The taunting manifestos of Welden are a sufficient comment on the conduct of the Pope.  “As the government of his Holiness is too weak to control his subjects,”—­“As, singularly enough, a great number of Romans are found, fighting against us, contrary to the expressed will of their prince,”—­such were the excuses for invasions of the Pontifical dominions, and the robbery and insult by which they were accompanied.  Such invasions, it was said, made his Holiness very indignant; he remonstrated against these; but we find no word of remonstrance against the tyranny of the king of Naples,—­no word of sympathy for the victims of Lombardy, the sufferings of Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Mantua, Venice.

In the affairs of Europe there are continued signs of the plan of the retrograde party to effect similar demonstrations in different places at the same hour.  The 15th of May was one of these marked days.  On that day the king of Naples made use of the insurrection he had contrived to excite, to massacre his people, and find an excuse for recalling his troops from Lombardy.  The same day a similar crisis was hoped in Rome from the declarations of the Pope, but that did not work at the moment exactly as the foes of enfranchisement hoped.

However, the wounds were cruel enough.  The Roman volunteers received the astounding news that they were not to expect protection or countenance from their prince; all the army stood aghast, that they were no longer to fight in the name of Pio.  It had been so dear, so sweet, to love and really reverence the head of their Church, so inspiring to find their religion for once in accordance with the aspirations of the soul!  They were to be deprived, too, of the aid of the disciplined Neapolitan troops and their artillery, on which they had counted.  How cunningly all this was contrived to cause dissension and dismay may easily be seen.

The Neapolitan General Pepe nobly refused to obey, and called on the troops to remain with him.  They wavered; but they are a pampered army, personally much attached to the king, who pays them well and indulges them at the expense of his people, that they may be his support against that people when in a throe of nature it rises and striven for its rights.  For the same reason, the sentiment of patriotism was little diffused among them in comparison with the other troops.  And the alternative presented was one in which it required a very clear sense of higher duty to act against habit.  Generally, after wavering awhile, they obeyed and returned.  The Roman States, which had received them with so many testimonials of affection and honor, on their retreat were not slack to show a correspondent aversion and contempt.  The towns would not suffer their passage; the hamlets were unwilling to serve them even with fire and water.  They were filled at once with shame and rage; one officer killed himself, unable to bear it; in the unreflecting minds of the soldiers, hate sprung up for the rest of Italy, and especially Rome, which will make them admirable tools of tyranny in case of civil war.