er task than any military enterprise. To slay men has
ever been easier than to mould their thoughts anew; and Bonaparte was
now striving not only to remould French thought but also to fashion
anew the ideas of the Eternal City. He soon perceived that this latter
enterprise was more difficult than the former. The Pope and his
councillors rejoiced at the signs of his repentance, but required to
see the fruits thereof. Instead of first-fruits they received
unheard-of demands--the surrender of the three Legations of Bologna,
Ferrara, and Romagna, the renunciation of all tithes and Church lands
in France, and the acceptance of a compromise with schismatics. What
wonder that the replies from Rome were couched in the _non possumus_
terms which form the last refuge of the Vatican. Finding that
negotiations made no progress, Bonaparte intrusted Berthier and Murat
to pay a visit to Rome and exercise a discreet but burdensome pressure
in the form of requisitions for the French troops in the Papal States.

The ratification of peace with Austria gave greater weight to his
representations at Rome, and he endeavoured to press on the signature
of the Concordat, so as to startle the world by the simultaneous
announcement of the pacification of the Continent and of the healing
of the great religious schism in France. But the clerical machinery
worked too slowly to admit of this projected _coup de theatre_. In
Bonaparte's proposals of February 25th, 1801, there were several
demands already found to be inadmissible at the Vatican;[155] and
matters came to a deadlock until the Pope invested Spina with larger
powers for negotiating at Paris. Consalvi also proceeded to Paris,
where he was received in state with other ambassadors at the
Tuileries, the sight of a cardinal's robe causing no little sensation.
The First Consul granted him a long interview, speaking at first
somewhat seriously, but gradually becoming more affable and gracious.
Yet as his behaviour softened his demands stiffened; and at the close
of the audience he pressed Consalvi to sign a somewhat unfavourable
version of the compact within five days, otherwise the negotiations
would be at an end and a _national religion would be adopted_--an
enterprise for which the auguries promised complete success. At a
later interview he expressed the same resolution in homely phrase:
when Consalvi pressed him to take a firm stand against the
"constitutional" intruders, he laughingly remarked