Pius IX was vexed at this;
whether because noise had been made about what he wanted done quietly,
or because it was brought about in such a manner that it might seem the
popular party had had more to say to it than the authority of the head
of religion. Rome fully shared the enthusiasm which was awakened
throughout Italy by the entrance of the Piedmontese troops into
Lombardy, and by the announcement by Charles Albert that he had drawn
the sword in the sacred cause of Italian independence. His proclamation,
in the stilted phrase common to such state papers, declared that he
relied upon "the assistance of that God who is visibly with us; of that
God who has given Pius IX to Italy; of that God who, by such wondrous
impulses, has placed her in a condition to act for herself." And if she
acted for herself, if her deeds had been commensurate with her glorious
words, the Austrian would never again have trodden any portion of the
peninsula with the step of a master. But the zeal of the Italians for
independence seemed all to evaporate in high-sounding manifestoes, and
in a few excesses of the populace in the great cities.
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