“In such a situation, under the menace of an inadmissible compromise, and of negotiations which the state of our people no way provoked, our part, Monsieur, could not be doubtful.  To resist,—­we owed this to our country, to France, to all Europe.  We ought, in fulfilment of a mandate loyally given, loyally accepted, maintain to our country the inviolability, so far as that was possible to us, of its territory, and of the institutions decreed by all the powers, by all the elements, of the state.  We ought to conquer the time needed for appeal from France ill informed to France better informed, to save the sister republic the disgrace and the remorse which must be hers if, rashly led on by bad suggestions from without, she became, before she was aware, accomplice in an act of violence to which we can find no parallel without going back to the partition of Poland in 1772.  We owed it to Europe to maintain, as far as we could, the fundamental principles of all international life, the independence of each people in all that concerns its internal administration.  We say it without pride,—­for if it is with enthusiasm that we resist the attempts of the Neapolitan monarchy and of Austria, our eternal enemy, it is with profound grief that we are ourselves constrained to contend with the arms of France,—­we believe in following this line of conduct we have deserved well, not only of our country, but of all the people of Europe, even of France herself.

“We come to the actual question.  You know, Monsieur, the events which have followed the French intervention.  Our territory has been invaded by the king of Naples.

“Four thousand Spaniards were to embark on the 17th for invasion of this country.  The Austrians, having surmounted the heroic resistance of Bologna, have advanced into Romagna, and are now marching on Ancona.

“We have beaten and driven out of our territory the forces of the king of Naples.  We believe we should do the same by the Austrian forces, if the attitude of the French here did not fetter our action.

“We are sorry to say it, but France must be informed that the expedition of Civita Vecchia, said to be planned for our protection, costs us very dear.  Of all the interventions with which it is hoped to overwhelm us, that of the French has been the most perilous.  Against the soldiers of Austria and the king of Naples we can fight, for God protects a good cause.  But we do not wish to fight against the French.  We are toward them in a state, not of war, but of simple defence.  But this position, the only one we wish to take wherever we meet France, has for us all the inconveniences without any of the favorable chances of war.

“The French expedition has, from the first, forced us to concentrate our troops, thus leaving our frontier open to Austrian invasion, and Bologna and the cities of Romagna unsustained.  The Austrians have profited by this.  After eight days of heroic resistance by the population, Bologna was forced to yield.  We had bought in France arms for our defence.  Of these ten thousand muskets have been detained between Marseilles and Civita Vecchia.  These are in your hands.  Thus with a single blow you deprive us of ten thousand soldiers.  In every armed man is a soldier against the Austrians.