Page:The True Story of the Vatican Council.djvu/51

Rh have heard it." On the following Christmas Day, in reply to the congratulations of the Sacred College, the Pope said: "Difficult and sorrowful are the days in which we live, but we ought, therefore, all the more to strengthen ourselves in the hope of greater help from the Almighty; and, whatsoever happens, we ought not to be afraid." The condition of Europe at that time was thus described, on the 12th of November 1866, by an English hand:—

It is, therefore, no wonder that Pius the Ninth and his counsellors hesitated to fix the day for the open-