I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of dispatch dated August 1.

On the tenth of September the Italian troops crossed the Roman frontier. I immediately left Como, where I was staying. The railway through the Roman territory had already ceased running regularly, but a military train took me within twentyfive miles of Rome. From thence a wagon brought me to the city, after many hours of dusty travel, through the now parched and deserted Campagna. We met no travelers; no one was at work in the fields, and we saw nothing of the Italian troops, until within about five miles from Rome a small encampment was seen on a distant hill. A little further on the railway bridge had been destroyed by the Romans. Near this we crossed the River Anio, by the Nomentana bridge, which was guarded by the first Papal troops we had met.

In a little while we entered Rome by the Porta Pia, where earth barricades had been erected and a deep trench dug outside the gate. The gate itself had been padded with sandbags, and other preparations made to receive the enemy. All the other gates were pretty much barricaded in much the same way. From this time until the attack began on the twentieth, Rome was in a state of quiet expectancy, almost, it seemed, of apathy. The streets were comparatively deserted, most of the shops closed, all telegraphic communications cut off; from the twelfth until the twenty-third of September the mails were not received. On the walls were posted proclamations declaring the city in a state of siege; forbidding all people to enter or leave the city, or to assemble in any considerable numbers in the streets. Still they did assemble to some extent, and quietly talked over the situation.

A careless observer, particularly one who read the Roman newspapers, all of which were under strict Government control, might have supposed the Papal Government to have been reasonably popular, and to have relied implicitly upon a faithful people. But although they have made violent exertions for some time past, they have been able to induce only two hundred additional volunteers to enlist. With the exception of these, and the few Romans already in its service, not one of the people raised a hand for the defense of the Papacy. A body of men who are said to have been employed hitherto

by the Government as spies were uniformed and constantly patrolled the streets. These were assisted by the Squadriglieri, about seven hundred in number, many of whom were refugee Italian banditti, pardoned by His Holiness on condition that they should serve in his ranks. To such defenders was the Pope reduced!

It was known here that numerous propositions, looking towards a peaceful settlement of the question, were being made by the Italian Government. However, all propositions were rejected; the Pope was firm, cheerful, and hopeful. In the meantime he held special services in St. Peter's and visited the monasteries and nunneries, telling the inmates that the Italians would never enter Rome. They might, he said, come to the gates, but there they would be stayed. Only once did I hear of his having given way; last Saturday, during a service at Ara Coeli, he burst into tears and all present wept with him. On the evening of September 19 he visited the Porta San Giovanni and blessed the barricades and the banditti-soldiers defending them. On the fifteenth news was received of the fall of Civitavecchia; on the sixteenth the Italian troops began leisurely to assemble, and by the eighteenth they completely surrounded Rome.

In the meantime such preparations as the Papal troops wished to make had been made, and they anxiously looked forward to an attack; in fact they provoked it by firing on the Italian troops, who did not reply. The enemy were 60,000 strong, the Romans 13,000, with an immense extent of wall to defend. No one not Papalini supposed for a moment that it could be successfully defended, although the Army here seemed sanguine as to the result. On the twentieth of September at 5 A.M. the attack began by a sharp fire of musketry and a heavy cannonading

of about forty shots to the minute, extending from near the Porta del Popolo to the Porta San Giovanni, along about one third of the whole city wall. A slight attack was also kept up at the Porta San Pancrazio, on the opposite side of the city. The most severe cannonading was at, and near, the Porta Pia and the Porta San Giovanni. At eight o'clock the firing was about twenty-five to the minute; it then slackened materially. The guns at the Porta Pia were soon after dismounted, and a little later the gate at San Giovanni was entirely gone, but guns were manned and discharged until the enemy were within a few feet of them.

