Page:Margaret Fuller by Howe, Julia Ward, Ed. (1883).djvu/195

180 The double-headed Austrian eagle was torn from the front of the Palazzo di Venezia, and in' his place was set the inscription, “Alta Italia." By April 1st the Austrian Viceroy hail capitulated at-Verona, and Italy appeared to be, or was for the time, “ frec, independent, and one.

Poor Pope Pius, meanwhile, bad fallen more and more into the rear of the advancing movement, and finally kept step with it only as he was compelled to do, secretly looking for the moment when he should be able to break from the ranks which he himself had once led. On May 7th, Margaret writes of his "final dereliction to the cause of freedom,” by which phrase she describes his refusal to declare war against Austria, after having himself done and approved of much which led in that direction. The position of the Pontiff was now most unhappy. Alarmed at the agitation and turmoil about him, it is probable that be bitterly regretted the acts in which he had been sincere, but of which he had not foreseen the consequences. Margaret describes him as isolated in his palace, guided by his confessor, weak and treacherous in his movements, privately disowning the measures which the popular feeling compelled him to allow, and secretly doing his utmost to counteract them.

In the month of May, Margaret enjoyed some excursions into the environs, of Rome. She visited Albano, Frascati, and Ostia, and passed some days at Subiaco and at Tivoli. On the 28th of the same month she left Rome for the summer, and retired to Aquila, a littel ruined town in the Abruzzi Mountains. where, after so many painful excitements, she hoped to find tranquillity and rest.