j 14 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



susceptibilities in question had been excited in regard 

 to us long before my mission by the very principle of 

 our expedition, which had been undertaken without 

 the Holy Father having first had it notified to him ; 

 by the maintenance of the Italian tricolour, which we 

 had allowed to float side by side with ours at Civita 

 Vecchia until after the capture of Eome ; by the first 

 proclamations of General Oudinot ; by the expulsion 

 from Civita Yecchia of the three commissioners ap- 

 pointed to represent there the interests of the Holy 

 See ; and by the telegraphic despatch addressed to 

 General Oudinot as well as to myself, and beginning, 

 c Inform the Eomans that we do not intend to act with 

 the Neapolitans against them. 7 This despatch evoked 

 accusations of treac'hery against us from Gae'ta as well 

 as from the staif of the King of Naples, who had 

 already arrived almost within sight of Eome, and who 

 lost no time in raising his camp and hurrying back to 

 the frontiers of his kingdom. It will be seen that the 

 very principle of my mission, aggravated by circum- 

 stances for which personally I was in no degree 

 responsible, was a permanent cause of irritation at 

 Gae'ta. I could not take a step without incurring to 

 some extent the reproach which the report of the 

 Council seems to admit as more or less well-founded, 

 but there was no help for it. 



"The report says that I expressly disobeyed my 

 instructions : 



