Jerome Bonaparte and Captain Leti were riding in a carriage, crossing over the "Bloodline" of Central Italy, the Tiber River, from the northwest corner of Rome, intending to enter the main urban area, when they were stopped by guards at the archway city gate on the outskirts of Rome.
The gate soldiers, reeking of alcohol, with a rough Sicilian-accented Italian, rudely pointed a pike at the carriage and said, "I suspect there are rebels against the Pope State hiding in your carriage! Get the people inside to come out, I need to check it!"
"Officer, there are no rebels here! Just some honest foreign travelers in the carriage!" The coachman smiled as he got off, bent over, and fished out a slightly crumpled handkerchief from the pocket of his blue shirt. Carefully, he unfolded the handkerchief to reveal two copper coins imprinted with the portrait of Gregory XVI and handed them to the two guards stationed at the gate.
[Gregory XVI: Pope from 1831 to 1846, during his papacy, he established the Rome Bank and Discount Bank, and minted silver and copper coins bearing his likeness.]
This was his usual way to enter Rome.
"Just a small token of respect! Please accept it!" The coachman said humbly to the guards.
One guard took a copper coin from the coachman, and their previously arrogant expressions softened immediately, their tone losing its earlier harshness. One of the guards shrugged and said helplessly, "We don’t want to do this either, but it’s the requirement from above that we can’t avoid!"
"I understand!" The coachman bent down and nodded, indicating his understanding.
Despite how much the coachman inwardly despised these corrupt soldiers, he still had to act submissively as if he understood the situation.
People have to eat, and the world doesn’t have many main characters.
Most laborers just have to put on a smile to face the people they despise, to make a living.
The soldiers slowly walked around the carriage, pretending to inspect its overall structure, while knocking on it.
Then, they returned to the city gate, nodded, and motioned with their hand, "Hmm! Good! You may go in!"
"Thank you! Thank you, officers!" The coachman joyfully got back into the driver’s seat of the carriage.
The two soldiers removed the road barrier in front of the carriage, opening a path.
Just as the second half of the carriage was about to enter through the arch gate, a voice came from inside Rome, "Wait!"
The coachman and the guards simultaneously looked in the direction of the voice.
A young man, dressed in a white priest’s robe, holding a Bible and wearing a golden Jesus’ Crucifix on his chest, appeared at the gate, seemingly in his early twenties.
The coachman and soldiers immediately paid their respects to the person in front of them, the soldiers straightening up instantly.
In Rome, the one group not to offend was those dressed in white robes.
Even if this young man appeared very young.
"Reverend Father, is there something you need?" The coachman respectfully asked the young priest in front of him.
The young priest nodded slightly at the coachman before walking up to the two guards and watching them expressionlessly.
"Father... may I ask..." The young priest’s gaze made the two soldiers stammer.
The young priest remained silent, and after a few seconds, he stretched out his hand towards the two soldiers and said, "Money!"
The two soldiers understood immediately what the young priest meant, and handed over the two not-warmed copper coins they’d just received to the young priest.
Taking the copper coins, the young priest mildly threatened, "Don’t let me catch you a second time, or you’ll be going to the church to confess!"
"Yes... yes..." The soldiers, afraid to make trouble, nodded in agreement.
The young priest glanced once more at the soldiers and added, "I will be checking here often!"
With that, the young priest turned to the coachman and handed the two copper coins back to him.
"No, I can’t take this!" The coachman utterly refused to accept the two scorching copper coins, aware that if he took them, he could possibly face retribution from the soldiers.
The gatekeepers were not alone; they colluded with the thugs within Rome, and while they might not dare to retaliate against the young priest, they could shift their resentment onto him instead.
If anything were to happen to him, then his family would be destitute and starving.
"Why? This is rightfully yours!" The young priest clearly did not understand the intricate situation and asked puzzledly.
"Father! This money isn’t mine! It isn’t!" The coachman desperately tried to disassociate from the troublesome copper coins.
One trying to make the other accept, while the other would rather die than accept.
The situation reached a stalemate.
Inside the carriage, Jerome Bonaparte could not tolerate this meaningless delay any longer, and after nine days on the sea, he was eager to find an inn to cleanse the sour smell from his body.
Jerome Bonaparte rose, opened the carriage door, and stepped down. As soon as he got out, he froze, his black eyes staring directly at the priest in front of him.
"Lu... Lucien?" Jerome Bonaparte tested a question.
The young priest, hearing his name being called, immediately turned his gaze towards Jerome Bonaparte and exclaimed in surprise, "Uncle Jerome?!"
Following Jerome Bonaparte, Captain Letty was dumbfounded watching the young priest and Jerome Bonaparte. By rights, the age difference between the two wasn’t significant, how did they suddenly gain a generation gap?
[Charles Lucien Louis Bonaparte: 1828-1898, second son of the second Prince of Canino and Musignano, future Cardinal of Rome!]
"Ahem... ahem..." Realizing that Letty and Lucien Louis hadn’t met before, Jerome Bonaparte quickly introduced, "This is my cousin, the son of Prince of Canino and Musignano!"
"Your Highness, hello!" Letty promptly saluted Lucien Louis.
"This is Letty! He was originally your Uncle Louis’s attendant, now he serves me!" Jerome Bonaparte introduced Letty to the equally bewildered Lucien Louis.
"Hello!" Lucien Louis greeted Letty with a slight nod.
"Father, may I leave now?" The sidelined coachman, watching the uncle and nephew reunion, quietly asked.
Lucien Louis still wanted to give the money to the coachman, but Jerome Bonaparte shook his head and then gave Letty a suggestive look.
Catching the hint, Letty swiftly took out an unexchanged Gold Pound from his pocket and handed it to the coachman.