Part 20

The clouds of war were gathering abroad in that same year. Prussia and Austria were quarreling, and the Italian government concluded an alliance with Prussia on April 8, 1866. Austria, realizing that she would have sufficient difficulty in holding her own against Prussia without having to guard against her southern neighbor also, made overtures through Napoleon agreeing to cede Venetia to Italy if that country would dissolve its alliance with Prussia. The temptation was strong, but the King and his Prime Minister refused to break their engagements, and on June 20, 1866, declared war against Austria. Victor Emmanuel appointed his cousin Regent, and took command of his troops. The two young Princes, Humbert and Amadeus, went with him.

On that same field of Custozza, where the Italians had lost in 1849, the armies met, and after a long and bloody battle the army of Italy was again worsted. At the same time the Italian fleet was beaten at Lissa in the Adriatic. Even Garibaldi's volunteers in the Lakes were not meeting with their former successes, and the campaign would have been disastrous to Italian hopes had not their ally, Prussia, forced Austria to immediate terms by the two great victories of Königgratz and Sadowa. An armistice followed, and Napoleon, to whom Austria ceded Venetia, gave that province to Italy with the approval of Prussia. The Italians were dejected by their losses, but at least Venice was finally free from the foreigner.

The beautiful city of the Adriatic was no sooner free than she sent her foremost citizens to Victor Emmanuel to ask for immediate annexation to the Italian kingdom. It was a glorious day when the red, white, and green flag was raised in Saint Mark's Square, and the Venetian heroes, exiled with their great leader, Daniel Manin, almost two decades earlier, could return to breathe the air of their beloved home. Victor Emmanuel received the citizens of Venice at Turin, and answered their eager desire with stirring words. "Citizens of Venice," so ran his answer, "this is the most beautiful day of my life. It is now nineteen years since my father proclaimed from this city the war of national independence. To-day, his birthday, you, gentlemen, bring me the evidence of the popular will of the Venetian provinces, which we now unite to the great Italian nation, declaring as an accomplished fact the desire of my august parent. You confirm by this solemn act that which Venetia did in 1848, and which she maintained with such admirable constancy and self-abnegation. Let me here pay a tribute to those brave men who with their blood, and with sacrifices of every sort, kept undiminished faith to their country and to her destinies. With this day shall disappear from the Peninsula every vestige of foreign domination. Italy is made, if not completed; it now rests with the Italians to make her great and prosperous.

"Gentlemen, the Iron Crown is also restored in this solemn day to Italy. But above this crown I place that which to me is dearer--the crown of my people's love."

November 7, 1866, the King made his formal entry into that most beautiful of the rare group of Italy's cities, and the one which had belonged most absolutely to the foreigner.

Rome alone now remained outside the nation, and it was plainly only a matter of time before Pius IX. would have to submit to his evident destiny. The French had kept their agreement, and were leaving Rome, the call of the Romans to Victor Emmanuel to come and free them grew ever louder, and the wish of the Italian people grew daily more pronounced. It was Victor Emmanuel himself who would not force the Church's hand, he was content to wait, knowing how events were gradually shaping, and this patience of his in the end proved its wisdom.

There were others, however, who would not wait, and these were the Garibaldians. When the Romans found that the King would not draw sword to free them, they turned to the crusader whose hand was always on his sword hilt at the call of Rome. He heard the call now, took the field again, and placed his King a second time in the same unenviable position.

One ministry resigned, no statesman seemed competent to cope with the situation which Garibaldi was bringing on his country, the King saw Italy on the brink of civil war, and was at the same time fearful lest the French troops return and destroy the volunteers. It was the most trying time in his career as King of Italy.

Garibaldi was arrested, imprisoned at Caprera, escaped, and joined the now rapidly increasing volunteers in the country about Rome. He met with success at the battle of Monte Rotondo, but a few days later found his army opposed at Mentana by French troops which Napoleon had hurriedly sent to protect the Papal temporal power. The French were armed with the new chassepot gun, and the Garibaldians were defeated with terrible loss. They could not renew the unequal struggle, and the brief campaign came to an untimely end.

Victor Emmanuel was heart-broken at the news of the frightful havoc at Mentana and the Garibaldian losses. "Ah, those chassepots!" he exclaimed. "They have mortally wounded my heart as father and king. I feel as if the balls had torn my flesh. It is one of the greatest griefs that I have ever known in all my life."

