In a few years the greatest military power in the world was to be overtaken by an even more appalling disaster.

And these events, then close at hand, were to deal the death-blow to papal independence.

The papacy was driven to bay, and those to whom the last defence was confided were certainly justified in employing every means in their power for strengthening their position.

That Rome herself was riddled with rotten conspiracies, and turned into a hunting-ground for political spies, while the support she received from Louis Napoleon had been already partially withdrawn, proves only how hard was the task of that man who, against such odds, maintained so gallant a fight.

It is no wonder that he hunted down spies, and signed orders forcing suspicious characters to leave the city at a day's notice; for the city was practically in a state of siege, and any relaxation of the iron discipline by which the great Cardinal governed would at any moment in those twenty years have proved disastrous.