In the afternoon all the Papal troops were persuaded to lay down their arms, which, in the case of the foreigners, were given back to them.  Next day they were reviewed by General Cadorna.  As the Italians presented arms to the retiring host, some of the Antibes Legion shouted at them:  ‘We are French, we shall meet you again.’  The Roman troops were sent to their homes; the foreigners conducted to the frontier, Charette and other of the French officers went to the battlefields of their prostrate country, and thus it came to pass that the Pope’s defenders were found fighting side by side with Garibaldi; they, indeed, only doing their simple duty, but he, acting on an impulse of Quixotic generosity which was repaid—­the world knows how!

Cadorna received three pressing requests from the Pope to occupy the Leonine City, and the third he granted.  The idea of leaving the part of Rome on which the Vatican stands under the Pope’s jurisdiction had been long favoured by a certain class of politicians, and Lanza made a last effort to give it effect by excluding the Leonine City from the plebiscite which was ordered to take place in Rome and in the Roman province on the 2nd of October.  It was in vain.  The first voting urn to arrive at the Capitol on the appointed day was a glass receptacle borne by a huge Trasteverino, and preceded by a banner inscribed:  ‘Citta Leonina Si.’  As the Government had not supplied the inhabitants with an official urn, it occurred to them to provide themselves with an unofficial one in which they duly deposited their votes.  The Roman plebiscite yielded the results of 133,681 affirmative and 1507 negative votes.

In December the Italian Parliament met for the last time in the Hall of the Five Hundred.  ‘Italy,’ said the King in the speech from the throne, ’is free and united; it depends on us to make her great and happy.’  Of this last session at Florence the principal labour was the Act embodying the Papal guarantees which was intended to safeguard the legitimate independence and decorum of the Holy See on the lines formerly advocated by Cavour.  Neither extreme party was satisfied, but it seemed at first not unlikely that the Pope would tacitly acquiesce in the arrangement.  The first monthly payment of the national dotation, calculated to correspond with his civil list, was accepted.  But though the influence of Cardinal Antonelli and the Italian prelates had been sufficient to keep the Pope in Rome, the influence of those who wished him to leave it was strong enough to establish at the Vatican the intransigent policy which has been pursued till now.

During the flood of the Tiber which devastated the city that winter, the King of Italy paid a first informal visit to his capital, accompanied only by a few attendants, and bent on bringing help to the suffering population.  In July 1872, he made his solemn entry, and at the same time the seat of Government was transferred to the Eternal City.