Thousands of people assembled in front of the papal residence at the Quirinal Palace demanding a republic. Some started firing weapons. The Pope’s secretary was shot by a bullet entering through his office window, and a cannon was pointed at the palace gate. Thoroughly terrified, Pius IX fled to Naples in a carriage, disguised as a parish priest. He withdrew his troops from northern Italy, alarmed by the nationalists’ declaration of the war as a holy crusade: the Austrians, after all, were good Catholics as well.
