Some murmurs of dissent were drowned in cries of "Go on!" "Speak!"
"Silence!"
"Foremost and grandest of the teachings of Christ are two inseparable
truths--the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. But in Italy,
as elsewhere, the people are starved that king may contend with king,
and when we appeal to the Pope to protest in the name of the Prince of
Peace, he remembers his temporalities and passes on!"
At these words the emotion of the crowd broke into loud shouts of
approval, with which some groans were mingled.
Roma had turned her face aside from the speaker, and her profile was
changed--the gay, sprightly, airy, radiant look had given way to a
serious, almost a melancholy expression.
"We have two sovereigns in Rome, brothers, a great State and a great
Church, with a perishing people. We have soldiers enough to kill us,
priests enough to tell us how to die, but no one to show us how to
live."
"Corruption! Corruption!"
"Corruption indeed, brothers; and who is there among us to whom the
corruptions of our rulers are unknown? Who cannot point to the wars made
that should not have been made? to the banks broken that should not have
broken? And who in Rome cannot point to the Ministers who allow their
mistresses to meddle in public affairs and enrich themselves by the ruin
of all around?"
The little Princess on the balcony was twisting about.
"What! Are you deserting us, Roma?"
And Roma answered from within the house, in a voice that sounded strange
and muffled: "It was cold on the balcony, I think."
The little Princess laughed a bitter laugh, and David Rossi heard it and
misunderstood it, and his nostrils quivered like the nostrils of a
horse, and when he spoke again his voice shook with passion.
"Who has not seen the splendid equipages of these privileged ones of
fortune--their gorgeous liveries of scarlet and gold--emblems of the
acid which is eating into the public organs? Has Providence raised this
country from the dead only to be dizzied in a whirlpool of scandal,
hypocrisy, and fraud--only to fall a prey to an infamous traffic without
a name between high officials of low desires and women whose reputations
are long since lost? It is men and women like these who destroy their
country for their own selfish ends. Very well, let them destroy her; but
before they do so, let them hear what one of her children says: The
Government you are building up on the whitened bones of the people shall
be overthrown--the King who countenances you, and the Pope who will not
condemn you, shall be overthrown, and then--and not till then--will the
nation be free."