Letter from Beppo written from Livorno to Nubius dated 2nd November, 1844:
“We gallop, and every day we enlist new and fervent neophytes in the conspiracy. Fervet opus ; but the most difficult is still to be done, indeed to begin. We have conquered, very easily, some friars of all orders , of priests of almost all conditions, and also of certain intriguing or ambitious monsignors. It is not the best, nor the most respectable; but it does not matter. For the purpose sought, a Friar in the eyes of the people he is always a religious; a prelate will always be a prelate. But we have made a complete fiasco with the Jesuits. Since we have been conspiring, it has not been possible for us to lay our hand on a follower of Ignatius, and we need to know the reason for this unanimous obstinacy. I do not believe in the sincerity of their faith and their attachment to the Church; why, then, have we never succeeded in grasping a single one by the joint of the armor? We don’t have a single Jesuit with us; but we can always say and have others say that we have them: and the conclusion will always be the same. But it will not be so with the cardinals; they all escaped our snares. The best combined flattery availed nothing, so that at the present hour we find ourselves as advanced as at the beginning. Not a single member of the Sacred College fell into the net. Those who were tested and tempted, all at the first word about the secret societies and their power, made gestures of exorcism as if the devil was going to take them to the mountain. Pope Gregory XVI is about to die, and we find ourselves as in 1823 at the death of Pius VII.
whatever he is, he will never come to us; could we go to him? Will he not be like his predecessors and his successors? And he won’t do like them? In this case, will we remain in the breach waiting for a miracle? The time for miracles has passed, and we have no more hope than in the impossible. Gregory died, we will be adjourned indefinitely. The Revolution, which is advancing everywhere, will perhaps give a new course to ideas. It will change, it will modify; but, to tell the truth, we will not be the ones she will raise. We have enclosed ourselves too much in the shadows and in the dark; not having succeeded (in our intent) we will be forgotten and neglected by those who will profit from our work and their results. We can’t, and we cannot succeed; we must therefore succumb and resign ourselves to the cruelest of spectacles, that of seeing the triumph of the evil that has been done, without participating in this triumph“.