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,
whilst, as a faithful Christian, he fulfilled every filial duty towards
the Vicar of Christ, expiating, as far as was possible, the crimes
committed against him by so many ruthless enemies.

(M5) The revolution of another country had for chiefs such men as
Robespierre. That of Rome and Italy gloried in Mazzini, who ordered the
assassination of Count Rossi. There was at Rome another revolutionary
leader, the Advocate Armellini, who pronounced the downfall of the Pope
from his temporal sovereignty. This consistorial advocate had, six times
over, solemnly sworn fidelity to the Pontiff. He had even composed in
honor of the Papacy a sonnet, in which are read these remarkable words: "I
spoke with Time, and asked it what had become of so many empires, of those
kingdoms of Argos and Thebes and Sidon, and so many others which had
preceded or followed them. For only answer, Time strewed its passage with
shreds of purple and kingly mantles, fragments of armor, wrecks of crowns,
and cast at my feet thousands of broken sceptres. I then enquired what
would become of the thrones of to-day. What the first became, was the
reply--and Time waved the direful scythe