Pope forsook his lofty ground.
France, republican for a day only, became the ally of absolutism, and
sent an army to subdue those who had believed the papal promise and her
own. After a frightful interval of suffering and resistance, this was
effected, and Pius was brought back, shorn of his splendors, a Jove
whose thunderbolt had been stolen, a man without an idea. Then came the
confusion of endless doubt and question. What had been the secret of the
Pope's early liberalism? What that of his _volte-face_? Was it true, as
was afterwards maintained, that he had been, from the first, a puppet,
moved by forces quite outside his own understanding, and that the moving
hands, not the puppet, had changed? Or had he gone to war with mighty
Precedent, without counting the cost of the struggle, and so failed? Or
had he undergone a poisoning which broke his spirit and touched his
brain?

These were the questions of that time, not ours to answer, brought to
mind here only because they belong to the history of Margaret's years in
Italy, years in which she learned to love that country as her own, and
to regard it as the land of her spiritual belonging.

CHAPTER XII.

MARGARET'S FIRST DAYS IN ROME.--ANTIQUITIES.--VISITS TO STUDIOS AND
GALLERIES.--HER OPINIONS CONCERNING THE OLD MASTERS.--HER SYMPATHY WITH
THE PEOPLE.--POPE PIUS.--CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTHDAY OF
ROME.--PERUGIA.--BOLOGNA.--RAVENNA.--VENICE.--A STATE BALL ON THE GRAND
CANAL.--MILAN.--MANZONI.--THE ITALIAN LAKES.--PARMA.--SECOND VISIT TO
FLORENCE.--GRAND FESTIVAL.

In this first visit to Rome, Margaret could not avoid some touch of the
disenchantment which usually comes with the experience of what has been
long and fondly anticipated. She had soon seen all that is preserved of
"the fragments of the great time," and says: "They are many and
precious; yet is there not so much of high excellence as I looked for.
They will not float the heart on a boundless sea of feeling, like the
starry night on our Western prairies." She confesses herself more
interested at this moment in the condition and prospects of the Italian
people than in works of art, ancient or modern. In spite of this, she
seems to have been diligent in visiting the galleries and studios of
Rome. Among the latter she mentions those of the sculptors Macdonald,
Wolff, Tenerani, and Gott, whose groups of young people and animals were
to her "very refreshing after the grander attempts of the present time."