CALLS UPON HIS GENEROSITY

that his successor, who would not sell anythîng that had belonged to his father, has given some hundreds of these animais as présents to cavalry officers. He also refused to allow the nation to pay the late king’s debts — which in the moment of sorrowful enthusiasm she would gladly hâve done — reserving that duty to himself, The king’s debts, says an enthusiastic admirer, ‘so far from being a blot, are much to his crédit, inasmuch as the head of every State has an opportunity of amassing a large fortune if he will ; and Victor Emmanuel not only did not do this, but spent much of his private patrimony, his civil list being insufficient even for a miserly sovereign, while it could not possibly be enough for a very generous one.’

The worry that ail sovereigns hâve to support of incessant applications for help in various ways, Victor Emmanuel suffered from in an extraordinary degree. Petitioners lay in wait for him at his palace door, on his promenades, at the church door, at the door of the theatre — every place where they could catch sight of him and throw a paper into his carriage. Every post brought bushels of letters, some of them registered, containing the most pitiful taies of want, and misery, and despair, and everything that could touch a man’s heart and excite his interest and curiosity. Many of these were genuine cases of distress, but many were also ingeniously devised plots to extort money from the softhearted king, or trap him Into an intrigue. The éclat attaching to his public career, his well-known generosity, and — it must be owned — his réputation for gallantry,

which his enemies had spread and exaggerated beyond his deserts, made him a tai^et for this sort of persécution to a degree above the common lot of princes. It was in vain that his faithful servants unmasked impostors, and cautioned and warned him against lending too ready an ear to every applicant ; he could not turn a petitioner away unheard, and if undeserving persons sometimes got what they had no right to, on the other hand hundreds of misérable beings were relieved and sustained through some difficult crisis. Here is one of the many authentic anecdotes of Victor Emmanuel’s charity : —

One evening, at the door of the theatre, a man rushed at the royal carriage with a paper in his hand crying, ‘ Maestàj grazia' The king stopped the carriage, and put out his hand to take the pétition.

‘ Permit me one word, your majesty,’ said the man.

‘ Even two ; let us hear them,’ was the gracious reply.

‘Your majesty does not know me ? ’

‘ Really I hâve not that pleasure,’ said the king.

‘ Sire, I am a professer in the orchestra of the Politeama, where I play the horn close to your majesty’s box.’

‘ This gives me much pleasure, but let us corne to the moral.’

‘ Here it is, sire. My landlord intimâtes that I must pay my arrears of rent, or be turned out. Imagine it, with a wife and five children. To-morrow I am to appear before the Tribunal to hear myself condemned. Your majesty, I say no more ; here is the citation.’