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Mémoires d'Outre-tombe
Book XXIX, chapter 17
A despatch to Monsieur le Comte Portalis – The death of Leo XII
- ‘Rome, this Friday the 6th of February 1829.
- Monsieur le Comte,
- His Holiness has suddenly experienced an attack of the illness to which he is subject: his life is in the most imminent danger. They have just ordered the closing of all the attractions. I come from the Cardinal-Secretary of State, who is himself ill and who despairs for the Pope’s life. The loss of so enlightened and moderate a Sovereign Pontiff would be a true calamity at this time for Christianity and above all for France. I thought it important Monsieur le Comte that the King’s government should be prepared for the probable outcome, in order to take in advance whatever measures it judged necessary. Consequently, I have sent a courier on horseback to Lyons. The courier carries a letter I have written to the Prefect of the Rhône, with a telegraph despatch which he will transmit to you and another letter which I have asked him to send you by despatch rider. If we have the misfortune to lose His Holiness, a fresh courier will bring you all the details in Paris.
- I have the honour, etc.’
- ‘Eight in the evening.
- The Congregation of Cardinals already assembled has forbidden the Cardinal-Secretary of State to issue any permits for post-horses. If the Pope dies, my courier will not be able to leave until after the courier of the Sacred College has left. I have tried to send a man to take my despatches to the Tuscan frontier. The bad roads and the lack of horses for hire have rendered the plan unachievable. Forced to wait in Rome, which has become a kind of closed prison, I keep hoping that the news will reach you, at least by telegraph, a few hours before it is known to other governments beyond the Alps. It might well be however that the courier sent to the Papal Nuncio, who will of necessity leave before mine, will send you the news himself, by telegraph, as he passes through Lyons.’
- ‘Tuesday, the 10th of February, nine in the morning.
- The Pope has just died; my courier is leaving. In a few hours he will be followed by Monsieur le Comte de Montebello, attaché to the Embassy.
- ‘Rome, this 10th of February 1829.
- Monsieur le Comte,
- I have sent the special courier to Lyons on horseback, about two hours ago, who will transmit the regrettable and unforeseen news of the death of His Holiness. Now I am sending Monsieur le Comte de Montebello, attaché to the Embassy, to bring you some necessary detail.
- The pope died of that haemorrhoidal condition to which he was subject. The blood, being carried to the bladder, occasioned a retention which they tried to relieve by means of an incision. It is thought His Holiness was injured by the operation. However it may be, after four days of suffering, Leo XII died this morning at nine as I was arriving at the Vatican, where an agent of the Embassy had spent the night. The letter despatched with my first courier will inform you, Monsieur le Comte, of my vain efforts to obtain a permit for post-horses before the Pope’s death.
- Yesterday I went to see the Cardinal-Secretary of State, who was still in the throes of a violent attack of gout; I had quite a long conversation with him about the series of problems we will now be faced with. I deplore the loss of a Prince whose moderate sentiments and knowledge of European affairs were so helpful to Christian peace. “It is not only a great misfortune for France,” the Secretary of State replied, “but a greater misfortune for the State of Rome than you imagine. Discontent and misery are rife in our provinces, and however much the Cardinals feel obliged to follow a different policy to that of Leo XII, they will see how much they will draw on it. As for me, my function ceases with the Pope’s life, and I shall have nothing to reproach myself with.”
- This morning I saw Cardinal Bernetti again, who has indeed ceased functioning as Secretary of State: he held to the language of the previous day. I asked to meet with him before he went into conclave. We agreed we would speak about the choice of a Sovereign Pontiff who might be able to continue Leo XII’s policy of moderation. I shall have the honour of transmitting to you any information I acquire.
- It is probable that the Pope’s death and the fall of Cardinal Bernetti will delight the enemies of the decrees; they will proclaim this sad event as a punishment from Heaven. It is easy to read that thought on various French visages in Rome.
- I doubly mourn the Pope; I had the honour to gain his confidence: the prejudice against me which they had taken care to instil in his mind, before my arrival, had been dissipated, and he did me the honour of testifying loudly and in public, on every occasion, to the great esteem in which he held me.
- Now, Monsieur le Comte, permit me to enter into an explanation of various facts:
- I was Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time of Pius VII’s death. You will find in the Ministry files, if you judge it appropriate to take a look, my series of communications with Monsieur le Duc de Laval. The custom is, on the death of a Pope, to send a Special Ambassador, or to accredit the Ambassador in residence with new letters to the Sacred College. It is this last course I propose be followed, in the manner of His Late Majesty Louis XVIII. The King will ordain what he thinks best for his service. Four French Cardinals came to Rome for the election of Leo XII. France now has five; it is certainly not a negligible number of votes in the conclave. I await, Monsieur le Comte, the King’s orders. Monsieur de Montebello, charged with bringing you this despatch, will remain at your disposal.
- I have the honour, etc, etc.’
TO MADAME RÉCAMIER.
- ‘Rome, the 10th of February 1829, eleven at night.
- I wanted to write you a long letter, but the despatch I was obliged to write in my own hand and the fatigue of the least few days have exhausted me.
- I mourn the Pope; I had obtained his trust. Now I am charged with a great task. It is impossible to know what the result will be, and what influence it will have on my destiny.
- Conclaves normally last for two months, and that will leave me quite free for Easter. I will speak to you soon at the end of it all.
- Imagine, they found the poor Pope, last Thursday, before he was taken ill, writing his epitaph. They wished to distract him from such a gloomy thought: “No,” he said, “it will all be over in a few days.”’
- ‘Thursday, Rome, the 12th of February 1829.
- I read your newspapers. They often upset me. I see in the Globe, that Monsieur le Comte Portalis is, according to the paper, my declared enemy. Why? Am I seeking his place? He troubles himself too much about me; I never think of him. I wish him every good fortune possible; and yet, if it were true that he wished to declare war, he would find me ready. They seem to me to talk nonsense about everything, about the immortal Mahmud, and about the evacuation of the Morea.
- The most likely outcome is that the evacuation will once more thrust Greece beneath the Turkish yoke with a loss to us of our honour and forty millions. There is plenty of spirit in France, but we lack minds and commonsense: a few phrases intoxicate us, we are led on by words, and what is worse is that we are always ready to denigrate our friends and exalt our enemies. Moreover, is it not strange that they should have insisted on the King using my own words, in a speech, about the concord of public liberty and royalty and yet were so annoyed with me for using that language? And the men who insisted the Crown speak thus were those most warmly in favour of the censure! As for the rest, I am about to see the election of a Head of the Church; that spectacle is the last great spectacle which I shall be present at in my life; it will close my career. (I was wrong. Note: 1837)
- Now the pleasures of Rome are over, business commences. I shall be obliged on the one hand to write an account of all that takes place for the Government, and on the other to fulfil the duties of my new role; I shall have to pay my compliments to the Sacred College, and be present at the funeral of the Holy Father, to whom I became attached because he was little loved, and all the more so since fearing to find an enemy in him I found a friend, who from the heights of St Peter’s throne gave a formal denial to my Christian calumniators. Then, the French Cardinals will be down on me. At least I have written to make representations to the Archbishop of Toulouse.
- In the midst of all this bother, the Poussin monument is being worked on; and the excavation is successful; I have found three fine heads, the torso of a draped woman, and the funeral inscription of a brother for a young sister, which moved me.
- Regarding inscriptions, I told you that the poor Pope had written his own on the eve of the day he fell ill, predicting that he would soon die; he left a note in which he recommends his needy family to the government of Rome: it is only those who have loved much who possess such virtues.’