The old walls generally proved utterly useless against heavy artillery; in four or five hours they were in some places completely swept away. A clear breach was made near the Porta Pia, fifty feet wide, and the Italian soldiers in overwhelming force flowed through it, and literally filled the city. Simultaneously the Porta San Giovanni was carried by assault; a white flag was then seen flying from the dome of St. Peter's, and the city was known to have surrendered. After the cannonading ceased, the Papal troops made but a feeble resistance. They who a moment before ruled Rome with a rod of iron were nearly all prisoners or had taken refuge in the Castel San Angelo, or St. Peter's Square. Yesterday they were all sent away from Rome. As a general rule they were only too glad to submit quietly, except the Squadriglieri, some of whom, dreading the gallows, made a desperate resist

ance.

I believe that no private citizens made the least effort or demonstration in favor of the Papal Government. During the attack the streets were crowded with expectant, orderly people. The fire was directed entirely

against the walls, no shot having been thrown intentionally into the city, although some buildings were injured and some noncombatants killed and wounded. A bullet passed through an upper window of this Consulate.

After all, it was an easy victory for the Italians, and the loss in killed and wounded on both sides was not great. They were in overwhelming force with very heavy artillery, and they knew that the mass of Romans were their friends. The Zouaves, on the other hand, although they never could have imagined how much they were detested, must have at heart feared the people, and could not fight their best. They were a fine-looking body of men, many of them, even the common soldiers, of superior education and refinement. Some of them undoubtedly served the Pope from religious feeling; many for the sake of the romance and adventure of the thing; very few for pay, as it was ridiculously small.

The Italian troops in the service of the Pope were treated in the main with kindness, as soon as they had surrendered. But no one can imagine the storm of curses and abuse that were heaped upon the foreign mercenaries, particularly the Zouaves. I saw some of them, prisoners, brought from the Porta Pia through a dense mass of Italian soldiers, hot with victory; the soldiers struck them with their muskets, reviled and spit upon them in the most brutal way. With this exception the Italian troops have behaved admirably. Two hours later I saw many hundred Zouaves taken to their former headquarters in the Piazza Colonna. The rabble felt that their turn had now come, and if the Italian soldiers had not then prevented them they would have been torn to pieces. Yesterday, before the Papal soldiers were sent away, some of them gathered in the Square of St. Peter's and the Pope

blessed them from the balcony of the church. Many wept.

As soon as the white flag was seen on St. Peter's, I visited the different gates. The Porta Pia was in a horrible state; the barricades torn to pieces, the cannon broken and dismounted, the beautiful gate blackened and ruined, the fresco of the Virgin on its front defaced by many cannon shot, the heads and arms of the sculptured saints on either side wanting. The lodge of the villa adjoining, belonging to Cardinal Bonaparte, was burned, the villa itself much injured, several Zouaves lying dead, where they had fallen, on the ground. The Porta San Giovanni and the barricades which the Pope had blessed but the evening before were in much the same condition. There, however, the walls were baked by earth and no breach had been made; only the gateway was broken, and through this narrow passage the assault was made.

On the entry of the Italian soldiers the people met them with outstretched arms, with the wildest enthusiasm. As if by magic the whole city was literally covered with Italian flags, and busts and portraits of the King were seen everywhere. On this and the following evening, the city was brilliantly illuminated, and the Corso and other streets filled with excited people, shouting for the King and Rome, the Capital of Italy. No very great violence was committed, although much was apprehended. The Papal arms were almost all torn down and dragged through the streets. Certain palaces and monasteries were threatened and windows broken. Many persons were insulted in the streets, and some few were robbed.

The quarters of the Gendarmes were sacked. Undoubtedly during the last few days anyone connected with the Roman Church or State was in serious danger of life and property. But in the main the cases of violence were

exceptional and committed by the lowest rabble. In every case where guards were asked they were given by the general commanding, and now quiet seems to be almost completely established. The mass of the people, though, have been far too happy to indulge in anything but harmless manifestations of the most extravagant delight.

