Acclamations resounded and gradually gained upon the whole multitude.

They began among a group of ardent partisans stationed near the statue of St.Peter: _"Evviva il Papa-Re! evviva il Papa-Re_! Long live the Pope-King!" as the _cortege_ went by the shout rushed along like leaping fire, inflaming heart after heart, and at last springing from every mouth in a thunderous protest against the theft of the states of the Church.

All the faith, all the love of those believers, overexcited by the regal spectacle they had just beheld, returned once more to the dream, to the rageful desire that the Pope should be both King and Pontiff, master of men's bodies as he was of their souls--in one word, the absolute sovereign of the earth.

Therein lay the only truth, the only happiness, the only salvation! Let all be given to him, both mankind and the world! "_Evviva il Papa-Re! evviva il Papa-Re_! Long live the Pope-King!" Ah! that cry, that cry of war which had caused so many errors and so much bloodshed, that cry of self-abandonment and blindness which, realised, would have brought back the old ages of suffering, it shocked Pierre, and impelled him in all haste to quit the tribune where he was in order that he might escape the contagion of idolatry.

And while the _cortege_ still went its way and the deafening clamour of the crowd continued, he for a moment followed the left aisle amidst the general scramble.