Cruz, ambassador of Portugal, with the Commandant
Huston; the Count Boutenieff, who represented at that time the Emperor of
Russia and King of Poland; Figuereido, ambassador of Brazil; Liedekerke of
Holland, and several other diplomatists, of whom not one was an Italian.
There was at Rome also on the occasion, although not in the apartments of
the Pope, a British statesman, who was not an ambassador, inasmuch as,
whatever may have been his business at Rome, he had no recognized mission,
if any mission at all, to the Sovereign of Rome. He was rather officious
than official, and whether he had commission or not, he held, as is well
known, serious communications with the enemies of the Pope. Lord Minto was
enthusiastically received by the secret societies of Rome. The people,
forgetting at the time the way to the Quirinal, went to serenade him. Lord
Minto frequented "the popular circle" (a band of three hundred chosen
agitators, whose office it was to carry the torch of discord into all the
cities of the Papal States and of Italy) and the offices of the Socialist
newspaper. He went so far as to receive courteously Cicervacchio, and made
verses for his son Cicervacchietto.

The Earl of Minto was not, however, a faithful exponent of the opinions of
British statesmen. Few of them, fortunately, held the subversive doctrines
that were countenanced by his lordship when representing at Rome the least
respectable portion of the Whig party.

The multitude, intoxicated with their delusive success, and the desperate
men who led them, were still celebrating their ill-gained victory, the
frequent discharge of fire-arms and the impassioned vociferations of the
crowd were yet reverberating through the venerable edifices of Rome, when
the Holy Father addressed the following words, giving proof of the deepest
emotion whilst he spoke, to the ambassadors who remained with him:

"Gentlemen, I am a prisoner here. Now that I am deprived of all support
and of all power, my whole conduct will have only one aim--to prevent any,
even one drop of fraternal blood from being uselessly shed in my cause. I
yield everything to this principle; but at the same time I am anxious that
you, gentlemen, should know, that all Europe should be made aware, that I
take no part, even nominally, in this government, and that I am resolved
to remain an absolute stranger to it. I have forbidden them to abuse my
name; I have ordered that recourse should not be had even t