After the short campaign the reckless patriot Garibaldi was again imprisoned, but soon released. He had proved a tremendous problem to all the successors of Cavour. He returned to Caprera, and gradually the agitation of the Roman question subsided into its former slow and diplomatic course.

The Crown Prince Humbert, who was twenty-four years old, was now married to his first cousin the Princess Margherita, daughter of the Duke of Genoa, and the marriage proved immensely popular, for the Princess possessed unusual charm, and as soon as she was known, was beloved by the people. The King's second son, Amadeus, soon to be offered the crown of Spain, had already married the daughter of the Prince della Cisterna, the head of an old and devotedly loyal Piedmont family. In the year 1869 Victor Emmanuel, who had been seized with a severe fever in his villa near Pisa, married the Countess Mirafiore, according to the rites of the Church.

The year 1870 saw Napoleon drawn into the war with Prussia which was to cost him his crown. The French troops could no longer remain abroad to support the Pope and were withdrawn from Italy. Although Napoleon had sacrificed his alliance with Victor Emmanuel the latter would even now have gone to his aid, but his ministers would not permit him to take such a step. The rapid disasters that befell French arms and the surrender of the Emperor at Sedan caused the Romans to make another appeal to Victor Emmanuel to come to their aid before they should be altogether abandoned. The time was now ripe when the appeal could be answered. A message containing the King's resolution was sent to the provisional government at Paris, which replied that it had no power now to oppose Italy. Yet, even now, before sending his troops to Rome, the King tried again to effect some pacific adjustment with the Pope, and it was only when the latter showed again his unaltered determination to insist on the temporal power of the Church that the Italian army crossed the Papal frontier.

September 20, 1870, is the date on which the temporal power of the Roman Church, after many centuries of vicissitudes, came to an end. The Pope, although eighty years old, determined on final resistance, and the invading army was met at the Leonine Gate with fire from the city bastions. The fight did not last long, the foreign ambassadors in Rome entreated the Pope to capitulate, but he would not do so until he heard that the royal army was actually within the city. Then a white flag was raised on Saint Peter's, and an hour later the last Papal Zouaves were surrendering their arms. All Rome rushed to the Capitol and burst into ecstatic acclaim as the Italian tri-color was flung out to the breezes from the palace. The fortress of Saint Angelo was opened and scores of political prisoners released. Meanwhile the Pope and the Cardinals withdrew into the Vatican, and proclaimed to the world that they were kept there as prisoners against their will. A popular vote of the Romans was taken and resulted overwhelmingly in favor of union with the Kingdom.

The long struggle which had begun for Victor Emmanuel on that far-off day of Novara, was ended. To Piedmont had been added Lombardy, Tuscany, Emilia, the Papal States, Sicily, Naples, Venetia, and now Rome. The vow of the King was accomplished, Italy was complete. The last Parliament in Florence met December 5, 1870, and the King in opening it said, "With Rome the capital of Italy I have fulfilled my promise, and crowned the undertaking which twenty-three years ago was initiated by my great father. As a king and as a son, I feel in my heart a solemn joy in saluting here assembled the representatives of our beloved country, and in pronouncing these words--Italy is free and one. Now it depends on us to make her free and happy."

Florence had rejoiced at being the capital of Italy, but now she surrendered that proud position to Rome, which all Italians felt must be the capital of the new nation. The King had no wish to offend the Pope, indeed he and his ministers were untiring in their efforts to effect a reconciliation with the head of the Church, and the public entry into Rome was delayed for almost nine months. Meanwhile the King had entered the city privately at a time when the Tiber had flooded its banks and caused much distress, and had done all that he could to relieve the needs of the poor and homeless. On June 2, 1871, Victor Emmanuel made his formal entry into his new capital, and took possession of the Quirinal. On November 27 of that same year the first Parliament representing united Italy met.

A little earlier Spain, rid of Isabella, and in the hands of a provisional government, sought a king from Italy, and found one in Victor Emmanuel's son, Amadeus, who went to Madrid, and reigned there for a few troubled years, until another revolution released him from a position which he had never sought or desired.

For seven years Victor Emmanuel reigned in Rome, and they were years of great strides in progress and in national unity. He visited foreign sovereigns, and they in turn visited him; in 1873 he went to Vienna as the guest of the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph, and in 1876 the latter visited him at Venice. The King of Italy, always open-hearted and simple by nature, was glad to forget the days when Austria had ruled in Italy, and to form ties of friendship between the Houses of Savoy and of Hapsburg, ties which Francis Joseph was equally glad to make.

