When he drives along the Corso, the old women fall down on their knees, but they snap their fingers at him beneath their cloaks.
The members of the Italian secret societies impute to him--though for other reasons--all the evils which afflict their country.

It is evident that the Italian question would be greatly simplified, if there were no Pope at Rome; but the hatred of the Mazzinists against Pius IX.

is to be condemned in all its personal aspects.

They would kill him to a certainty, if our troops were not there to defend him.
This murder would be as unjust as that of Louis XVI., and as useless.
The guillotine would deprive a good old man of his life, but it would not put an end to the bad principle of sacerdotal monarchy.
I did not seek an audience of Pius IX.; I neither kissed his hand nor his slipper; the only mark of attention I received from him was a few lines of insult in the _Giornale di Roma_.

Still, I never can hear him accused without defending him.
Let my readers for a moment put themselves in the place of this too illustrious and too unfortunate old man.