(M2) Meanwhile the Pope, in such a fearful crisis, was abandoned by all save a few friends, the officials of his Palace, his faithful Swiss Guards and the foreign ambassadors. Among those who remained with him were six Noble Guards, and the Cardinals Soglia and Antonelli. This was all the court and army that was left to the great Pontiff, who had been so deservedly the idol of his people and the hope of mankind. In so desperate a condition he never lost confidence. Throughout all the trying circumstances he was self-possessed and serene. Nothing pained him so much as the ingratitude of his people. The new ministry of subversion had extorted from the Pope his forced and reluctant consent to their formation. He deemed it his duty to protest, which he did in the most solemn manner, against them and all their acts, before all the Christian European nations, as represented by their ambassadors.
These ambassadors and diplomatists were Martizez Della Rosa, the ambassador of Spain, with the Secretary of the Embassy, M. Arnao; the Duke d'Harcourt, ambassador of France; the Count de Spaur, ambassador of Bavaria; the Baron Venda Cruz, ambassador of Portugal, with the Commandant Huston; the Count Boutenieff, who represented at that time the Emperor of Russia and King of Poland; Figuereido, ambassador of Brazil; Liedekerke of Holland, and several other diplomatists, of whom not one was an Italian. There was at Rome also on the occasion, although not in the apartments of the Pope, a British statesman, who was not an ambassador, inasmuch as, whatever may have been his business at Rome, he had no recognized mission, if any mission at all, to the Sovereign of Rome. He was rather officious than official, and whether he had commission or not, he held, as is well known, serious communications with the enemies of the Pope. Lord Minto was enthusiastically received by the secret societies of Rome. The people, forgetting at the time the way to the Quirinal, went to serenade him. Lord Minto frequented "the popular circle" (a band of three hundred chosen agitators, whose office it was to carry the torch of discord into all the cities of the Papal States and of Italy) and the offices of the Socialist newspaper. He went so far as to receive courteously Cicervacchio, and made verses for his son Cicervacchietto.