Page:Vactican as a World Power.djvu/352

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

8 AWAY FROM ROME!

curtains had been drawn. The noonday pause was made at a dirty inn. During the afternoon the Pope quenched his thirst from a riv- ulet that flowed along the road. Now and then weeping women appeared in doorways. After a journey of nineteen hours, they were given a miserable night's lodging. The Pope, who was clad in his light mozzett*. froze. The next morning he had a fever and refused to travel farther until his physician and his servants arrived. They came on the same day. The carriage sped on past Siena to Florence, through clouds of dust. The route was deflected from the cities them- selves* because the people were in a state of great excitement. In the Carthusian Monastery outside Florence, the Pope occupied the room in which Pius VI had been held a prisoner. When, after a few hours of sleep, he was again ordered to get into the carriage, the tired Pope was annoyed and declared that Bonaparte sought his death. They went on over Genoa, Alessandria, Monte Cenis in the direction of Grenoble; and still no order had come from Napoleon. Meanwhile the Emperor had despatched letters in which he expressed his indigna- tion at the Pope's arrest. It was only Pacca, the villain and enemy of France, who should have been seized. He requested that good treatment be accorded the Pontiff, Savona was ordered to offer hos- pitality, but meanwhile he might remain in Grenoble. But the peo- ple poured in and rendered homage to an uncomfortable extent, al- though no newspaper had been allowed to carry tidings of the Pope's presence in France. He was taken over Avignon, past Marseilles and Toulon, to Nice where he could enjoy the acclaim of the multitude, which strewed flowers on the streets during the day and sent up fire- works by night. Then finally the cortege arrived at Savona, on August 15, 1809. Here in the Palace of the Bishop, all the splendour of a princely life was afforded the Pope at Napoleon's command. He refused it all, including a proffered two million francs, chose to follow the customs of his monastic youth, and occupied three little rooms together with his old servant. The high wall of the garden reminded him that he was a prisoner.

Meanwhile Cardinal Pacca was destined to spend three hard years in the mountain fortress of Fenestrel in Savoy with other political prisoners for his companions. At the close of 1809 all Cardinals who were able to travel were ordered to proceed to Paris so that in case of


THE "