EFFORTS TO SECURE ROME

more assiduously, more devotedly than ever, pressing on the emperor and on the papal government a solution of the Roman question as though he felt his time was short and the great labour of his life would be still unfinished if Rome were left outside the kingdom of Italy. The king shared his anxiety, and they spent hours to^ether every day, conducting diplomatie corresjwndence on the one all-absorbing theme. They felt that there could be no union, concord, or peace till that question was finally settled. Rome was the head-centre of the machinations of the rétrogradé party {Codini), and Francis de Bourbon had taken up his abode there, and was pursuing his favourite amusement of conspiracy. It transpired at this time that in some of the Neapolitan provinces brigandage, which was on the increase, and threatened to overtum ail law and order, was, in a measure, due to his influence. King Victor then wrote angrily to Paris,

' Tell the Emperor to put an end to this torment of Francis IL at Rome!’

Giovane Italia was growing daily more rampant, and making its cry of Rome the capital of Italy ! more loudly heard : while the Romans, intensely excited by the great events around them, threatened to rise continually. Amongst their most ardent sympathisers was Garibaldi, whokept his king and government in constant trépidation because of his utter contempt for diplomacy. Cavour so ably urged upon the emperor the pressing necessity of a speedy arrangement, that Napoléon had ail but given the order for the évacuation of the Roman territory by the French troops, on condition that the

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Italians should undertake to protect the papal frontier in their stead. Nor was the great statesman’s reasoning quite without effect on Pius IX. and his advisers, who at this time seemed disposed to consider the subject more calmly than they had hitherto donc. In short, there were then great hopes of a speedy and satisfactory conclusion to the question which, if prolonged, threatened the peace of Italy and of Europe.

‘ When once I see the king enthroned in the Capitol,’ said the count, ‘ I will retire to Leri to plant cabbages, tend my vines, and repose myself for the rest of my life.’

But meantime he allowed himself no repose ; and it was noted by his friends that during the debates of those last days of May, Cavour had become irritable and excitable, and did not display his usual tolérance of contradiction. On the 2qth he returned from the Chamber after speaking, very much agitated, and in the night was taken ill with violent pains, and fits of fever.

The physicians held out little hope from the first, the disease being of a virulent nature, and the nation awaited the catastrophe in grief-stricken silence. The evening before the death, the king, restless and unhappy, went himself to the Palazzo Cavour, and ascending by a private stair, entered the sick chamber unannounced. The patient was Ijdng in a drowsy State with his eyes closed, and those in attendance maintained a respectful silence while the king stood for some minutes looking down at him with an émotion too deep for words. At last Farini leaned over him and whispered, ‘ The king is here.’ Cavour opened his eyes ; the light of his glorious intellect was almost spent, but he recogjnised the king