between Louis XVI. and Louis XVIII.; but in
this historical gallery there is no more mention of Napoleon or of
Louis-Philippe, than of Nana-Sahib or Marat.
A city so respectful to the past, so faithful to the worship of bygone
recollections, is the natural asylum of sovereigns fallen from their
thrones. It is to Rome that they come to foment their contusions, and
to heal the wounds of their pride. They live there agreeably,
surrounded by the few followers who have remained faithful to them. A
miniature court, assembled in their antechamber, crowns them in
private, hails them on rising with epithets of royalty, and pours
forth incense in their dressing-room. The Roman nobility, and
foreigners of distinction, live with them in an unequal intimacy,
humbling themselves in order that they may be raised; and sowing a
great deal of veneration to reap a very light crop of familiarity. The
Pope and his Cardinals, upon principle, are lavish of attentions which
they would perhaps refuse them on the throne. In short, the king who
has been the most battered and shaken by his fall, and the most
ill-used by his ungrateful subjects, has but to take refuge in Rome,
and by the double aid of a vivid imagination and a well-filled purse,
he may persuade himself that he is still reigning over an absent
people.
The reverses of royalty which ended the eighteenth and commenced the
nineteenth centuries, sent to Rome a colony of crowned heads. The
modifications which European society has undergone have more recently
brought many less illustrious guests, not even members of the
aristocracy of their own country.
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