AMADEO’S RETURN FROM SPAIN

To tJu King of Italy.

I ad vise your majesty that this evening we hâve been the object of an attempt, Thank God, we are quite safe,

Amadeo.

Madrid, July 18.

When the king had recovered from the agitation into which the first shock threw him, he experienced a feeling of intense anger against the perpetrator of the crime. He hastened to the nearest telegraph office to let off the steam in a communication to his son.

After three inquiet and unhappy years of sovereign power, Amadeo resolved to abdicate, February 1873, because he would not betray the constitution to which he had swom, nor shed blood for the establishment of his dynasty. It was pleasant to see the welcome the fallen king got on his retum to Italy. The Turin people received him with rapture. He went to Florence to meet his father, and arranged to arrive in the dead of the night, so as to avoid a démonstration. But the Florentines were too clever for him. They waited ail night in bitter winter weather at the station, and escorted him with a torchlight procession and bands of music to the Pitti Palace with the warmest display of affection. From a house opposite the palace we were witness of this hearty and spontaneous démonstration of the generous Florentines, which, under the circumstances, had something touching in it.

Victor Emmanuel was gjrieved and disappointed, but he did not estimate his son’s merit by his success ; Amadeo had failed because, like himself, he would not be other than a Rè galanttwmo, and he received him with open arms.

The Emperor Napoléon died on January 9 of this year, and Victor Emmanuel was really grieved at the event, for he had never forgotten the campaign of 1859, and the kindly feeling it had engendered survived ail subséquent trials.

In May Manzoni died at an advanced âge. Milan decreed him a public funeral, and the king sent his sons and cousin to assist at the ceremony.

In June another public loss followed in the death of Ratazzi, who was the king’s personal friend ; and he was very much depressed at this time by seeing so many of his contemporaries ‘ going over to the majority.’

Hosts of distinguished visitors came to Rome these first years of Victor Emmanuel’s résidence there ; there was hardly a country in Europe which had not sent a royal prince to salute the King of Italy in his new capital. Amongst these were three English princes, a prince of Prussia, and an Austrian archduke. Nothing could be kinder than the feeling that now existed between the Houses of Hapsburg and Savoy, and the King of Italy. accepted a very pressing invitation to visit Vienna on the occasion of the Exhibition. Accompanied by his ministers, Minghetti and Visconti Venosta, and a large following, he arrived in Vienna on September 17

VICTOR MEËTS FRÀNCIS JOSEPH.

Victor Emmanuel had so completely sunk ail Personal considérations in the patriot king, that no one suspected, during the years of division with Austria, that this hostility cost him any sacrifice of feeling — at least after the death of his wife. But the intense pleasure he showed at the recovered friendshîp revealed the fact that the relationship of his adversaries had added to the bitterness of the struggle.

As the train approached the station a flood of painful memories rushed across his mind ; it seemed almost a dream that he was the honoured guest of Francis Joseph, against whom he had been waging war ever since he came to the throne. In a few minutes he would be face to face with this strange brother whom he had never met ; and an extraordinary agitation seized him, which sent the blood from his face to his heart. The Emperor and the King embraced with an émotion which attested the sincerity of their feelings. When Francis Joseph presented his brothers, even in that moment of confusion a gentlemanly instinct made Victor Emmanuel single out for spécial notice the Archduke Albert, who had distinguished himself on the two fields of Novara and Custozza — prégnant with painful memories to every Italian, but especially to the king. He walked up to him, and taking both his hands, shook them repeatedly. The émotion which Victor Emmanuel experienced in this réconciliation was brought to a climax when, in the salon of the Archduke Ranieri, he saw the portrait of his late queen, taken when she was a girl. Thinking how happy she would hâve been in this

réunion with her long-divided relations, he could not restrain his tears.

Victor Emmanuel was painfully anxious to avoid any unpleasant allusion to past différences. He had removed from his travelling hat a représentation of the Iron Crown of Lombardy ; and when he was told that in proposing the Emperor’s health he should also call him King of Hungary, he objected, saying that it recalled disagreeable memories, and he would not remind the emperor of them. But he was finally convinced that Francis Joseph was proud of the double title, and he gave the toast as étiquette demanded. In bestowing décorations he did not offer the Corona d' Italia to any Austrian unless he had some secret intimation that it was specially desired.

After four days of the most profuse and graceful hospitality on the part of the emperor, Victor Emmanuel set out for Berlin, where his réception by sovereign and people was cordial in the extreme. Nothing could exceed the Emperor Francis Joseph’s kindness, but the welcome the Prussians gave il Rè Galantuomo wéis even more thorough and hearty than that of the Austrians. The Emperor William said he had never seen his subjects so excited by the presence of a foreign sovereign. Victor also won the hearts of ail the royal princes and prince.sses by his frank simplicity of manners, his humour and bonhomie ; and the crown prince and he became greater friends than ever. While he was at Berlin a characteristic incident occurred. At a court dinner Victor Emmanuel was seated at the emperor’s right hand.