ition in
1855. The Earl and Countess of Grey, seeing our names on the
Canadian Book of the Exhibition, called and left their cards at our
hotel. We returned the call the following day, when the Earl and
Countess told us they had an aunt at Rome devoted to the fine arts,
who would have great pleasure in assisting us to select copies of
great masters for our Canadian Educational Museum; that they would
write to her, and, if we left our cards with her on our arrival,
she would gladly receive us. We did so, and, in less than an hour
after, we received a most friendly letter from Lady Grey, saying
that she had been expecting and waiting for us for some time, and
writing us to come to her residence that evening, as she had
invited a few friends.[147] In the course of the evening, I was
introduced to Dr. Pantelioni with this remark, "Dr. Ryerson, if you
should become ill, you cannot fall into better hands than those of
Dr. Pantelioni." I replied that "I was glad to make his personal
acquaintance, but hoped I should not need his professional
services." But the very next day I was struck down in the Vatican
while examining the celebrated painting of Raphael's
Transfiguration and Dominichino's Last Communion of St. Jerome,
with a cruel attack of lumbago and sciatica, rendering it necessary
for four men to convey me down the long stairway to my carriage,
and from thence to my room in the hotel, where I was confined for
some three weeks, requiring three men for some days to turn me in
bed. Language cannot describe the agony I experienced during that
period. Dr. Pantelioni was sent for, and attended me daily for
three weeks, and never charged me more than a dollar a visit. After
two or three visits, finding that I was otherwise well, and had
knowledge of government and civil affairs in Europe and America,
he entered into conversation with me on these subjects. I found him
to be one of the most generally read and enlightened men that I had
met with on the Continent.

He frequently remained from one to three hours conversing with me;
and in the course of these frequent and lengthened visits, Dr.
Pantelioni related the following facts:

1st. That he was one of the liberal party in Rome that opposed the
despotism of the Papal government, and contributed to it