“Your forces are disposed around our walls as if for a siege.  They remain there without avowed aim or programme.  They have forced us to keep the city in a state of defence which weighs upon our finances.  They force us to keep here a body of troops who might be saving our cities from the occupation and ravages of the Austrians.  They hinder our going from place to place, our provisioning the city, our sending couriers.  They keep minds in a state of excitement and distrust which might, if our population were less good and devoted, lead to sinister results.  They do not engender anarchy nor reaction, for both are impossible at Rome; but they sow the seed of irritation against France, and it is a misfortune for us who were accustomed to love and hope in her.

“We are besieged, Monsieur, besieged by France, in the name of a protective mission, while some leagues off the king of Naples, flying, carries off our hostages, and the Austrian slays our brothers.

“You have presented propositions.  Those propositions have been declared inadmissible by the Assembly.  To-day you add a fourth to the three already rejected.  This says that France will protect from foreign invasion all that part of our territory that may be occupied by her troops.  You must yourself feel that this changes nothing in our position.

“The parts of the territory occupied by your troops are in fact protected; but if only for the present, to what are they reduced? and if it is for the future, have we no other way to protect our territory than by giving it up entirely to you?

“The real intent of your demands is not stated.  It is the occupation of Rome.  This demand has constantly stood first in your list of propositions.  Now we have had the honor to say to you, Monsieur, that is impossible.  The people will never consent to it.  If the occupation of Rome has for its aim only to protect it, the people thank you, but tell you at the same time, that, able to defend Rome by their own forces, they would be dishonored even in your eyes by declaring themselves insufficient, and needing the aid of some regiments of French soldiers.  If the occupation has otherwise a political object, which God forbid, the people, who have given themselves freely these institutions, cannot suffer it.  Rome is their capital, their palladium, their sacred city.  They know very well, that, apart from their principles, apart from their honor, there is civil war at the end of such an occupation.  They are filled with distrust by your persistence.  They foresee, the troops being once admitted, changes in men and in actions which would be fatal to their liberty.  They know that, in presence of foreign bayonets, the independence of their Assembly, of their government, would be a vain word.  They have always Civita Vecchia before their eyes.

“On this point be sure their will is irrevocable.  They will be massacred from barricade to barricade, before they will surrender.  Can the soldiers of France wish to massacre a brother people whom they came to protect, because they do not wish to surrender to them their capital?