e revenge. And now that the success of
Piedmont was no longer doubtful, it could serve no other purpose than to
establish the fact of the Emperor's complicity. Such of the soldiers of
the Pope as were natives of France were deprived of their rights of
citizenship. Thus were noble youths, the flower of France, on their return
from Castelfidardo and Ancona, deprived of the electoral franchise, and
stripped of their right to serve on juries and in the army. Some even were
interdicted from inheriting property on the pretext that, as strangers,
their signatures required to be legalized. These men were, nevertheless,
the actual defenders of a sovereign whom the government pretended to
defend officially. The revolutionary papers audaciously said that the same
law was not applicable to such French subjects as joined the bands of
Garibaldi, on the ground that these bands were neither a government nor a
military corporation. This odd interpretation completely met the views of
ministerial jurisprudence; and so was presented the extraordinary
spectacle of a country outlawing such of her children as served the same
cause as her army, and in nowise molesting those who supported the
opposite side. All political allusions in the pulpit were now repressed
with increased severity. The bishops, however, could not be intimidated.
Besides, as they could not be displaced, they were not so easily reached.
Mgr. Pie, the eminent Bishop of Poitiers, ascended the pulpit the Sunday
after the battle. "My brethren," said he, "you all expected of me that I
would speak to-day in my cathedral. It is according to the customs of the
church to know how to honor her defenders, and to mourn for them when
dead. And because, having taken upon myself a responsibility which I
decline not, and having encouraged and blessed the departure of several of
those youthful volunteers, I would be ashamed of myself if now, restrained
by the fears arising from a pusillanimous prudence, I did not offer them
the homage of my admiration together with that of my prayers. Your
sympathies are already with my words. If they gave offence to any hearers,
I would, indeed, be afflicted. But, by the grace of God, the country which
we inhabit is called France, which warrants, or rather commands, that I
should be candid." In the absence of that fame which victory confers, the
vanquished were consoled by that immortality which eloquence bestows on
those whom it celebrates. So long as the gr