CHAPTER XXXI.

VICTOR EMMANUEL.

THOSE Who took even a slight interest only in the affairs of the day will still remember the reception at the Tuileries on the 1st of January, 1859, when Napoleon III. said to His Excellency Monsieur Hubner, the Austrian Ambassador

"I profess, my dear Hubner, the greatest esteem for your young and chivalric Emperor; but your tyrannical Government is a disgrace to the century!"

These Imperial words, uttered in the presence of the representatives of every European nation, resounded at Vienna like a thunderclap. On leaving the official audience, the diplomatists hurried to report to their respective chiefs the incident of the first day of the year, and the quasi declaration of war between France and Austria. War might be expected in the spring.

The King of Piedmont, who was totally unable to

take an interest in anything but women, champagne, and hunting, said at the reception held by him on the same day, and in the presence of the two Chambers, that the year 1859 would be fertile in changes for Italy, that the Italians, seconded by a powerful ally, were to prepare for combat, suffering, and sacrifices to the Independence, the liberty of their country, and the unity of the Italian kingdom.

The evening of these warlike harangues on the part of the two crowned heads I started for Parma. Cantelli, chief promoter of the uprising, was waiting for me at the station to take me to his house. This chief, although a grand seigneur and apparently full of eagerness for the unity of his native land, only inspired me with mediocre confidence on account of his antecedents.

He had been Mayor in 1848; dismissed from office and condemned to death at the return of the Bourbons, he accepted his would-be executioners' pardon in 1850, and once more allied himself to them.

Being an old hand in all the artifices of Cabinet, Count Cantelli, noticing my reserve, spoke to me frankly about it. I replied as frankly that he was right.

We parted two days later the best friends in the world, and I must own that since then he has served his cause as Deputy, Minister, and Prefect

with unshaken zeal and devotion against the Duchesse de Bourbon, who once saved his life, and paid 80,000 francs deficit which the Mayor of 1848 had left behind him in the municipal funds at Parma.

At Modena I was received by Carbonieri and Zini, an ex-professor at Genoa. They had returned to their native land for the purpose of conspiring against Francis IV., Duke of Modena, who had pardoned them both a few years previously. From Modena I proceeded to Bologna. Pepoli, a kinsman of Napoleon through Murat, invited me to stay at his house. This young Marquis thought that his relationship with the reigning families of Paris and Berlin ought to have made him a Grand-Duke, at the very least. But his secretary, more wise than Murat's grandson, explained to him that nowadays a Grand-Duke must be able, in case of necessity, to conduct his own correspondence, his official speeches, etc., himself. Yielding to these considerations, Marquis Pepoli contented himself with being a simple Deputy, and, on occasion, special commissioner in the provinces, as at Padua.

The revolutionary committees of Parma, Modena, and particularly Bologna, were being regularly and rapidly organized. I received an order from Count Cavour, to whom I reported every day, to go to Tuscany, where Ricasoli and Boncompagni were

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directing the uprising. These two men, who received me very cordially, surprised me. Baron Ricasoli was a descendant of some of the first Florentine nobles, decorated with the order of Marie-Thérèse of Austria, an intimate friend of the reigning Duke, an Austrian during his entire political life, except for two days in 1848, when he became a Republican with Mordini, Guerazzi, and Montenelli de Ciprioni, whom he betrayed by bringing back Leopold across the frontier, whom his new friends and the people of Florence had expulsed.

Monsieur Boncompagni surprised me still more. He was the representative of the Sardinian Govern

ment.

He had been asked for by the Court of Tuscany as an acquaintance, a friend, and an Ambassador. He had sworn fidelity and sincerity. He had, like his colleague Ricasoli, betrayed and trampled on all.

The Austrian Government, informed by their agents of all our secret proceedings-the organization of revolutionary committees, the engagement of volunteers throughout the Peninsula, under the orders of Garibaldi, who, forgetful of Charles Albert's injustices, had hastened to place his sword at the disposal of Victor Emmanuel, and the regular arming of the Sardinian army-ordered General Giulay to send two of his Staff-Officers to Turin

with a declaration of war during the next twentyfour hours unless the volunteers and the Piedmontese army were disbanded.

On the arrival of the two envoys the King summoned his Council, and on the advice of his Ministers replied that he could not accept any of the proposals from Vienna.

During the deliberation I received an order from the Count to prepare a manifestation for Giulay's aides-de-camp. Hardly had they left the Castle before a crowd of gamins began to greet them with cries of "Hurrah for Italy! Hurrah for Independence! Down with Austria! Down with our executioners! Down with the tyrants!' Before they had reached the station the gamins had attracted more than twenty thousand persons.

On my return from the station I was warmly complimented by the Minister, who shut himself up in his study to compose the following telegram:

"SIRE,

"The two Austrian envoys have just been accompanied to the railway station by the population of Turin to cries of ' Hurrah for Italy! Hurrah for Independence! Down with Austria! Down with our executioners! Down with the tyrants!'

Two hours afterwards he sent for me to read the