Page 268 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

RE DING LESSONS.
267
matters. Your Holiness ust cease to have any delicacy towards my enemies and those of the Church. You are sovereign Rome, but I am its emperor : all my enemies must be its enemies; no Sardinian, English, Russian, or Swedish envoy can be permitted
to reside at your capital."
2. The haughty and disdain l terms of this letter, and the open announcement of an undisguised sov­ ereignty over the Roman states, rst opened the eyes of the benevolent Ponti to the real intention of the French emperor. I e returned an intrepid answer to the conqueror of usterlitz, that he recognised no earthly potentate as his superior; and om that hour may be dated the hostility which grew up be­ twixt them. "Your Majesty," said Pius VII," lays it down as a ndamental principle, that you are sovereign of Rome; the Supreme Ponti recognises no such authority, nor any power superior in temp ral matters to his own. There is no emperor of Rome: it was not thus that Charlemagne treated our predecessors. The demand to dismiss the envoys of Russia, England, and Sweden, is positively re sed; the Father of the ith l is bound to remain at peace with all, without distinction of Catholics or here­ tics." Napoleon, so r from relaxing in any of his demands, was· only the more aroused by this unex­ pected opposition, to increased exactions om the Holy See; his troops spread over the whole Papal
1 territory; Rome itself was surrounded by his batt.al­ ions ; and within half a mile of the Quirinal palace, preparations were openly made r the siege of Gaeta.
3. Pius VII, hO\vever, was unshaken in his deter­ mination. " If they cbo e," said he to nL Alquier,