A self-constituted municipal government was immediately formed. They were popularly supposed, and probably supposed themselves, to be ruling Rome. But in fact, for a day and a half before the military government was fully established, there was no real government in the city. Yesterday, however, General Cadorna issued an order stating that Rome was under military rule and calling upon the citizens to cease their manifestations and resume their ordinary employments. He announced that order would be preserved, all property protected, and the former employees of the Government retained in their positions. This gave general satisfaction. To-day it is known that the General has selected eighteen persons, from among those suggested by the popular voice, to act as a provisional government. These include princes and other leading men of Rome, who of course will act more or less under the General's direction.

Yesterday a Republican meeting was held, but it was composed to a great extent of the rabble and exiles, who now swarm in Rome. This Republican movement is not by any means favored by the people at large. It is much discouraged by the best and most influential men of the Liberal Party. As far as I can learn from many inquiries and careful observations, the Romans are now the most loyal subjects that the King of Italy has. What they may be come in the future no one can say, when the seeds of liberty sown in this virgin soil within the past few days shall have

VOL. 143-NO. 1

B

been carefully cultivated by the many Garibaldian exiles and other designing men, who have so long and anxiously looked forward to Rome as the Capital of a Republic.

Of course there is a large party in favor of the old order of things; among these are the greater part of the nobles, and of course all the priests and their dependents, and a few others. Still many of the most wealthy and influential of the nobles are liberals, such as the Princes Doria and Piombino. But the middle and lower classes who are not in the Church, or not dependent on it for their livelihood, are, I believe, almost without exception in favor of the new order of things. Those who say to the contrary and there are some who do seem to me to be either willfully blind, or they intentionally misrepresent the facts that they cannot help but see. The Carnival has of late years been supported by the rabble and strangers; even at that time of rejoicing Rome was a dead city.

During the late demonstrations the Corso has been filled with well-dressed, happy people, with a new light on their faces such as has not been seen in Rome for years. Certainly, for the present, this is a popular movement. Many of those who hitherto had opposed it had been taught by the priests to look upon the coming Italians as Vandals. However, finding in these Italians a well-disciplined and orderly soldiery, superior in every way to their former defenders, they have changed their minds somewhat and are more hopeful of the future. No Italian seems to doubt but that Rome was to be the Capital of Italy.

The general feeling now appears to be, even among the Pope's friends, that he made one of the greatest mistakes that man ever made, in not submitting to the inevitable and listening to the King of Italy. It would seem to have

been a sufficient protest against violence if he had simply closed the gates and not allowed blood to be shed in vain. By resisting, as he did, he lost all; his prestige for the present is entirely gone; he is now little more than any bishop in his diocese. In fact, he is less, for now he could hardly go through the streets without insult, perhaps not without personal danger. No one could imagine a greater fall than his, no greater contrast between the arrogant, infallible Pope of yesterday and the weak, deserted old man of to-day. He is still at the Vatican, and there is every prospect, I hear, of his remaining there.

In all cases I have allowed American citizens to put up the American flag, which hitherto has not been allowed in Rome, even at the Consulate. I am happy to say that it has been of great service, and has been universally respected.

I have been at my post during the whole affair, and have made every effort to obtain reliable information from all sources. I feel that I have had great responsibilities and some difficulties to contend with, as I have been almost alone. There was not one of my countrymen, in whose judgment I had

confidence, to consult with. But fortunately thus far everything has gone well with this Consulate, and with every American, and all American property (which was considerable) in Rome.

I have mentioned in my dispatch some things which under ordinary circumstances would not have been worth mentioning. However, as Rome at this unpleasant season is deserted by all who can get away-I know of no correspondent of an American newspaper having been here during the siege- I have thought that an account even of some seemingly trifling things might be of value.

I enclose a map of the city. I also send some newspapers published both before and after the surrender, which I thought might be of some interest. I would call attention to the two articles marked with a cross.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant, (Signed) D. M. ARMSTRONG U. S. CONSUL, ROME

September 24th

The city is now quiet and order seems to be completely restored. Photographs of the Porta Pia en

closed.