LETTER XXII.

THE CEREMONIES SUCCEEDING EPIPHANY.—­THE DEATH OF TORLONIA, AND ITS
PREDISPOSING CAUSES.—­FUNERAL HONORS.—­A STRIKING CONTRAST IN THE
DECEASE OF THE CARDINAL PRINCE MASSIMO.—­THE POPE AND HIS OFFICERS
OF STATE.—­THE CARDINAL BOFONDI.—­SYMPATHETIC EXCITEMENTS THROUGH
ITALY.—­SICILY IN FULL INSURRECTION.—­THE KING OF SICILY, PRINCE
METTERNICH, AND LOUIS PHILIPPE.—­A RUMOR AS TO THE PARENTAGE OF THE
KING OF THE FRENCH.—­ROME:  AVE MARIA.—­LIFE IN THE ETERNAL CITY.—­THE
BAMBINO.—­CATHOLICISM:  ITS GIFTS AND ITS WORKINGS.—­THE CHURCH OF ARA
COELI.—­EXHIBITION OF THE BAMBINO.—­BYGONE SUPERSTITION AND LIVING
REALITY.—­THE SOUL OF CATHOLICISM HAS FLED.—­REFLECTIONS.—­EXHIBITION
BY THE COLLEGE OF THE PROPAGANDA.—­EXERCISES IN ALL LANGUAGES.—­
DISTURBANCES AND THEIR CAUSES.—­THOUGHTS.—­BLESSING ANIMALS.—­ACCOUNTS
FROM PAVIA.—­AUSTRIA.—­THE KING OF NAPLES.—­RUMORS FROM OTHER PARTS OF
EUROPE.—­FRANCE.—­GUIZOT.—­APPEARANCES AND APPREHENSIONS.

Rome, January, 1848.

I think I closed my last letter, without having had time to speak of the ceremonies that precede and follow Epiphany.  This month, no day, scarcely an hour, has passed unmarked by some showy spectacle or some exciting piece of news.

On the last day of the year died Don Carlo Torlonia, brother of the banker, a man greatly beloved and regretted.  The public felt this event the more that its proximate cause was an attack made upon his brother’s house by Paradisi, now imprisoned in the Castle of St. Angelo, pending a law process for proof of his accusations.  Don Carlo had been ill before, and the painful agitation caused by these circumstances decided his fate.  The public had been by no means displeased at this inquiry into the conduct of Don Alessandro Torlonia, believing that his assumed munificence is, in this case, literally a robbery of Peter to pay Paul, and that all he gives to Rome is taken from Rome.  But I sympathized no less with the affectionate indignation of his brother, too good a man to be made the confidant of wrong, or have eyes for it, if such exist.

Thus, in the poetical justice which does not fail to be done in the prose narrative of life, while men hastened, the moment a cry was raised against Don Alessandro, to echo it back with all kinds of imputations both on himself and his employees, every man held his breath, and many wept, when the mortal remains of Don Carlo passed; feeling that in him was lost a benefactor, a brother, a simple, just man.

Don Carlo was a Knight of Malta; yet with him the celibate life had not hardened the heart, but only left it free on all sides to general love.  Not less than half a dozen pompous funerals were given in his honor, by his relatives, the brotherhoods to which he belonged, and the battalion of the Civic Guard of which he was commander-in-chief.  But in his own house the body lay in no other state than