THE MISSION TO ROME. 45 



with your guns, how are you going to occupy the 

 city? 



u Are we at once to give notice to the French 

 families residing in Eome that they had better with- 

 draw if they dread the consequences of an early 

 rupture ? And are you prepared to make yourself 

 responsible for the consequences of forcing your pro- 

 tection upon an unwilling population ? 



"P. DE LESSEPS." 



The above considerations and the intentions of the 

 staff, as manifested by General Oudinot's corre- 

 spondence, made it necessary for me to take up my 

 residence for a time at head-quarters. I went there 

 on the 24th, and the General gave me a room in the 

 Villa Santucci, where he was living himself, and 

 where he received me very kindly. From there I 

 lost no time in addressing, after reading it to him, to 

 the Constituent Assembly a message explaining our 

 draft of agreement, the clauses of which we retained, 

 with this addition : 



" The French Eepublic guarantees against all 

 foreign invasion the Eoman States occupied by our 

 troops." 



This clause was the reproduction of an order of the 

 day, addressed by the general in command to the 

 commanders of the different corps when the march of 

 the Austrians into the States of Eome was made 



