At 10:10 in the morning, after the steam train slowly came to a halt, the visibly fatigued Pope Pius IX and his entourage immediately appeared in Jerome Bonaparte's line of sight.
Alas! Poor Pius IX!
Seeing Pius IX's slightly disheveled appearance in the carriage, Jerome Bonaparte couldn't help but feel a bit of schadenfreude.
For a man in his sixties, a long journey is indeed an arduous task, and with one misstep, he might not make it all the way.
He (referring to Jerome Bonaparte) believed that if it weren't for the joint persuasion of the Cardinal College and Pope State officials, combined with the pressure from the Austrian Empire (which had the power to deny the pope's appointment, especially now that Catholicism was gradually declining across Europe), Pius IX would never have agreed to come.
