ll stories agree, that the provocation to
the police was given in the Piazza Colonna; and the disturbance, if any,
was so trivial, that a friend of mine, who was on the spot at the time,
perceived nothing of it, and only fancies he heard a murmur as the police
rode by. The provocation, whatever it was, was sufficient as a pretext
for the premeditated outrage. The _sbirri_ drew their swords, and
slashing right and left, charged the dense crowds of men, women and
children. The word was given, and a band of some twenty Papal dragoons,
who had been drawn up hard by at the Monte Citorio, waiting under arms
for the signal, galloped down the Corso, clearing their way with drawn
swords. The _sbirri_ along the street pulled out their cutlass-knives;
the dragoons rode on the footway, and struck out at the carriages filled
with ladies as they passed by, while the police ran a-muck (I can use no
other word) amongst the terror-stricken crowd. The cries of the crushed
and wounded, the terror of the women, and the savage, brutal fury of the
police, added to the panic and confusion of the scene. Not the slightest
attempt at resistance was made by the unarmed crowd; in a few minutes the
Corso was cleared as if by magic, and order reigned in Rome.

Short as the time was, the havoc wrought was very considerable. Nearer
two than one hundred persons were injured in all. Of course the greater
number of these persons were not actually wounded, but crushed, or
stunned, or thrown down. There was no respect of persons in the use made
of their swords by the police. Three French officers of the 40th, who
were in plain clothes amongst the crowd, were cut down and severely
wounded. An Irish gentleman, the brother of the member for Fermanagh,
narrowly escaped a sabre-cut by dodging behind a pillar. The son of
Prince Piombino was pursued by a gendarme beneath the gateway of his own
palace, and only got off with his hat slit right in two. Persons were
hunted down by the soldiery even out of the Corso. One gentleman, an
Italian, was chased up the Via Condotti by a dragoon with his sword
drawn, and saved himself from a sabre-cut by taking refuge in a passage.
Some of the dragoons rode down the Via Ripetta, when they had come to the
top of the Corso, and cut down a woman who was passing by. As soon as
the Corso was cleared, the gendarmes went into the different cafes along
the street, and ordered all persons, who were found in them, to go hom