Rome
would have shared the same fate, if papal excommunications had not
broken the thread. In 1859 it is Venice and Milan that pay for
everybody, till it comes to the turn of Tuscany, Modena, and Massa, to
be patched on in virtue of certain reversionary rights.
What must have been the satisfaction of Austrian diplomatists when
they were enabled to throw their troops into the kingdom of the Pope,
without remonstrances from anybody! Beyond all doubt, the interests of
the Church were those which least occupied them. And as for taking any
interest in the unfortunate subjects of Pius IX., or demanding for
them any rights, or any liberties, Austria never thought of it for a
moment. The old Danaide only saw an opportunity for pouring another
people into her ill-made and unretentive cask.
While the French army cautiously cannonaded the capital of the arts,
spared public monuments, and took Rome, so to speak, with gloved
hands, the Austrian soldiers carried the beautiful cities of the
Adriatic--_a la Croate_! As victors, we treated gently those we had
conquered, from motives of humanity; Austria, those she had conquered,
brutally, from motives of conquest. She regarded the fair country of
the Legations and the Marches as another Lombardy, which she would be
well disposed to keep.
We occupied Rome, and the port of Civita Vecchia; the Austrians took
for themselves all the country towards the Adriatic. We established
our quarters in the barracks assigned to us by the municipality; the
Austrians built complete fortresses, as is their practice, with the
money of the people they were oppressing.
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