The Diplomatic Corps and the Crisis of September

Abstract

Within an hour after artillery fire had given place to the uncertain stillness preceding the formal capitulation of General Kanzler, commandant of the Papal forces, a cortege of carriages could be seen wending its way through the streets of the Eternal City in the direction of Porta Pia. Each vehicle bore ostentatiously the escutcheon of a foreign power. Their elegantly clad if not uniformed passengers presented a strange contrast to the scenes of destruction and bloodshed that were encountered as the city walls were neared. Early that morning they, members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Sovereign Pontiff, had gathered by pre-arrangement at the Vatican when the cannon of the investing Italian army began to batter the old walls and gates of the city. They had assisted at mass celebrated by the aged Pius IX and later they had joined him in his library, to be present when he issued the formal order to hoist the white flag.