Shortly after this I left Rome. It was getting hot and my husband persuaded me to take the children away, promising to join us for a short breath of mountain air before he sailed for Manila. It had been decided that I should remain in Europe for a month or so and I was to choose the place best suited for recuperation. I went first to Florence for a week, then to the Grande Albergo Castello de Aquabella at Vallombrosa. The sonorous name of this hotel should have been a sufficient warning to me of the expense of living there, but I was not in a mood to anticipate any kind of unpleasant experience.
It is a beautiful place reached by a funicular railway from a station about fifteen miles from Florence, and is where Milton wrote parts of Paradise Lost. The hotel was an old castle remodelled, and as we were almost the only guests and were attended by relays of most obsequious servants we managed to feel quite baronial. We spent our time being as lazy as we liked, or driving in the dense black forests of pine which cover the mountains and through vistas of which we could catch fascinating glimpses of the beautiful, town-dotted valley of the Arno some thousands of feet below.
On the 20th of July my husband came up and joined us in this delightful retreat. He had just received his final answer from the Vatican and, while he was disappointed at not being able to settle the matter then, he was hopeful that a way had been found which, though it would entail much future labour, would lead to a satisfactory solution of the problems. An Apostolic Delegate, representing the Vatican, was to be sent to Manila to continue the negotiations on the ground, and Pope Leo assured Mr. Taft that he would receive instructions to bring about such an adjustment as the United States desired. This assurance was carried out, but only after Leo’s long pontificate had come to an end.
The final note was written by Cardinal Rampolla who rendered “homage to the great courtesy and high capacity” with which Mr. Taft had filled “the delicate mission,” and closed by declaring his willingness to concede that “the favourable result” must in a large measure be attributed to my husband’s “high personal qualities.”
I had hoped to have Mr. Taft with us at Vallombrosa for a week or so before he sailed, but the time allotted in our plans for this was taken up by delays in Rome, so that when he did arrive he had only twenty-four hours to stay. His final audience with the Pope was arranged for the following Monday, there were a number of minor details to be attended to, and he was to sail Thursday morning from Naples on the Princess Irene, to which he had been obliged to transfer from the Koenig Albert.
The last audience with His Holiness consisted chiefly in an exchange of compliments and expressions of thanks for courtesies extended, but it had additional interest in that the Pope chose to make it the occasion for personally presenting to the members of the party certain small gifts, or souvenirs, which he had selected for them. He had previously sent an inquiry through Bishop O’Gorman as to whether or not the Commissioners would accept decorations, but Mr. Taft replied that the American constitution forbids the acceptance of such honours without the consent of Congress, so nothing more was said about it.
The presents he did receive were a handsome Jubilee medal displaying a portrait of His Holiness in bas relief, and a gold pen in the form of a large feather with the papal arms on it. To me the Pope sent a small piece of old German enamel showing a copy of an ancient picture of St. Ursula and her virgins, framed in silver and gold beautifully wrought. Smaller gold medals were given to each of the other Commissioners, while President Roosevelt received a copy in mosaic of a picture of a view of Rome from a corner in the Vatican gardens in which the Pope is seen seated with three or four Cardinals in attendance. This, together with letters from His Holiness and Cardinal Rampolla to the President and Mr. Hay, the Secretary of State, was given to Bishop O’Gorman to be delivered when he arrived in the United States.
My husband sailed from Naples on the 24th of July, and I, with the three children and their French governess, started north by Venice and Vienna to spend a few weeks in the mountains of Switzerland before returning to Manila.
There were rather terrifying reports of a cholera epidemic raging in the Philippines and I dreaded the prospects of going into it with my children, but I knew that heroic efforts were being made to check it and I felt confident that, in Manila at least, it would have run its course before I should arrive, so I booked passage on the German steamer Hamburg and on the 3rd of September sailed for the East and the tropics once more.
XII
Last Days in the Philippines
When Mr. Taft reached Manila he found the city en fête and in a state of intense excitement which had prevailed for two days during which the people had expected every hour to hear the great siren on
