UMBERTO’S MARRIAGE

from Paris the Prince Napoléon and Princess Clotilde, as well as Queen Pia of Portugal, and Prince Frédéric of Prussia ; between the latter of whom and the Savoy family a great intimacy sprang up.

The civil marriage was gone through on April 28, and the religious ceremony the following day in the cathédral, the Bishop of Savona officiating. On this occasion the king instituted a new order of knighthood, called La Corona d' Italia. The bride and bridegroom made a tour of ail the principal cities in Italy, Rome of course excepted. But the Roman ladies, notwithstanding their mourning for the sad events of the preceding autumn, presented an address and a magnificent garland to the princess.

The Roman question kept up a constant atmosphère of political agitation, but the king and the government tried to calm the excited State of men’s minds by turning the attention of Parliament to more prosaic subjects, such as public instruction, assimilating the laws of the different States of the kingdom, and other like questions.

The king was not opposed to capital punishments in theory, but he was always disposed to seize upon any extenuating circumstance to commute a capital sentence. In this year there was in the ministry a Signor Filippo, keeper of the seals, whom Victor Emmanuel liked very much, and christened ‘ the mild minister.’ He had, however, repeatedly opposed the royal desire to extend a pardon to different criminals. ‘ How is it,’ asked the king one day, ‘ that you who are so gentle to the appeals of others always exercise towards me the greatest

severity.^’ ‘Your majesty must be aware that they tum to the king as a last extreme, that is, when they hâve failed in every attempt with the ministers.’

‘ Yes, I understand/ replied the king. ‘ I fear I am in the positioh of a physician of the first order, who is generally called in when the case is desperate, the patient at the end of life, and it is next to impossible to save him. I do not complain of you ; on the contrat}', I commend you for doing your duty. I wish justice to be donc, and grâce extended only to those who merit it.’

The king’s character, however, was so well known that he was beset by such pétitions continually, and it often cost him an effort to reject them.

He made no effort, however, to resist the appeals for pecuniary help from those in distress. To such his heart and purse were ever open ; and his charities were done in such an unostentatious, unsystematic way that the World can never form any just estimate of ail he did. Of the many anecdotes we hâve heard illustrative of his kindliness and liberality during his six years’ résidence in Florence, we take two or three.

One day the king came home from a walk very much disturbed, and sent for the President of the Council. ‘ I hâve met a poor mutilated soldier who was wounded at San Martino,’ he said ; ‘ he is not able to work, and he is starving, because they hâve never given him a pension. Speak to the Minister of War immediately about it. I wish the wrong done to this poor fellow to be remedied without delay.’ But he did not wait for the War Office

THE king’s DEEDS ÛF CHARITY, iq5

to set matters right. He sent the crippled soldier a considérable sum from his private purse.

One day, as the king was driving out of the palace court, a poor old woman trying to offer him a pétition, fell, and the carriage was near passing over her. In answer to his inquiries if she were injured, his attendants assured him that she was not. ‘ But the carriage almost ran over her, said the king ; ‘ she must hâve been dreadfully frightened, and she ought to hâve some compensation.’ Next day a royal messenger arrived at the poor habitation of the old woman with the sum of one hundred francs. ‘ Oh, what a lucky fall ! ’ she exclaimed when the notes were handed out to her ; ‘what ablessed fall ! ’

A short time ago a lady ^ho résides in Florence related to us the following little incident. A woman who was employed in the pension where she was staying ■had a son called out for military service, which she thought a great hardship. One day she came home in good spirits, and entering the apartment of the lady showed her some pièces of gold. The lady asked her where she had got it. ‘ From the king’s own hand. I hâve corne from the Palazzo Pitti,’ was the reply,

‘ Impossible ! You never would hâve been admitted to his presence.’

‘No; but I waited at the gâte till he was coming out, and I told him they had taken my son for a soldier, and asked him to release him. “ My good woman,” says he, “ I can do nothing for you ; they hâve taken my two sons to be soldiers, and I cannot release lhem.”

Then he put the gold in my hand, saying, “ Mind ; do not corne back any more.” ’

The royal carriage was just driving up to the door of the theatre one evening, when two shabbily dressed women, who had been lying in wait, hastily approached. One of them drew something from under her cloak, and a large heavy object came into the carriage, striking the king in the face and knocking oflf his hat. It proved to be a hard square cushion, embroidered with beads and gold braid. Victor was very angry. He entered the theatre carrying the offending cushion in his hand. The first person he met was Signor Fausto — who tells the story — ^just at the door of the royal box. He was crimson in the face, partly from a sense of outraged majesty and partly, perhaps, from the hard and crushing properties of the gorgeous cushion.

‘ Go,’ said he, ‘ and see who is that madwoman who has permitted herself the liberty of throwing this in my face.’ The gentleman hastened to obey, and found the unfortunate delinquent trembling outside the door, expecting some terrible sentence. She was a poor actrice, employed in the humblest position in the theatre. She had no treasonable nor offensive intention towards his majesty ; the sofa-pillow was meant as a présent. Meantime the story had spread, and the head of the police had corne to examine the mysterious cushion, to see if it contained an Orsini bomb, or anything dangerous'and explosive. When Fausto returned to the royal box he explained that the cushion was simply meant as a gift. ‘ Well, then,’ said Victor, holding it disdainfully by the