NOBLE CONDUCT OF PRINCESS CLOTILDE

emperor, but I do not expect to return here as King of Italy.’

His ministers, however, convinced him that such quixotic friendship, though permissible in private life, did not become a sovereign who had the destinies of a nation depending on him, and he remembered that his first duty was to his country ; being pledged to Italy, he had no right to throw himself away. The surrender of Sedan was a great shock to him.

When the news of the révolution in Paris arrived, Victor Emmanuel naturally thought of his daughter, and sent in haste an escort to conduct hcr home. But the Princess Clotilde refused to leave her adopted country in its houi of trial. She wrote a letter to her father to thank him for his anxiety about her, and saying that it was impossible for her to abandon Paris at such a moment. She owed it to her husband, her children, her adopted country, her native country, to remain at her post, no matter what might happen. Her brothers or her sister would do the same in the same position, and she knew her father would approve of her resolution. Victor Emmanuel read this letter to his councillors with a proud and flashing eye, He let Clotilde hâve her way, thinklng she was the best judge of what was right under the circumstances.

The Romans had been very much excited from the time the war broke out ; and when it became known that the emperor had surrendered himself and his army, and that there was a likelihood of a speedy settlement of the quarrel, they believed they would be abandoned

once more to their fate, and got into a State of convulsive agitation. They sent one more thrilling appeal to Victor Emmanuel to corne and take them before the favourable moment should hâve passed. Had he been deaf to this last pétition it is probable that the despair of the Romans would hâve led to conséquences still more serions than Mentana. But he was at last permitted to listen to the grido di dolore that came from the Eternal City. The décisive moment had arrived. As soon as the resolution was taken, an envoy was despatched to Paris to acquaint the provisional government with the intentions of the king. They replied in effect, ‘You may do it because we hâve no longer the power to hinder you.’ The truth is that republican France, strange and inconsistent as it seems, was more opposed to Italian unity than the emperor.

Just at the moment when préparations were being made to go to Rome, the Minister of War, General Govone, retired from office, being attacked by a fatal illness which soon after carried him off. He left behind him a grateful memory of the most devoted and single-minded patriotism, united with the charming qualities which are comprised in the Italian word simpatico.

While General Cadoma was preparing to conduct the Italian troops over the papal frontier, Victor Emmanuel, whose heart still yeamed for a réconciliation with Pio Nono, addressed a private and confidential letter to him, in which he explained his sentiments, and entreated the Holy Father, for the sake of that Italy which he once