I GENTLY REPROACHED HIM FOR HAVING FORGOTTEN MY REQUEST FOR AN APPOINTMENT

Finally the day arrived when Eugne set out for the Vatican to meet the Pope, but not without some effort because the one responsible had forgotten about Eugene’s request:

When I saw this good man, Monseigneur Barbarini, I was not surprised at his carelessness; he is as useless as one can imagine; which does not stop him from being a good priest. I told him politely that, seeing he had forgotten me and not being able to defer any longer my appearance before His Holiness without incurring some reproach, I had come without any notice to beg the Monseigneur to kindly alert the Holy Father, as soon as the ministers had left, that I was in his antechamber.

Roman Diary, 20 December 1825, EO XVII

To Fr. Tempier he described the events:

So one fine morning I made my decision. It was the 20th, vigil of Saint Thomas, and having obtained the loan of the carriage of Mgr. the Dean, I arrived in full dress at the Vatican. The first person I met at the papal apartments was a certain prelate, one of those they call here de mantellone, that is to say, of inferior rank but always near the Pope to serve him as private secretary. This good man, a little awkward at his trade, advised me to retrace my steps because it would not be possible to see His Holiness that day; that I could not have chosen a worse day, that it was the last of the audiences of the year, that the Cardinals were coming in crowds, the Ministers and goodness knows who else, hence I must put off my visit until the first days of the new year. I mollified him a little and to be accommodating, he told me to come back the second day of Christmastide, then on the Eve, and finally the day following that at which we were. That did not suit me at all.

 I have since concluded that, thinking I wished to get in to see the Pope by his intermediary, he saw no way of introducing me that day. He was wrong, I had not the slightest wish to enter by the back door. The moment this good man disappeared, Mgr. Barberini arrived; I went up to him and explained my position, reproaching him somewhat for having grieved me by his forgetfulness. A little embarrassed by my gentle reprimand, of which he acknowledged the justice, he prayed me to enter the salon and, in my quality of prelate or gentleman, I went without ado into the apartment which is next to the study of the Pope

Letter to Henri Tempier in Marseilles, 22 December 1825, EO VII n. 213.