faces, whose words of reverence might possibly be those of truth and honesty, must have given an unwonted pleasure to the worn out, harassed, disappointed old man.  “The holy father,” I read, “receiving with agitated feelings so many tokens of homage, was delighted beyond measure.”  When the English poems were recited to him, he called out, “can’t understand a word, but it seems good, very good.”  He spoke to each of the lads in turn, and, when he was shown the statue of Washington, told them to give a cheer for their country, to cry Viva la Patria (the very offence, by the way, for which ten days before he had put his own Roman fellow-countrymen into prison), and then when the boys cheered, he raised his hands to his ears, and told them laughingly, they would drive him deaf.  Now all this is very pleasant, or in young-lady parlance, very nice, and I wish, truly, I had nothing more to tell.  I trust, indeed, that the long abstinence from food (as a priest who is about to celebrate the communion is not allowed to touch food from midnight till the time when Mass is over, and in these matters of observance Pius IX. is reputed to be strictly conscientious) or else the excitement of the scene had been too much for the not very powerful mind of the Pontiff; otherwise I know not how you can excuse an aged man, on the brink of the grave, to say nothing of the Vicegerent of Christ, using such language as he employed.

“After much affectionate demonstration, the Holy Father could no longer restrain his lips from speaking, and, turning his penetrating glance around, spoke as follows,” in the words of the Giornale: 

“One of the chief objects of the most high Pontiffs has ever been, the propagation and maintenance of the faith throughout the world.  Their efforts therefore have always been directed towards the establishment of colleges in this sovereign city, in order that the youth of all nations, who would have to preach the faith in the different Catholic countries, might receive their education here.  In the foundation then of this new college, he had only followed in the steps of his illustrious predecessors.  It thus seemed to him that he had rather performed a simple duty, than an act deserving praise.  After his Holiness had pointed out, what a great blessing the faith was, how indeed it was a true gift of Heaven, the sole solace and comfort vouchsafed to us throughout the vicissitudes of fortune, he then expressed his extreme distress, that in these days, this very faith should be made an especial object of attack, and added that this fact alone was the cause of his deep and profound dejection.  There is no need, he stated, to refer now, to the prisons and tortures and persecutions of old, when we are all witnesses to the onslaught which is now being made against the Catholic faith and against whosoever seeks to maintain its purity and integrity.  There was no cause however for wonder:  such from the cradle had been the heritage