THE KING’S RECOVERY

laws of the state, The priest submitted to the just and severe rebuke, re-entered the king’s room and gave him absolution. Victor Emmanuel had preserved throughout the utmost calmness and sang froid ; but now he experienced such a lively émotion that it brought on a salutary crisis.

The king himself, however, told General Menabrea that he owed his recovery to a glass of port wine which his valet gave him when ail hope was over, — and that immediately on swallowing it he felt life coming back to him, It is not improbable that the sudden révulsion of feeling aided the salutary effect of the wine.

This Cardinal Corsi, by whose command the priest had refused the king absolution, was a most violent and uncompromising papalino. When the king went to hear service in the cathédral of Pisa one day, with ail his court and a following of citizens which numbered some thousands, he found the great entrance closed against him. Some one proposed forcing the door, and the indignant people only wanted the .slightest assent to give expression to their feelings by some overt act against the priestly authority. But the king, seeing a side door open, said smiling, ‘ Let us pass in here, my friends ; it is the narrow way that leads to paradise.’

Very soon after the same thing happened at Bologna. The king, on visiting the Duomo, was received by one or two inferior clergy at a side entrance. Great indignation was expressed by the citizens, so much so that the bishop was somewhat alarmed, and came to apologise

lC6 LIFE OK VICTOR EMMANUEL IL

to the king, excusing his absence on the plea of illness. The king replied : — * You were quite right not to inconvenience yourself, my lord. I do not go to church to visit priests, but to worship God.’

The year 1869 had opened with the birth of a prince, and towards the close of it another little Sabaud made his This last, being heir to the throne of Italy,

would hâve made a great noise on his entrance into the World, if his grandfather had not been at that moment hanging between life and death.

On November 1 1 the Princess Margherita gave birth to a son who was chrîstened Vittorio Emanuele, with the title of Prince of Naples, where he was bom. This event prevented Prince Umberto from being with his father at the time of his illness, and the crisis was passed before he learned how great the danger had been.

At the end of this year negotiations were opened for a triple alliance between France, Austria, and Italy, but without any resuit, because the French emperor would not consent to the withdrawal of the troops from Rome, and Victor made that condition a quâ non for the Italian alliance. This prolonged occupation, in défiance of the wishes of the Romans and the nation at large, as well as those of the king, kept up the bitter memories of the chassepots of Mentana, and well-nigh obliterated ail feeling of gratitude for the aid Napoléon had given in the libération of Lombardy.

A new Parliament was convoked in November, and the king, for the first time in his reign, refused to open it in person, making his recent illness the excuse ; but

ANOTHER MINISTERIAL CRISIS. 167

the real reason was a deep chagrin at not being able to announce anything definite about the Roman question. Another ministerial crisis followed the opening of the Chambers, and Signor Lanza was called to the head of aflfairs.