Page 269 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

268 'rHIRD BOOK O•F
the French envoy, "to seize upon Rome, we shall make no resistance; but we shall re se them entry to the castle of St. Angelo. All the important points of our territory have been successively occupied by their troops, and the collectors of our taxes can no longer levy any imposts in the greater part of our territory, to provide r the contributions which have been imposed. We s all make no resistance, but your soldiers will require to break open the gates with cannon-shot. Europe shall see how we are treated; and we shall, at least, prove that we have acted in con rmity to our honour and our conscience. If they take away our li , the tomb will do us honour, and we shall be justi ed in the eyes of God and man."
4. The French minister soon after intimated, that if the pope continued on any terms with the enemies of France, the emperor would be under the necessity of detaching the dutcby of Urbino, the march of An­ cona, and the sea-coast of Civita Vecchia, om the ecclesiastical territories; but that he would greatly pre r remaining on amicable terms with· his Holi­ ness; and with that view, he proposed, as the basis of a de nitive arrangement between the two govern­ ments, 1st, "That the ports of his Holiness should be c1osed to the British ag, on all occasions when Eng­ land was at war·with France; 2nd, That the Papal rtresses should be occupied by the French troops, .. on all occasions when a reign land- rce is debarked on or menaces the coast of Italy." To these propo­ sals, which amounted to a complete surrender of even the shadow of independence, the Pope returned a re- spect l but rm refusal, which concluded with these
words: "IIis Majesty may, whenever he pleases, ex­ ecute his menaces, and take om us whatever we pos­ sess. e are resigned to everything, and shall never