The Pope continued publicly to resent the presence of the King in Rome, but privately he stated his admiration for him. Pius IX. was two men in one, delightful as a private character, but narrow and bigoted in his public views. He still held to his claim to temporal power over the States of the Church, but gradually the claim ceased to be other than an echo of history.

In those seven years between 1871 and 1878 the King knit his people together, met Garibaldi, now the arch republican, and brought him to terms of reason, concerned himself with scores of plans for bettering the material welfare of his people, draining the Campagna, tunneling Mont Cenis and the St. Gothard, and building up commerce with the East. He was always the idol of his people, the Rè Galantuomo, in whatever part of the country he visited. On January 9, 1878, he died, being fifty-eight years of age, and having reigned twenty-nine years.

Thousands of stories are told of Victor Emmanuel's frankness and independence, of his love of mixing with his people, and doing little acts of kindness and charity. He was a great hunter, never happier than when in the Alps, free as the meanest goatherd, and forgetful of all his cares. He had a most magnetic personality, a certain ruggedness of character that led men to trust him implicitly and follow him without debate. He was the very man for his time, a leader who could accomplish what Charles Albert could never have done, because he was first and foremost a fighter and never the scholastic theorist. Grouped about him were men of the greatest ability and devotion, such patriots as D'Azeglio, Cavour, La Marmora, who could do for him what they could never have done for his father, because Victor Emmanuel knew when to give others a free rein, and having once given them that rein, did not immediately jerk them back. He understood the delicate position of a constitutional sovereign almost by instinct, time and again he might have forced his wish upon his country, but he understood that it was Parliament and not he that should be supreme. Yet, on the other hand, he did not shirk responsibility, he was ready to assume any burden which would aid in delivering Italy from foreign domination.

Events in the lives of nations, such as the union of the disordered states of Italy, are greater than any man, but often such events seem to await the coming of a certain man who shall collect within himself the spirit of his time, and personify its impulse in his nature. Reading this history, one feels as though the men of the Peninsula had waited the coming of a King of Piedmont who should throw everything he had into the common cause, and, without counting any cost or pain, fight to the goal. When such a man came, then and then only, could the forces that were preparing reach their full growth and opportunity, then and then only could Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Cavour put into operation the energies for which they severally stood.

In Italy to-day the memory of Victor Emmanuel meets one on every hand, it was his fortunate fate to rise to every opportunity, and to grow in his people's affection with each step he took.

INDEX

"Adelchi," appearance of, 51; stanzas from, 60, 61

Albany, Count and Countess of, 22

Alfieri, Vittorio, 1-39; birth and parentage, 1, 2; education, 2, 3; early travels, 5-7; opinion of Paris, 8; travels in England, 9, 14; travels in Holland, 10; in Vienna and Berlin, 12, 13; travels in Russia, 13; in Spain, 14, 15; first plays, 17, 18; moves to Florence, 20-22; meeting with the Countess of Albany, 23, 24; "Virginia," "Agemennone," "Don Garzia," "Maria Stuarda," "Oreste," "Filippo," "Timoleone," "Ottavia," "Rosmunda," 25; in Rome, 27, 28; "Saul," "Antigone," 27; later travels, 28; "Agide," "Sofonisba," "Mirra," 29; life in Paris, 30, 31; memoirs, 31; French Revolution, 31-33; French occupation of Florence, 34; comedies, 35; death, 35; influence on Italy, 36-39

Amadeus, King of Spain, 340

America, Garibaldi in, 225, 241

Arnaud, Giuseppe, quoted (of Alfieri), 38

Aspromonte, 264, 329

Balbo, Count, 177

Bandiera-Moro, The, 116

Bassi, Ugo, in Venice, 110, 111; tribute to Manin, 111; at siege of Rome, 237; death of, 240

