 In a 1992 interview, Palazzini referred to a walk he took with Pius XII in the Vatican Gardens before the imminent Nazi occupation of Rome, during which, it was rumoured, the Pope could be abducted.Behind the bushes, on the walkways, everywhere, there were marching exercises by the soldiers of the Papal Noble Guard.When the Pope asked the meaning of them, he was told that they were exercises in preparation for his defense, in case of a German take-over of the Vatican.