As for Spain and Italy--oh! Italy--" Narcisse paused and smiled at Monsignor Nani, who was wagging his head with the air of a man delighted at learning some extremely curious things of which he had previously had no idea.
"Oh, you may proceed, you may proceed, my dear son," said he.
"Well, then, Italy scarcely distinguishes itself.

If the Pope had to provide for his living out of the gifts of the Italian Catholics there would soon be a famine at the Vatican.

Far from helping him, indeed, the Roman nobility has cost him dear; for one of the chief causes of his pecuniary losses was his folly in lending money to the princes who speculated.

It is really only from France and England that rich people, noblemen and so forth, have sent royal gifts to the imprisoned and martyred Pontiff.

Among others there was an English nobleman who came to Rome every year with a large offering, the outcome of a vow which he had made in the hope that Heaven would cure his unhappy idiot son.