to Paris to have it ratified; this Convention has been framed in virtue of my instructions, which directed me to devote myself exclusively to the negotiations and the relations to be established with the Roman authorities and the people.'

"Later on the same day, General Oudinot declared that hostilities would be renewed, but that upon the request of the Secretary of the French Embassy, the attack of the Place (Piazza) would be delayed at least until Monday morning. On Sunday the attack took place, and the consequence of this breach of promise was the occupation of Villa Panfili, and the seizure of two companies who were cut off outside the walls; the number of them figures, no doubt, in the Gazette of the 3rd. "These two hundred men, surprised in their sleep, are now at Bastia, in Corsica, with the twenty-four prisoners made the same day.

"Now, we wish to know, Sir, of what avail to us was your despatch of the 26th of May, quoted for the first time in the letter of M. de Courcelles ? Of what avail to the Roman Government, the despatches quoted by General Oudinot? We have never seen those despatches; their contents are entirely unknown to us; they were never officially communicated. We have on the one hand the assertions made by General Oudinot, on the other those of the French Plenipotentiary, which entirely contradict each other. It is incumbent on France to explain this, in such a manner as will save her honour. Our Assembly has thought right, in deciding between a Minister Plenipotentiary and the General of an armed force, to defer to the statement made by the Plenipotentiary. I believe that it has acted properly, and I request you to observe, Sir, that it was not until to-day, the tenth since the siege of Rome began, that the presence of M. de Courcelles at the camp, in the quality of Envoy Extraordinary, has been officially, though indirectly, made known to us.

"Consider the dates of the official Notes; compare them with the date of the occupation of Monte Mario, and the operations of the French arms, and tell me, Sir, if Europe will not be constrained to say, when she examines coolly into

the diplomatic question-The French Government intended nothing else but to mock the Roman Government. General Oudinot profited dishonourably by the confidence placed in him by those who compose it, to narrow the circle of attack, occupy favourable positions, and secure the possibility of taking the city by surprise. It follows, consequently, that either the Despatch of the 26th does not exist, or else it was not communicated in time to M. Lesseps. In point of fact, the despatch of the 29th of May was known at the French camp on the morning of the 1st of June. The despatch of the 26th might, therefore, have been in General Oudinot's possession from the 29th of May.

"If the Commander-in-Chief did not produce it at that time, in order to suspend both the negotiations and the negotiators, we must suppose that he wished to take advantage of that species of negotiations which were paralysing the vigilance and the forces of the Roman people, and thereby make himself master by degrees of all the most important positions, without meeting with any resistance; certain as he was, that by producing the despatch of the 26th, he could cancel any terms which did not please him, and could break through any armistice, the moment he was ready to act.

"Permit me to say to you, Sir, with the frankness which befits an honest man, that the conduct of the Roman Government has never deviated by a hair's breadth from the path of honour during the whole course of these negotiations. The French Government cannot say as much. We do not, thanks to God, speak of France-that brave and generous nation is, equally with ourselves, the victim of a vile intrigue.

"Your cannons are thundering this day against our walls, your bombs are raining down upon the Holy City. France has had the glory this night of killing a young girl of Trastevere, who was sleeping beside her sister.

"Our young officers, our improvised soldiers, our town'speople, fall beneath your fire, crying out, 'Long live the Republic!'

"The courageous soldiers of France fall beneath ours, with

out a cry, without a murmur, like dishonoured men. I am certain there is not one amongst them who, dying, does not exclaim, as one of your deserters did to us to-day: We feel in ourselves a something as though we were fighting against brethren.'

"And why should this be? Neither you nor I can tell. France has no conquest to make here, she is fighting against men who love her, and who but yesterday put their trust in her. She is seeking to set on fire a city that has never harmed her, without political object, without any manifest aim, without any rights to reclaim, without any mission to fulfil. She plays the part of Austria by her generals, except that she has not the courage to confess it. She soils her flag in the scum of the unprincipled Convocation at Gaeta, and she shrinks at the sight of a free and simple declaration of the restoration of clerical rule. M. de Courcelles no longer speaks of anarchy and faction; he does not dare, but, like an embarrassed man, he employs this unintelligible phrase: France has in view the liberty of the revered Head of the Church, the liberty of the Roman States, the peace of the world.

"We know, at any rate, why we fight; and that makes us strong. If France represented, as we do, a principle, one of those ideas which form the greatness of a nation, and which have formed hers, the valour of her sons would not fail when they have to face our young recruits.

"Alas, Sir, how sad the page which the hand of your Government is tracing at this moment in the history of France! This is a murderous blow directed against the Papacy, which you drown in blood, in your attempts to support it; it is an unfathomable abyss, opened between two nations intended to be united for the safety of the world, and who have been stretching out the hand of fellowship to each other for centuries. It is a grievous blow to the moral force of the relations between one nation and another, to the common feeling that ought to guide them in the holy cause of liberty, which is kept alive by confidence in the future, not of Italy (her sufferings. are a baptism of progress for her), but of France, who will not

be able to keep her place in the foremost rank, if she repudiate the manly virtues of confidence in liberty, and sympathy with it."

Thus the Triumvir wrote, and the Assembly applauded, and the artillery went on bombarding the walls of Rome. The Foreign Consuls, moved by the requests of the Government and the loud complaints of the city, appealed in vain to the French General, and besought him to abstain from throwing bombs, which occasioned injury to the monuments, death and fear to the peaceful inhabitants.

CHAPTER XI.

THE

THE COURT OF GAETA -THE ENVOYS.-POLICY OF THE PIEDMONTESE GOVERNMENT.-MISSION OF BALBO AT GAETA-OPINION OF THE POPE AND OF CARDINAL ANTONELLI.-REPRESENTATIONS MADE BY BALBO.-INTERVIEW OF BALBO WITH THE KING OF NAPLES AND THE GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY.-ANNOYANCES INFLICTED ON ROSMINI. NARDONI - ELECTION OF BERNETTI.— OPPOSITION OF FRANCE.—VARIOUS SCHEMES.--DISCORD IN THE ROMAN CAMP ROSELLI. HIS PLANS.-GARIBALDI.-HIS SELF-WILL.-ATTACK OF FRENCH ON THE 21ST OF JUNE. THEY ENTER BY THE MEETING AND UPROAR RAISED BY STERBINI.NOTE FROM MAZZINI ΤΟ MANARA INSTANCES OF ASTONISHING CONSTANCY, VALOUR, AND RESOLUTION. THE NIGHT OF THE 29TH OF JUNE. MASSACRE.-SITTING OF THE ASSEMBLY. MOTION MADE BY CERNUSCHI.- MAZZINI.— HIS ADVICE.-GARIBALDI.RESOLUTION MAZZINI'S ANGER. GARIBALDI AT THE PIAZZA PIETRO.-PROPOSALS OF THE MUNICIPAL MAGISTRATES TO OUDINOT.-LAST ACTS OF THE ASSEMBLY.-TEXT OF THE CONSTITUTION PROMULGATED FROM THE CAPITOL.

BREACH.-MOB

SAN

WHEN the Court of Gaeta heard the report of the artillery which was bombarding the walls of Rome, its courage rose once more, for all was now progressing according to the wishes of the Catholic party, which, having acquired increased reputation in France, was increasing in pride throughout all Europe, and set no bounds to its ambition. The French troops, who had pitched their tents in the midst of the courtiers, were indeed an eyesore to them; but they had serviceable allies in their own obstinacy in resisting liberal councils,