Beccaria, treatise on "Crimes and Punishments," 45

Benso, family of, 166

Bonghi, quoted (of Manzoni), 59

Caprera, Island of, 240, 242

Carbonari, The, 127, 129, 133

Carlyle, Thomas, and Mazzini, 143, 144

Castellani, The Nicoletti and, 97

Cavour, Camille di, 165-222; birth, youth, and education, 167-169; life as a farmer at Leri, 169; travels in England and France, 171, 172; founds "Il Risorgimento," 174; speech to the editors, 174, 175; election to Parliament, 177; campaign of 1848-49, 177-179; personal appearance, 180; member of D'Azeglio's cabinet, 182; the "Connubio" with Rattazzi, 184, 185; the "Gran Ministero," 188; policies, 189; alliance with England and France, 190, 191; resignation as Premier and recall, 193, 194; Congress of Paris of 1856, 195-198; Pact of Plombières, 201; crisis of 1859, 204-208; war of 1859, 208; treaty of Villafranca, 208, 209; cession of Savoy and Nice, 212-214; views on Garibaldi's expedition, 214; sends Royal army south, 216; "A Free Church in a Free State," 219; death, 220; his statesmanship, 220-222; reliance of the people, 222; relations with Mazzini, 154, 155, 215

Cavour, Marquise Philippine di, 166-168

Charles Albert, character of, 136-139, 173-174, 285; as regent, 286; reign of, 67, 286-288; abdication of, 293, 294; and Gioberti, 67, 68; Mazzini's letter to, 137, 138

Charles Felix, King of Sardinia, 284, 286

Ciceruacchio, 236, 239, 240

Clarendon, Lord, at Congress of Paris, 197

Classicists and Romanticists, 41-44, 126

Cobden, visit to Venice, 91

Congregations, Central and Provincial, 94

"Connubio," The, 184, 185

Crimean War, 190-192

Dandolo, Giulio, quoted (of Garibaldi's troops), 228, 229

D'Azeglio, Massimo, 179; and Charles Albert, 287, 288; ministry of, 182, 185, 187, 296; character of, 332; death of, 332; quoted (of Alfieri), 39

De Lesseps, Ferdinand, at Rome, 150, 235

De Sanctis, quoted (of Alfieri), 26; (of the reaction from the French Revolution), 40; (of the Romantic movement), 41, 43, 44

Emmanuel Philibert, of Savoy, 283

Farini, 183, 318, 320, 329

"Father of Venice, The," 87-124

"Five Days of Milan, The," 147

French Revolution, failure of, 40, 127; Alfieri and the, 31-33

Gaeta, Mazzini at, 160

Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 223-282; birth and boyhood, 223, 224; life in South America, 225, 226; offer to serve Pius IX., 226, 227; campaign of 1848, 227-230; defense of Rome, 231-237; retreat of the Legion, 237-239; death of Anita, 240; leaves Italy, 241; purchase of Caprera, 242; commands the "Hunters of the Alps," 244; campaign of 1859, 244-247; attacks Cavour, 249; expedition to Sicily, 214-216, 250-255; victories in Calabria, 256; capture of Naples, 257, 258; returns to Caprera, 262; march on Rome, and Aspromonte, 264; triumphal visit to England, 266, 267; campaign of 1866, 267-271; plans to take Rome, Mentana, 273-275; serves France against Prussia, 276; old age and death, 277-279; estimate of character and achievements, 279-282

Garibaldi, Anita, 226, 239, 240

Garibaldi, Francesca, 278

Garibaldi, Menotti, 253, 264, 273

Garibaldian army, description of, 228, 229, 270

Gioberti, Vincenzo, 63-86; birth and education, 65, 66; priesthood, 66; chaplain to Charles Albert, 67; arrest and exile, 68, 69; life in Brussels, 69, 70; "La Teorica del Sovran-naturale," 70; "Introduzione della Filosofia," 70; other writings, 70; "Il Gesuita Moderno," 70; "Il Primato d'Italia," 70-73, 83, 84; returns to Piedmont, 75; revolutions of 1848, 76, 77; letter to Pius IX., 78; "Rinnovamento Civile d'Italia," 80, 81; death, 82; comparison of, with Mazzini, 82

"Gran Ministero," The, 188

Guerrazzi, attack on Cavour, 213

Howells, William Dean, quoted (of Manzoni's dramas), 52, 53

Hugo, Victor, and the Romantic movement, 54

Humbert, Prince, marriage of, 337

"Hunters of the Alps," The, 202, 244

"I Promessi Sposi," appearance of, 53; opinions of, 54; compared with "Les Miserables," 54

"Il Risorgimento," the newspaper, 174, 182

Kossuth, Mazzini compared with, 161

La Marmora, Alfonso, 292, 304, 332

Lincoln, Mazzini compared with, 162

Magenta, battle of, 313

Manin, Daniel, 87-124; birth and education, 88; professional work, 90, 91; views on national resignation, 92-94; arrest and imprisonment, 95-99; triumphal release, 98, 99; forms a Venetian government, 105; member of the Triumvirate, 108; president of the Republic, 113; Dictator, 116; departure from Venice, 120; life in Paris, 121, 122; death, 123; results of his work, 124

