NICCOLINI'S ADDRESS TO THE KING. 33 the brink of the grave, and Victor was profoundly moved by it. The beauty of the language we cannot render; we can but hope to convey the sentiments expressed in that address. G. B. Niccolini to Victor Emmanuel. I come, O sire, although bowed down by years and illhealth, I come with infirm step and with unutterable emotion which renders me almost mute, to revere in you the liberty-loving monarch, the stupendous example to the world of loyalty, the first soldier of the war of Italian independence, the elect of the people, the desire, the joy of all Italy. And if it be permitted to me, O sire, I come to express the joy of my soul, to tell you that when I wrote, more than thirty years ago, these poor lines,— Qui necessario estimo un Rè possente. Sia di quel Rè scettro, la spada, e l' elmo A concordia riduca, a Italia sani Le servili ferite e la ricrei,— I did not dare to hope for a fate so benignant as to see, before closing these eyes for ever to the sweet light of Italy, my most ardent desire for you fulfilled. Still, if I have ever desired that my humble words might carry power with them, I had it in my soul last year, when, with the assistance of a young friend, almost a son in my affections, I gave to the light one of the books which with a frank and reverent love I VOL. II. D now offer you,- -a book which recommends to all the Italians whom fortune permits to elect a worthy prince, that they should use every effort to unite themselves under your constitutional and heroic sceptre. While Victor Emmanuel was on this tour, taking possession of the newly annexed provinces amidst the indescribable joy of the 'Eleven Million Italians,' far other scenes were going on in Sicily, the inhabitants of that unhappy island, unable longer to support the Bourbon rule, having risen in a formidable rebellion which the royal troops found it impossible to crush. CHAPTER XIX. THE REVOLUTION OF NAPLES. A.D. 1860. IN the latter part of the year 1859 and the beginning of 1860, the kingdom of Naples had become the seat of secret intrigues set on foot by the court of Vienna, in which Cardinal Antonelli, the widow of Ferdinand II., and the young King Francis took an active part. A continual correspondence was kept up between Vienna, Rome, and Naples on the subject of the restoration of the old régime in Italy. The conspiracy was already on foot when Victor Emmanuel was frankly offering his alliance to Francis, begging him to make himself Italian. I do not understand what is meant by Italian independence,' said Francis, 'I only recognise the independence of Naples.' The Count of Syracuse, brother of the late king, who had been banished and despoiled of his property for marrying an English lady, and other offences against the traditions of his house, now made earnest appeals to his nephew to save the family from everlasting infamy before it was too late: but, Francis was deaf to all entreaty, and the Count of Syracuse-finally washed his hands of him, and threw himself into the arms of the national party. In spite of the great caution observed, the astuteness of Count Cavour was able to discover the existence of the conspiracy alluded to, all the secrets of which have never transpired, though enough proofs have come to light to reveal the fact that Antonelli was the leading spirit, as the following notes to the Neapolitan Government will show : Albano, Oct. 9, 1859. [Most private]. I return this moment from an audience with the Holy Father at Castillo. H. H. has conceded the authorisation of the eventual passage of our troops through the Roman territory on the line parallel to the Tronto. Mons. Bernardi will go this evening to tell Card. Antonelli. The Holy Father desires this agreement to remain strictly secret. DE MARTINO. Jan. 6, 1860. The Austrian ambassador labours strenuously to push the Holy Father to the most extreme resolutions. A Catholic League, he says, can alone save the Pontificate and society. DE MARTINO. To form this league an earnest appeal was made to Spain, as the Most Catholic power; but the minister, O'Donnell, firmly refused his sanction to engaging in a war against Italy, 'because of the unpopularity' which would attach to it. NEAPOLITAN INTRIGUES. 37 Meantime it was noted by the Piedmontese Government that Neapolitan troops were being concentrated in the Abruzzi, and that foreign volunteers, collected from all countries, were pouring into the Pontifical States. The intrigues we have mentioned were known to the King of Sardinia and his minister, but not to the public, when Garibaldi was allowed to equip two vessels and convey his followers to the aid of the Sicilian insurgents. That the government shut its eyes to the proceedings of the volunteer chief there is no manner of doubt now, though at the time, and even afterwards, it was a subject of dispute, for Cavour with a masterly dissimulation neither denied nor affirmed his complicity in the undertaking. When Francis II. not only rejected Victor Emmanuel's offer of friendship, but engaged in a secret conspiracy for the overthrow of his power and the destruction of Italian independence, it became clear to the Turin Government that only a deadly war could settle the long-standing quarrel with the Bourbon, and nothing prevented their declaring it but the disapprobation of the great powers, and the shifting, inconsistent policy of their French ally. It was not to be expected that the news of the insurrection in Palermo (April 6) should be received with anything but pleasure, or that the Sardinian Government would throw any impediment in the way of the volunteers going to the aid of the Sicilians. Garibaldi, who always held himself a free agent, and bound to any government only so long as his opinions and theirs coincided, had |