CHAPTER XIX

THE REVOLUTION OF NAPLES. A.D. l86o.

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 continuai correspondence was kept up between Vienna, Rome, and Naples on the subject of the restoration of the old régime in Italy. The conspiracy wéis 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 Syraetwerbrother of the late king, who had been banished and despoiled of his property for marrying an Engüsh lady, and other offences against the traditions of his house, now made eamest appeals to his nephew to save the family from everlasting infamy before it was too late : but, Francis was deaf to ail entreaty, and the Count of Sj^feuse 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, ail the secrets of which hâve never transpired, though enough proofs hâve corne 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 Gard. 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 Pontifîcatc 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.

Meantime it was noted by the Piedmontese Government that Neapolitan troops were being concentrated in the Abruzzi, and that foreign volunteers, collected from ail countries, were pouring into the Pontifical States.

The intrigues we hâve 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

pledged himself to the Southern nationalists in February, and in pursuance of that promise now prepared to take command of the rebel army in Sicily.

The Turin Government threw no obstacle in his way ; they even adroitly put arms and ammunition within his reach : while the authorities at Genoa allowed him to sail under their eyes without molesting him. A Sardinian fleet set out in a southerly direction at the same time, the Admirai Persano having received a note from the prime minister to the following effect : —

‘ Signor Conte, try to navigate between Garibaldi and the Neapolitan cruisers. I hope you understand me.’ To which the daring sailor replied : —

‘ Signor Conte, I believe I understand you ; if I am mistaken, you can send me to prison.’

This was something more than ‘winking at’ the volunteer expédition, and the suspicions of the diplomatie World were aroused. Indignation was freely expressed by most of the great powers ; and the Neapolitan minister described Garibaldi’s descent on Sicily as ‘ an act of savage piracy perpetrated on a friendly state.’ Angry notes poured in from Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg to the court of Turin. The brave Garibaldians, ‘ the flower of the Italian youth,’ as Cavour called them, were variously described in the complimentary terms of ‘ a horde of pirates,’ ‘ desperadoes,’ ‘ bandits,’ ‘ dregs of the human race,’ etc. The Vienna Government ordered a fleet from Trieste to take its way to the South Mediterranean to protect Naples ; the Czar declared that he would do the same only for