CHAPTER XXIX

BIRTH OF AMADEO’S SON. — DANGEROUS ILLNESS OF THE KING. — BIRTH OF UMBERTO’S SON. A.D. 1869.

Meantime the young prince against whose peace the statesmen of Spain and Italy were plotting, still happy in his liberty, was just rejoicing over the birth of a little son, which took place on January 15. It was Victor Emmanuers first Italia»-born grandson, and he was delighted beyond measure. He hastened to Genoa, where the Duke and Duchess of Aosta were staying when the happy event came off, baptized him by the name of his most illustrious ancestor, Emanuele Filiberto, and bestowed upon him the title of Duke of Puglia. Congratulatory addresses poured in on the king and the prince from ail parts of the country, and the Genoese made great démonstrations of loyalty on the occasion. The king’s thanks were conveyed in a letter the stilted style of which plainly shows that it was not written by himself.

Victor Emmanuel to the Syndic of Gaioa.

Illustrissimo Signor Sindaco délia città di Genova, — The new testimony of attachment which we hâve received

l60 LIFE OF VICTOR EMMANUEL IL

from our good city of Genoa, on the occasion of the birth of our grandson, the Duke of Puglia — of which your lordship was the interpréter to our beloved son, the Duke of Aosta — has been very pleasing to us. It is not new to us, however, the affection of our Genoese for our person and for our house, the most solemn testimony of which we considered to be your valid co-operation, which never failed us, in the grand undertakingof the reconstruction of the nation, to which we dedicated our life. You were examples of patriotism in the hard struggles and sacrifices of the days of battle, and now you are examples to the Italians in the laboriousness of your industries and your commerce. If Italy will follow this impulse and this example, which speaks encouragingly in the multiplicity of your dockyards and your workshops, she may pursue her path in safety to reach those destinies to which the records of your fathers point. As they carried gloriously and puissantly the banner of St. George, so you and your sons shall bear, we are certain, gloriously and puissantly the banner of Italy.

Victor Emmanuel.

On his return from Genoa the king made a tour in the South of Italy. In the spring he received visits from several members of the royal family of Russia, and some distinguished Austrians, among whom was General Moring, who had arranged the treaty of peace. Victor Emmanuel won golden opinions among his old enemies when they came to know him personally.

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FR1ENDSHIP*WITH THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. l6l

‘Your sovereign is a true king,’ said one of the Austrian visitors on this occasion to General Menabrea.

The Empress of the French, on her way to the East, touched at Venice, and the King of Italy with four of his ministers hastened to the City of the Lagunes to give her a hospitable réception. Later there came from the opening of the Suez Canal the Austrian minister, Count de Beust, to visit the king, at the request of the emperor. Victor made him a knight of the SS. Annunciata.

The moment the Austrians were well ‘over the border,’ within the natural confines of their own state, and the treaty signed that was to keep them there, Victor Emmanuel’s heart began to expand towards the Hapsburg family, with which he had been closely allied by marriage, though national and dynastie hatreds had held them divided so many years. Now that his vow was fulfilled, it was easy for him to buiy every bitter remembrance of the past and offer a cordial friendship to his old hereditary foe, who could not doubt the sincerity of that friendship, seeing that he had been so sincere an enemy. The emperor responded warmly to his advances, and the kindly feeling grew rapidly, so that there was a project of a matrimonial alliance between the two houses, which, however, was blasted by death.

No one would hâve suspected that there w'as any lurking tendemess in Victor Emmanuel’s heart towards the House of Austria from the year 1848 to 1866, during which period he seemed to be in a chronic state