which levels all things under its
merciless strokes--these also will be. I asked if a like destiny was in
store for the Throne of Peter. Time was silent; Eternity alone could
reply."

Not long after the departure of the Holy Father, this traitor, Armellini,
gave a banquet to the principal chiefs of the revolution. His wife, who
had often charged him with the violation of his oath, remained on this
occasion in her apartment, lest she should be contaminated by any, even an
apparent association with, such men as Sterbini, Mamiani, Galetti and
others.

The guests enquired the cause of her absence, when suddenly the door
opened, and Madam Armellini, pale, animated, in a threatening attitude,
and with a roll of paper in her hand, exclaimed: "You are all accursed!
Fear the judgments of God, you, who in contempt of your oaths, although
unable to slay, have banished his minister. Dread the Divine anger. Pius
IX., from his place of exile, appeals to God against you. Listen to his
words." She unrolled slowly, as she spoke, the paper which she held in her
hand, and read in a firm voice, emphasising every word, the decree of the
Holy Father, which contained a threat of excommunication. This reading
came like a lightning stroke on the startled guests. Madam Armellini,
after a moment's silence, resumed: "Sirs, have you understood? The
avenging hand which none can escape is suspended over your heads, ready to
strike. But there is still time. The voice of God has not yet, through
that of his Vicar, fulminated the terrible sentence. For the sake of your
happiness in this world and your salvation in the next, throw yourselves
on his mercy. The cup of your iniquities is filling fast. Dash it from you
before it overflow." Having thus spoken, this courageous woman, whose just
indignation was at its height, approached her husband and threw down
before him, on the table, the decree of the Holy Father. She then
withdrew.

(M6) About two months and a half after the assassination of the Pope's
minister, Count Rossi, the leading conspirators caused it to be decreed,
in their revolutionary assembly, that the Papacy was fallen, _de facto et
de jure_, from the government of the Roman States. They made a fashion of
providing, at the same time, that the Pontiff should have all necessary
guarantees for his independence in the exercise of his spiritual office.
Above all, they forgot not to declare that the form of government should
be purely democrat