The Daughter of an Empress

Two things principally occupied the Romans during the next weeks and

months, offering them rich material for conversation. In talking of

these they had forgotten all other events; they spoke no more of the

giant fish which had destroyed the friendship of France and Spain; they

no longer entertained each other with anecdotes in connection with the

festival of Cardinal Bernis, at which the entree of that fish upon his

long silver platter was hailed with shouts and vivats--yes, even that

Russian princess, who had momentarily shown herself on the horizon of

society, all these were quickly forgotten, and people now interested

themselves only about the extirpation of the order of the Jesuits, which

Pope Clement had now really effected, and of the arrival of the Russian

ambassador-extraordinary, the famous Alexis Orloff, whose visit to Rome

seemed the more important and significant as they well knew in what near

and confidential relations his brother, Count Gregory Orloff, stood with

the Empress Catharine, and what participation Alexis Orloff had in the

sudden death of the Emperor Peter III.

The order of the Jesuits, then, no longer existed; the pious fathers of

the order of Jesus were stricken out of the book of history; a word of

power had annihilated them! With loud complaints and lamentations they

filled the streets of the holy city, and if the prayer of humility and

resignation resounded from their lips, yet there were very different

prayers in their hearts, prayers of anger and rage, of hatred and

revenge! They were seen wringing their hands and loudly lamenting, as

they hastened to their friends and protectors, and besieged the doors of

the foreign embassies. With them wept the poor and suffering people to

whom the pious fathers had proved themselves benefactors. For, since

they knew that their existence was threatened, they had assiduously

devoted themselves to works of charity and mercy, and to strengthening,

especially in Rome, their reputation for piety, benevolence, and

generosity. Prodigious sums were by them distributed among the poor;

more than five hundred respectable impoverished Romans, who had been

accused of political offences, were secretly supported by them. In this

way the Jesuits, against whom the cry of denunciation had been raised

for years in all Europe, had nevertheless succeeded, at least in the

holy city, in gaining for themselves a very considerable party, and

thus securing protection and support in the time of misfortune and

persecution. But while the people wept with them, and many cardinals and

princes of the Church secretly pitied them, the ambassadors of the great

European powers alone remained insensible to their lamentations. No one

of them opened the doors of their palaces to them, no one afforded

them protection or consolation; and although it was known that cardinal

Bernis, in spite of the horror which had for years been felt of this

order in France, was personally favorable to them, and had long delayed

the consent of the court of France to their abolition, yet even Bernis

now avoided any manifestation of kindness for them, lest his former

friend, the Spanish ambassador, might think he so far humiliated himself

as to favor the Jesuits for the sake of recovering the friendship and

good opinion of the Duke of Grimaldi. But Grimaldi himself now no longer

dared to protect the Jesuits, however friendly he might be to them,

and however much they were favored by Elizabeth Farnese, the Spanish

queen-mother. King Charles, her son, had finally ventured to defy her

authority, and in an autograph letter had commanded the Duke of Grimaldi

to receive no more Jesuits in his palace. And while, as we have said,

the whole diplomacy had declared against the order of the holy fathers

of Jesus, it must have been the more striking that this Russian

Count Orloff had compassion upon them, and lent a willing ear to the

complaints of the unfortunate members of the order.