Monsignor Giuseppe Cantagalli, Domestic Prelate to His Holiness Pius VI., to the Duca di San Rocco, at Tivoli.
“Rome,December9, 1794.“My dear Enrico,—I have very little time in which to write to you, but since you ask so urgently for news I will send you a hasty scrawl, of which you must pardon the imperfections.“Even so I cannot give you the positive information you desire touching the Holy Father’s next move against the abominable encroachments of the French on Italian soil. Since Cardinal de Bernis’ death last month His Holiness has leant more and more on Cardinal de Vergy, who is continually to be seen driving from his palace to the Vatican. His Eminence’s influence, though we cannot yet quite estimate it, is not likely to issue in any vacillating policy. He is believed to urge a closer union of Italian states against the invader than has heretofore been found possible. To-morrow a special audience will be given by His Holiness to an extraordinary envoy from Venice, whose mission the Cardinal is believed to have evoked. It is said that only His Eminence, Cardinal Zelada, and the Spanish ambassador will be present. We await the result with anxiety.“It is strange to think that a little more than two years ago I was writing to you, my dear friend, to complain of the fantastic and very troublesome mission to Vendée imposed upon me by His Holiness. Yet never was an uncomfortable and dangerous journey better justified, nor was money ever more profitably spent than that which was poured out last winter to rescue Cardinal de Vergy from Carrier’s clutches in Nantes. Knowing Roman society as you do, you may well imagine the romantic glamour with which it has invested his figure, and how all our great ladies are exclaiming at the distinction of his appearance and manner, so extraordinary in a priest who has been buried for a quarter of a century in a village cure. But, by the way, this manner appears to be no part of His Eminence’s equipment as a director, for I hear of a marked decrease in the ranks of the fair and fashionable penitents who for a space thronged to Sta. Pudenziana, and whose numbers threatened at one time to make it impossible for the poor of the parish to get near him. For the Cardinal spends more time in the confessional than one would have thought compatible with his political and social activities and his private devotions, which are rumoured to be of unusual length. These facts, added to the known austerity of his life, have led many of us to the conclusion that the Sacred College now possesses an undoubted saint among its members.Laus Deo!“At the same time His Eminence is evidently very human. I was with him one day last week when the courier arrived, and witnessed the extreme pleasure with which he received a letter from England. Its contents I did not hear, but from something which the Cardinal let fall I gathered that it was from the very flippant young man whom I met when I went to seek him in Vendée in ’92, and for whom he seems to cherish a somewhat surprising affection. But I believe, indeed, that the Cardinal was very much attached to his family, and in particular to another member of it, who lost his life in the war, and for whom it is reported that he himself says a Mass every week.“How I have run on, after all! Of other news, Prince Orazio Santacroce has gone to Spain to enter a military college. Among the baptized last week at Sta. Maria sopra Minerva were two beautiful Jewesses, whose husbands were sobbing without while Holy Church received their spouses into her fold. I was at the Princess Giustiniani’s yesterday and heard some fresh scandal—probably quite untrue—about the lady whom the English Prince, the Duke of Sussex, so much admired when he was here in the summer. During my visit the Princess was good enough to accept from me a fan of mother-of-pearl mounted in gold, which I had chosen myself with the greatest care. That reminds me that I have recently acquired an exquisite rock-crystal vase engraved with the nuptials of Neptune and Amphitrite. The engraving is said to be the work of Valerio Vicentino, but the gold and enamel handles, in the form of snakes, are assigned to Cellini himself. Whether this be so or no the vase looks distracting against the rose-red curtains of silk damask in my study, over which the Duchessa was so good as to give me her inestimable advice.“Addío. Do not let my god-daughter forget me. I am procuring a monstrous fine doll against her birthday.”
“Rome,December9, 1794.
“My dear Enrico,—I have very little time in which to write to you, but since you ask so urgently for news I will send you a hasty scrawl, of which you must pardon the imperfections.
“Even so I cannot give you the positive information you desire touching the Holy Father’s next move against the abominable encroachments of the French on Italian soil. Since Cardinal de Bernis’ death last month His Holiness has leant more and more on Cardinal de Vergy, who is continually to be seen driving from his palace to the Vatican. His Eminence’s influence, though we cannot yet quite estimate it, is not likely to issue in any vacillating policy. He is believed to urge a closer union of Italian states against the invader than has heretofore been found possible. To-morrow a special audience will be given by His Holiness to an extraordinary envoy from Venice, whose mission the Cardinal is believed to have evoked. It is said that only His Eminence, Cardinal Zelada, and the Spanish ambassador will be present. We await the result with anxiety.
“It is strange to think that a little more than two years ago I was writing to you, my dear friend, to complain of the fantastic and very troublesome mission to Vendée imposed upon me by His Holiness. Yet never was an uncomfortable and dangerous journey better justified, nor was money ever more profitably spent than that which was poured out last winter to rescue Cardinal de Vergy from Carrier’s clutches in Nantes. Knowing Roman society as you do, you may well imagine the romantic glamour with which it has invested his figure, and how all our great ladies are exclaiming at the distinction of his appearance and manner, so extraordinary in a priest who has been buried for a quarter of a century in a village cure. But, by the way, this manner appears to be no part of His Eminence’s equipment as a director, for I hear of a marked decrease in the ranks of the fair and fashionable penitents who for a space thronged to Sta. Pudenziana, and whose numbers threatened at one time to make it impossible for the poor of the parish to get near him. For the Cardinal spends more time in the confessional than one would have thought compatible with his political and social activities and his private devotions, which are rumoured to be of unusual length. These facts, added to the known austerity of his life, have led many of us to the conclusion that the Sacred College now possesses an undoubted saint among its members.Laus Deo!
“At the same time His Eminence is evidently very human. I was with him one day last week when the courier arrived, and witnessed the extreme pleasure with which he received a letter from England. Its contents I did not hear, but from something which the Cardinal let fall I gathered that it was from the very flippant young man whom I met when I went to seek him in Vendée in ’92, and for whom he seems to cherish a somewhat surprising affection. But I believe, indeed, that the Cardinal was very much attached to his family, and in particular to another member of it, who lost his life in the war, and for whom it is reported that he himself says a Mass every week.
“How I have run on, after all! Of other news, Prince Orazio Santacroce has gone to Spain to enter a military college. Among the baptized last week at Sta. Maria sopra Minerva were two beautiful Jewesses, whose husbands were sobbing without while Holy Church received their spouses into her fold. I was at the Princess Giustiniani’s yesterday and heard some fresh scandal—probably quite untrue—about the lady whom the English Prince, the Duke of Sussex, so much admired when he was here in the summer. During my visit the Princess was good enough to accept from me a fan of mother-of-pearl mounted in gold, which I had chosen myself with the greatest care. That reminds me that I have recently acquired an exquisite rock-crystal vase engraved with the nuptials of Neptune and Amphitrite. The engraving is said to be the work of Valerio Vicentino, but the gold and enamel handles, in the form of snakes, are assigned to Cellini himself. Whether this be so or no the vase looks distracting against the rose-red curtains of silk damask in my study, over which the Duchessa was so good as to give me her inestimable advice.
“Addío. Do not let my god-daughter forget me. I am procuring a monstrous fine doll against her birthday.”
THE END
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