THE POPE AND THE EMPRESS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 208, 30 March 1877, Page 3

THE POPE AND THE EMPRESS.

(From the ' Nation.) The halls of the Vatican palace of the Popes have been the theatre of many memorable scenes. Thither for over fourteen centuries have flocked pilgrims from every European land, and from many countries unknown to the mighty warrior-rulera who piled up the glories of pagan Rome. And now, for many a year, from beyond the Atlantic the stream has also set, as if to keep up by a continuous current, the tradition of Christendom. Very different, indeed, were those pilgrims in static n, in disposition, in motive. There were, in the days of faith, holy men from our own nation, and many others, apostles of their time, who went to report their labors among the heathen, and to crave a blessing on their work. And in later ages thither went the philosophic infidel, like Gibbon ; the classical critic, like Niebuhr ; the sceptical dreamer, like Bunsen. Kings and emperors went there, in the days of their power — Canute, the Norse conqueror of England ; the long line of the Othos ; and in less pacific mood, the bad breed of the Hohenstauffen ; and, not least, the Czar Nicholas, only thirty-one years ago, red with the blood of Poland, to hear from the aged Gregory the language of truth, as he never heard it in his life elsewhere. Thither fled the weary-hearted — banished bishops, who refused to yield to tyrant force; scared scholars, like the crowd who, with Bessirion, escaped from Constantinople, before it was overwhelmei by the flood of Ottoman barbarism ; broken-hearted exiles, like our O'Neill and O'Donnell, whose bones still rest beneath St. Peter's shrine on the Janiculum; princes tired of reigning, like the Swedish Christina, or dethroned by fickle fortnne, lika the Bonapartes, after Waterloo. The bare list of those visitors, even of the most distinguished among them, would be a marvellous catalogue, such as cannot be associated with any other spot on earth. But among all who have trodden those halls there was none around whom more thrilling or more pathetic memories gathered than the visitor whom they received lately. All the arrangements showed that it was no ordinary personage who was expected. The Pope's inaggiorduomo and chamberlain stood at the foot of the magnificent staircase to receive the visitor on alighting with humble obeisance — an honor

shown only to the highest monarchs. The approaches to the audience chamber were lined by the Palace Guard, while the Noble Guard were drawn up in the ante-chamber. At the door the venerable Pontiff met his guest, who, touched to the heart at such evidences of respect and such goodness of heart, 3ank at his feet in an outburst of weeping. Well, indeed, might that visitor weep ; for it was Eugenic, once Empress of the French, wife of a man who was bound to the Pope by many and closest tie 3. It was some time before she could be comforted, and yield to the Pope's entreaty to be seated ; and then she remained in clos* audience with his Holiness for an hour and a half. We cannot be surprised that the flood of memories which came upon her when she first found herself face to face with Pius IX., completely broke down all that stern selfcontrol into which she has schooled herself. In the d tys of her prosperity she had earnestly desired to visit the Pope, to bring with her her son, the hope of her life, to receive the blessing of the Pontiff, who is also his godfather. Her pious wish hal been always thwarted; and now its fulfilment was granted, under very different circumstances indeed from what she had hoped.