handkerchief, added to them the two letters in cipher he had just
received, and carefully relocked the trunk. The knocking continued
without, and seemed to show more and more impatience. Rodin took the
greengrocer's basket in his hand, tucked his umbrella under his arm, and
went with some uneasiness to ascertain who was this unexpected visitor.
He opened the door, and found himself face to face with Rose-Pompon, the
troublesome singer, and who now, with a light and pretty courtesy, said
to him in the most guileless manner in the world, "M. Rodin, if you
please?"

[23] On page 110 of Lamennais' Affaires de Rome, will be seen the following
admirable scathing of Rome by the most truly evangelical spirit of our
age: "So long as the issue of the conflict between Poland and her
oppressors remained in the balances, the papal official organ contained
not one word to offend the so long victorious nation; but hardly had she
gone down under the Czar's atrocious vengeance, and the long torture of a
whole land doomed to rack, and exile, and servitude began, than this same
journal found no language black enough to stain those whom fortune had
fled. Yet it is wrong to charge this unworthy insult to papal power; it
only cringes to the law which Russia lays down to it, when it says:

"'If you want to keep your own bones unbroken, bide where you are, beside
the scaffold, and, as the victims pass, hoot at them!'"

[24] See Pope Gregory XVI.'s Encyclical Letter to the Bishops in France,
1832.

[25] Hardly had the Sixteenth Gregory ascended the pontifical throne, than
news came of the rising in Bologna. His first idea was to call the
Austrians, and incite the Sanfedist volunteer bands of fanatics. Cardinal
Albini defeated the liberals at Cesena, where his followers pillaged
churches, sacked the town, and ill-treated women. At Forli, cold-blooded
murders were committed. In 1832 the Sanfedists (Holy Faithites) openly
paraded their medals, bearing the heads of the Duke of Modena and the
Pope; letters issued by the apostolic confederation; privileges and
indulgences. They took the following oath: "I. A. B., vow to rear the
throne and altar over the bones of infamous freedom shriekers, and
exterminate these latter without pity for children's cries and women's
tears." The disorders perpetrated by these marauders went beyond all
bounds; the Romish Court regularized anarchy and organized the Sanfedists
into volunteer corps, to which fresh privi