for the 15th of March; no earlier day could be named. The people broke in, and would have the Republic. The Government with all its energies refused to take the initiative in declaring a Republic, or a fusion with Rome. Their view was, that the entire country should decide its own destinies by its legitimate representatives, and on full consideration. If driven by force from this position, which seems to them, and which is, thoroughly legal, they will first defend themselves against unjust attack, and will secondly, while retiring, leave to whom it may concern the entire odium of having fostered a civil war in Italy when the German, her common foe, was invading her.

"Lucca, February 21. 1849.”

"GUERRAZZI.

These declarations of Guerrazzi agreed with such as the Provisional Government had already made public, nor could they possibly avail to alter the resolution of the Government of Piedmont. But during the interval, when the Tuscan Constitutionalists were running serious risks in their effort to second the enterprise of Laugier, the views of the Court of S. Stefano veered about. Bargagli, the Minister to the Holy See, and a Frenchman named Saint Marc, a jobber for the Legitimists, had arrived there in a steamer from Gaeta; and were in close colloquy with the Grand Duke and his household for an entire day, while the Envoys were neither taken into council, nor had any inkling of the advices brought by the new comers. They had with them letters from the Holy Father to the Grand Duke, dispatches and counsel from Cardinal Antonelli, the Court of Naples, the Duchesse de Berri, Esterhazy, and the Legitimists,

for him, his wife, his sister, and his Court. Next day, the diplomatic body was convened; and the. Grand Duke said he had got a letter from Gaeta (that is, as they afterwards learned, from the Pope), in which it was said that Austria would never allow the intervention of Piedmont in Tuscany, and that the moment her troops crossed the frontier, Marshal Radetzky would move on Turin; that the Pope would soon be restored by the arms of Austria, France, Spain, and Naples; and that Piedmont was under ban, both imperial and sacerdotal. On these accounts, said the Grand Duke, he had been driven to the conviction that it was his duty promptly to warn the King of Sardinia against the perils he was incurring, with the declaration that he did not choose to be chargeable with the calamities that menaced him, and that he accordingly declined the aid he had previously requested, and had sent instructions to General Laugier to refrain, or recede, from the undertaking which had been intrusted to him. The Envoys were astonished and grieved at this address; except, however, Monsignor Mazzoni, the Papal Internuncio, who indicated approval. One of their number, the Swedish Envoy, remarked that the information from Gaeta about the intentions of Austria could not be founded on fact, because they could not, on the 12th, have any intimation at Gaeta of any resolution whatever adopted by Austria at Olmutz respecting a Piedmontese intervention, which had only been requested in a letter of the Grand Duke received at Turin on the 17th. The advices from Gaeta, then,

he subjoined, must really be founded on a wish, possibly on some recommendation sent from thence to Austria, or on simple hypothesis; and accordingly the Grand Duke ought not to build upon them his judgments and determinations; but should reflect, that since Austria had accepted the mediation of France and England at Brussels, it was incredible that Piedmont should have taken in hand a restoration for Tuscany against the sense of France and England, or that they would permit Austria to attack Piedmont on any such ground. He therefore argued, that the Grand Duke ought to write anew to King Charles Albert, by no means to recall the request for aid, but to cancel the letter of recall already sent, and simply to apprise him of the information he had received from Gaeta. Leopold appeared to yield to this reasoning and advice; and having summoned before him the Sardinian Minister, he delivered to him a fresh letter for his King. But after this the pealing of the cannon, fired at Orbetello in honour of the Republic, was heard at S. Stefano, and a report went abroad that the Leghorners were coming, and highly excited. Great was the panic of the Court, although that asylum was secured against all attacks by the English vessels in the harbour. The Grand Duke again convened the Envoys, adverted to the risks he feared, produced a violent letter which the Provisional Government had addressed to the Prefects, and said, that as matters had come to such a pass, his duty was to take care of his own dignity and safety and that of his family, by repairing to His

Holiness at Gaeta. To this they all, except the Papal Internuncio, replied, that the Tuscan Sovereign ought not, except under compulsion, to quit the Tuscan soil; that at S. Stefano he was in no sort of danger; that he should recollect the enterprise of his restoration which was already begun, and his own request for the aid of Piedmont; and should, at any rate, take time to deliberate. He dismissed them with much emotion, both depressed in spirit and apparently wavering. He also invited them to return at eight next morning; and then without more ado he went on board the Bulldog, where he received them the day following at the appointed hour, and took leave of them with many acknowledgments. At half-past three on the same day, the 21st of February, the ship that carried Leopold II. into exile set sail for Gaeta. Thus did the enterprise of Laugier end, by the orders of him who commanded it, before it was well begun, while Guerrazzi, for this reason and through the ill-discipline of the Tuscan troops, gathered with ease the laurels of his victory. Thus, too, did the revolution in Tuscany, and the reaction at Gaeta, play into one another's hands; while the unthinking republicans of Rome kept gala, and dispatched from the Assembly their congratulations to the Tuscan people. The Courts of Gaeta and Naples kept their gala too, and had now, not one only, but two victims of revolution to commend to the mercies of Europe.

While the Assembly at Rome was hailing as a godsend the escape of the Grand Duke, the city of

Ferrara underwent fresh troubles. When, in July, 1848, Prince Lichtenstein made the foray related in this work, he concluded an agreement with Count Lovatelli, under which the Austrian troops had free egress from the fortress to obtain supplies, or to communicate with the military hospital situated in the heart of the city, or with the army beyond the Po. The treaty had been constantly observed without any untoward incident, when, on the 6th of February, a few Austrian officers and men, who had appeared in the Piazza of Ferrara, were attacked with contumely and with stones by some of the burghers and the commonalty, and compelled to fly from the place, in which, under the terms of the convention, they were not entitled to set foot. The Austrian commandant made a complaint, and the Provisional Committee, which, after the departure of Lovatelli, administered the Government of Ferrara, had an interview with him, at which it was agreed, that no soldiers should pass out of the fortress except on duty for the commissariat, for inspection of the hospital, or for communications beyond the Po. They were to go forth at certain times, and to traverse the most direct and least frequented streets; while the authorities were to take care that they should neither be obstructed nor reviled. They went out next day, and no disturbance ensued; but the commandant of the battalion that formed the garrison, in lieu of taking the route agreed on, suddenly made his appearance in the Piazza, preceded by some soldiers without arms, and followed by others with their pieces, and by the