of the conspirators by his courageous bearing, and
proceeded from his house to the Quirinal Palace. When there he addressed
comforting words to the Pope, who was in a a state of great anxiety. Pius
IX., in bestowing a parting benediction, earnestly recommended that he
should keep on his guard.

At the door of the Pope's apartments he met an aged priest, who beseeched
him to remain. "If you proceed," said he, "you will be murdered." M. Rossi
paused a moment and replied: "The cause of the Pope is the cause of God."

A guard of carabiniers, treacherously disobeying the orders which had been
given them, were absent from the approach to the house where parl