Manin, Emilia, 103, 121, 122

Manzoni, Alessandro, 40-62; birth and parentage, 45; youth and education, 45-47; stay in France, 47; religious views, 48, 49; marriage, 48; "Sacred Hymns," 49; view of Pope's temporal power, 49; "Il Conte di Carmagnola," 50; "Il Cinque Maggio," 51; "Adelchi," 51; "I Promessi Sposi," 53-55; personality, 56; old age and death, 57; position, 44, 59; miscellaneous writings, 58, 59

Manzoni, Henriette, 48

Mazzini, Giuseppe, 125-164; youth, 127; early writings, 128, 129; arrest and imprisonment, 129, 130; "Young Italy," 131-133; life in Switzerland and London, 139-145; returns to Italy, 147; Triumvir of Rome, 148-151; in London, 152, 153; personal appearance, 152; in Italy, 155; disagreement with the monarchy, 155-157; appearance in Genoa, 159; plans to take Sicily, 160; confinement at Gaeta, 160, 161; death, 161; position in his century, 161; spirit of self-sacrifice, 163

Mentana, 275, 336

"Mille," expedition of the, 250-256

Minghetti, 329; quoted (of Gioberti), 63-65

Monti, Vincenzo, 46

Naples, welcome to Garibaldi, 258

Napoleon, Manzoni's Ode on Death of, 51

Napoleon III, 150, 200, 312, 315

Nazari, 94

Neo-Guelph party, 84

Nice, cession of, 212-214, 249, 309, 320

Nicoletti and Castellani, The, 97

Novara, battle of, 292, 293

Orsini, Felice, 200

Palermo, capture of, 253, 254

Palffy, Count, 92, 99, 100

Palmerston, Lord, views on Italy, 186, 210, 211

Paravia, quoted (of Alfieri), 18, 19

Paris, Congress of, in 1856, 195-198

Piedmont, its mediævalism, 166

Pius IX., accession of, 73, 145; Garibaldi's letter to, 226, 227; flight from Rome of, 77

Plombières, Pact of, 201

"Primato d'Italia, II," 70-73, 83, 84; quoted from, 71-73, 83, 84

"Promessi Sposi, I," 53, 54

Rattazzi, 184, 185, 210, 263,317, 328

Raymondi, Giuseppina, 250

Ricasoli, 318, 320, 328

"Risorgimento, Il," the newspaper, 174, 182

Roman Republic, The, 148-151, 233-237; Garibaldi's part in, 231-237; manifesto of, 232

Romanticists and Classicists, 41-44, 126

Rome, taken by Victor Emmanuel, 338, 339; capital moved to, 340

Salasco, armistice of, 107

San Martino, battle of, 314, 315

Santa Rosa, 299

Sardinia, Kingdom of, 284

Savoy, history of house of, 283, 284; cession of, 212-214, 309, 320

Sicily, Garibaldi's campaign in, 252-255

Solferino, battle of, 314, 315

Statute, the Sardinian, 176

Tommaseo, 95

Turin, removal of capital from, 331, 332

Unities, law of the three, 50

Valerio, attacks on Cavour, 175

Venice, the "Father of Venice," 87-124; under Austrian rule, 87; siege of, 109-120; capitulation of, 120; union with Italian kingdom, 334, 335

Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, 284

Victor Emmanuel I., of Italy, 283-343; ancestry, 283, 284; birth, youth, and education, 289; marriage, 290; first battles, 291; becomes king, 293, 294; difficulties with the Church, 298, 299; marriage of his daughter, 309; speech from the throne in 1859, 203; war with Austria in 1859, 311-315; treaty of Villafranca, 315-317; union of northern and central states, 318-321; marches to meet Garibaldi, 323-325; Naples and Sicily united to his crown, 324, 325; proclaimed King of Italy, 325; moves his capital to Florence, 331; campaign of 1866, 333, 334; Venetia united to the kingdom, 334, 335; entry into Rome, 338-340; King of United Italy, 341; death, 342; fitness for his work, 342-343; Gioberti's opinion of, 81; Manzoni's opinion of, 61, 62

Villafranca, treaty of, 208, 317

"Young Italy," 126, 128, 131-133, 135, 136, 145, 146

_A Great Italian Romance_

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