1848, to hear that he
had been assassinated on the steps of the Cancelleria, at Rome, where
the Legislative Assembly met, and whither he was proceeding to attend
its first meeting. No one offered to assist him, nor to arrest the
murderers except Dr. Pantaleone, a much esteemed Roman physician, and
member of the Chamber, who did what he could to save him, but in vain;
he was a great loss to the Liberal cause.

Towards the end of summer we spent a month most agreeably at Subiaco,
receiving much civility from the Benedictine monks of the Sacro Speco,
and visiting all the neighbouring towns, each one perched on some
hill-top, and one more romantically picturesque than the other. It was
in this part of the country that Claude Lorraine and Poussin studied and
painted. I never saw more beautiful country, or one which afforded so
many exquisite subjects for a landscape painter. We went all over the
country on mules--to some of the towns, such as Cervara, up steep
flights of steps cut in the rock. The people, too, were extremely
picturesque, and the women still wore their costumes, which probably now
they have laid aside for tweeds and Manchester cottons.

I often during my winters in Rome went to paint from nature in the
Campagna, either with Somerville or with Lady Susan Percy, who drew very
prettily. Once we set out a little later than usual, when, driving
through the Piazza of the Bocca della Verita, we both called out, "Did
you see that? How horrible! "It was the guillotine; an execution had
just taken place, and had we been a quarter of an hour earlier we should
have passed at the fatal moment. Under Gregory XVI. everything was
conducted in the most profound secrecy; arrests were made almost at our
very door, of which we knew nothing; Mazzini was busily at work on one
side, the Jesuitical party actively intriguing, according to their wont,
on the other; and in the mean time society went on gaily at the surface,
ignorant of and indifferent to the course of events. We were preparing
to leave Rome when Gregory died. We put off our journey to see his
funeral, and the Conclave, which terminated, in the course of scarcely
two days, in the election of Pius IX. We also saw the new Pope's
coronation, and witnessed the beginning of that popularity which lasted
so short a time. Much was expected from him, and in the beginning of his
reign the moderate liberals fondly hoped that Italy would unite in one
great federation, with Pius I