DIPLOMACY OF CARDINAL CONSALVI.
Full of this idea the French minister approached the Cardinal, and urged upon him the duty of hastening at once to Paris, to superintend personally the disentangling of the situation.
"The First Consul does not know you," he said, "he knows still less your talents, and your tact, your persuasiveness, your coquetry, your desire to bring this affair to completion; go to Paris.... Go tomorrow, you will please him, you will both understand one another; let him see that a cardinal can be a man of spirit, you are the one to conclude the Concordat with him. If you do not go to Paris I shall be obliged to break with you—remember there are ministers there who persuaded the Directory to transport Pius VI. to Cayenne. There are counsellors of state who are pleading against you, and generals who sneer and shrug their shoulders. If I break with you, Murat, a second Berthier, will march on Rome."
The words of M. Cacault made a deep impression upon the Cardinal, and together the French minister and the Secretary of State went to lay the plan before the Holy Father. The latter, desolated by the thought of losing if only for a time his beloved Secretary, yielded only after the necessity of the move had been demonstrated and had received the approval of the Sacred College.
On June 6th, the day following the expiration of the time allotted by Bonaparte, Cardinal Consalvi departed from Rome, seated in the same carriage with Cacault, who, in accordance with his instructions, was taking the way to Florence. In the latter city the two diplomats separated, the former continuing his journey to Paris, where he arrived on June 20th, and took up his lodgings at the Hotel de Rome, in company with Mgr. Spina. The Cardinal writes in his Memoires:
"My first thought on the following morning was to inform General Bonaparte of my arrival and to learn at what hour I might have the honor of seeing him. I asked at the same time in what costume he wished me to present myself. This question was necessary, since at that time the ecclesiastical dress was no longer in use in Paris, or in the whole of France. The priests were clothed as laymen; the churches consecrated to God were now dedicated to Friendship, to Abundance, to Hymen, to Commerce, to Liberty, to Equality, Fraternity, and to other divinities of the democratic reason. Every one was entitled citizen; I was so addressed myself during my journey, even though covered with the insignia of the cardinalate. I would not discard that garb for a single day, though I thereby gave proof rather of courage than of prudence.
"The Abbe Bernier returned immediately with the information that the First Consul would receive me at two o'clock that afternoon, and that, as to the costume I was to appear as a cardinal as far as was possible."
At the stated hour Consalvi appeared at the palace.
"I entered," he said, "a salon in which I perceived only one solitary individual who advanced toward me, saluted me in silence, and then striding on before introduced me into a neighboring hall. I did not then know who this personage might be, but I learned later that it was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. de Talleyrand, a name too well-known in the annals of the Revolution to need any additional description from me. I imagined he was about to lead me to the private cabinet of the First Consul and I was congratulating myself in the hope of being alone with him. But what was my surprise when, on opening that last door, I saw before me in a vast hall a multitude of persons disposed as if for a scene in a drama. In the centre of the hall were symmetrically arranged the various corps of the state government (which were, as I afterwards learned, the Senate, the Tribunate, the Corps Legislatif, and the High Courts of the Magistrature) and, at the sides, generals, officers of all degrees, ministers, grand state functionaries, and before all others, detached and isolated, three persons whom I learned later were the three consuls of the Republic.
"The central figure came forward a few steps toward me, and it was only by conjecture that I divined that it was Bonaparte, a conjecture that was confirmed by the attitude of Talleyrand, who still kept company with me and presented me to him. I was about to utter some words of compliment, and to speak of my journey; I had scarcely approached him than he at once opened up the conversation, and said curtly: 'I know the object of your journey to France. I want the conferences to be opened immediately. I give you five days, and I warn you that if, at the expiration of the fifth day, the negotiations are not terminated, you will return to Rome, while as to myself, I have already determined on what I shall do in such a hypothesis.'"
The calm dignity of the Cardinal triumphed over the haughty bearing of the Consul who permitted himself to yield somewhat. The audience lasted an hour and a half, and left the Roman prelate quite satisfied that he might employ as much time as the proper discussion of the affair should demand.