THE EX-EMPRESS AT THE VATICAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 207, 23 March 1877, Page 15

THE EX-EMPRESS AT THE VATICAN.

| 1 A Rome correspondent, under date of December 18th, writes :— " Immediately on arriving the Empress Eugenic wrote an autograph letter to the Pope, thanking him for his fatherly reception of her son, and craving an audience on Saturday at 11 o'clock. The Pope, although unwell, and fresh from a visit of physicians, acknowledged Her Majesty's missive at once, and expressed the pleasure he would have in receiving her at any time convenient to herself. Punctually at 11 o'clock on Saturday, a closed carriage, destitute of aU armorial insignia, drew up at the entrance to the Vatican, and the Empress and the Prince Louis Napoleon alighted, followed by a lady and gentleman in waiting. The Empress and her lady in waiting wore dark silk dresses, were thickly veiled, and without jewelry. They were received at the entrance by Cardinal bimeoni and two other prelates with regal honors. The Empress and the Prince Imperial were ushered through the Papal antechamber between lines of the Noble Guard and the Palatine Guard, and shown into the Pope's library, while the Pope himself was in an adjoining room. There the Holy Father received the Empress alone, and the two remained in close colloquy for one hour and a half. Afterwards, at the invitation of Cardinal Simeoni, Prince Louis Napoleon and the two attendants were admitted, and together with the Empress, conversed with his Holiness another half hour The party then withdrew into the Vatican library, and inspected the cabinets of coins, the archaeological rarities, the albums presented to the Pope, and paused with peculiar interest befoie the Sevres vase which served as the baptismal font for the Prince Imperial in Paris. Baron Viscont then conducted them through the galleries and museums, and they returned to the Villa Bonaparte. The 'Liberta asserts that the Empress no sooner saw the Pope than she fell on her knees and wept bitterly, till, after some minutes, yielding to the Pope's entreaties, she permitted herself to be raised by Cardinal Bonaparte and the Prince Imperial, and dried her tears