This is a unique piece written in his own hand. It is not signed.
When he was the substitute Secretary of State for Pope Leo XIII he wrote this letter as if he was another Vatican employee who was dismissed by Leo XIII for participating in a duel. The contents are as follows:
It is seven months that I am paying the fee for the grave act committed by me and that Your Holiness correctly punished and suspended me from the job that I had for more than ten years as Secretary of State. I should not say that I (?) by the punishment, but without boasting of having gotten a lesson that Providence wanted to give me. Please permit me, Your Holiness, to address you as a son to the father and king. My prayer: to give me your pardon and to admit me again to the honor of serving as Secretary of State. I don’t want to repeat what I wrote you from the sacred place where I went for the spiritual exercises, but I cannot hold back myself from representing to the heart of a father the condition of a young man deprived of the job just when he should need it, more of it.
Please consider, Holy Father, also, how little is the number of employees that didn’t adhere to the new situation in Rome and pleaseconsider also the graduates in the papal schools to avoid to have contact with the Italian universities.
If all of this is not enough, please consider the career of the services given to the Holy See for more than forty years by my father. And please consider the good work that all my superiors are ready to spend for me. The Virgin inspired me to write you today. That is the day dedicated to the rosary that you’ve always sustained during your pontificate. Please permit me to believe that the Holy Virgin wanted that I had a new title of gratitude and love for Your Holiness with whom I kiss the sacred foot and beg the Apostolic Benediction.
