onsiderable, though the effect of his English correspondence,
however able, would have been next to nothing.

From all these causes it is very hard to learn anything at Rome, and
harder yet to learn anything with accuracy. It is only by a process of
elimination you ever arrive at the truth. Out of a dozen stories and
reports you have to take one, or rather part of one, and to reject the
eleven and odd remaining. It has been my object, therefore, in the
following descriptions of the scenes which marked the period of my
residence in Rome, to give as much as possible of what I have known and
seen myself, and as little of what I heard and learnt from others. What
my narrative may lose in vividness, it will, I trust, gain in accuracy.

CHAPTER XVII. THE PAPAL QUESTION SOLVED BY NAPOLEON I.

About half a century ago the Papal question was the order of the day.
Another Napoleon was seated on the throne of France, in the full tide of
success and triumph of victory; another Pius was Pontiff at the Vatican,
under the patronage of French legions, and, strange to say, another
Antonelli was the leading adviser of the Pope. The city of Rome, too,
and the Papal States were in a condition of general discontent and
disaffection; but, unfortunately, this latter circumstance is one of too
constant occurrence to afford any clue as to the date of the period in
question.

In the year of grace 1806, the enemies of Napoleon were _ipso facto_ our
friends; and in consequence the Pope, who was known to be hostile to
France, became somewhat of a popular character amongst us. Indeed Pius
VII. was looked on at home rather in the light of a martyr and a hero. It
is only of late years that this feeling has worn off, and that we, as a
nation, have begun to doubt whether, in his struggle with the Papacy, the
Corsican usurper, as it was the fashion then to style him, may not have
been in the right after all. Considerable light has been thrown upon
this question by the recent publications of certain private State papers,
which remained in the possession of Count Aldini, the minister of Italian
affairs under the great Emperor.

There had long been subjects of dissension between the Papal and the
Imperial Governments. At last, in 1806, these dissensions came to an
open rupture. On the 1st of June in that year, Count Aldini wrote a
despatch, by order of the Emperor, to complain of the avowed hostility
displayed by the Papal Court again