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Every one bearing the Bonaparte name was exposed to obloquy. At length, Hortense received an order from the allies to leave Paris within two hours. In the evening of the 19th of July, the grief-stricken mother, with her children, under the conduct of Count de Voyna, left Paris for Switzerland. It was her intention to take refuge in a country-seat which she owned in the vicinity of Geneva.
Her husband, after a reign as King of Holland of a little over four years, had abdicated in July, He was now a melancholy wanderer, separated from his family, seeking health, living as a recluse, and devoting himself very sedulously to literary pursuits. On the evening of her departure from Paris, Hortense wrote, "I have been obliged to quit Paris, having been positively expelled from it by the allied armies. So greatly am I, a feeble woman with her two children, dreaded, that the enemies' troops are posted all along our route, as they say, to protect our passage, but, in reality, to insure our departure.
Helena with links which could. She had scarcely entered upon her residence there, with the title of the Duchess of St. Leu, ere the French minister entered such a remonstrance to the Swiss Government, that she was ordered to leave the territory. She then went to Aix, in Savoy, where, in the days of her prosperity, she had established a hospital.
Here, by a decision of the Parisian courts, she was compelled to surrender her elder son, Napoleon Louis, to his father; while she retained the younger, Louis Napoleon, with her. The separation was a terrible trial, not only to Hortense, but also to the two brothers. The parting is said to have been very affecting; Louis Napoleon throwing his arms around the neck of his brother, and weeping as though his heart would break.
Napoleon the elder was a bold, resolute, high-spirited lad; while Louis, more like lis father, was reserved, retiring, pensive, and reflective. The thoughtful boy, thus deprived of the companionship of his brother, turned, with all the full flow of his affectionate nature, to his mother. Having, after much difficulty, obtained permission to pass through Switzerland, she directed her steps to Constance, in the Grand Duchy of Baden. Hortense hoped that her cousin would allow herself and child to reside in the duchy. There was an appeal to the courts. The judgment gave the eldest son to the father.
Abbe Bertrand, Mademoiselle Cochelet her reader, and a single servant, left Aix; and after encountering many obstacles on her journey, from the jealousy and fear of the French and Swiss authorities, she reached the city of Constance. Here, to her great disappointment and grief, she immediately received information, that, however anxious the grand duke and duchess might be to afford her hospitable shelter, they were under the control of higher powers, and they must, therefore, request her to leave the duchy without delay. The cold winds of November were sweeping over those northern latitudes.
Hortense, fatherless and motherless, estranged from her husband, bereft of one of her children, an exile, in very feeble health, persecuted by all the powers of Europe, knew not where to go or what to do.
France had banished her; Switzerland, in obedience to Bourbon command, had driven her from its territory; Savoy had refused to receive her; and now Baden, which seemed to be her last hope, for there her cousins reigned, shut its door in her face, and ordered her immediately to depart. Thus assailed by misfortune, she wrote an imploring letter to her cousins the Duke and Duchess of Baden, stating'the feebleness of her health, the severity of the weather, her utter friendlessness, and begging permission to remain only to the ensuing spring.
In reply, she received a private letter from the grand duchess, her cousin Stephanie, assuring her of her sympathy, of the gladness with which she would openly cherish her if she dared to do so; and saying, in conclusion, "Have patience, and do not be uneasy. Perhaps all will be right by spring. By that time, passions will have calmed, and many things will have been forgotten.
Her private fortune was ample.
L'Ethique des hackers
Her brother Eugene, whom she loved most tenderly, had married the daughter of the King of Bavaria;. In this obscure home, comforted by the caresses of her youngest child and cheered by the frequent companionship of her beloved brother, she gradually regained tranquillity; and her health became greatly improved. The scenery around the lake was very romantic. Illustrious personages, who, during the glories of the empire, had filled the world with their renown, frequently visited her and Prince Eugene.
She devoted herself assiduously to the education of her son; never allowing him to forget the name he bore, or the political principles which his uncle had proclaimied upon the banners of the empire throughout the continent of Europe. Eagerly this thoughtful, solitary child must have listened to the conversation of the generals and statesmen, who, in the saloons of his mother, recalled the glories of the empire. Hortense was intellectually a very superior woman; and her natural powers had been expanded and trained by the most careful culture.
Her literary attainments were very considerable, and her musical accomplishments were of the highest order. It was at this time that she composed that celebrated. Lady Blessington gives the following description of Queen Hortense: I have seen her frequently, and spent two hours "yesterday in her society. Never did' time fly away with greater rapidity than while listening to her conversation, and hearing her sing those charming little French romances written and composed by herself, which, though I had always admired them, never previously struck me as being so expressive and graceful as tlhy now proved to be.
These give her the power of rapidly forming an appreciation of those with whom she comes in contact, and of suiting the subjects of conversation to their tastes and comprehensions. Thus with the grave she is serious; with the lively, gay; and, with the scientific, she only permits just a sufficient extent of her savoir to be revealed, to encourage the development of theirs. Yet there is no unworthy concession of opinions made, or tacit acquaintance yielded, to conciliate popularity.
She assents to or dissents from the sentiments of others with a mildness and good sense that gratifies those with whom she coincides, or disarms those from whom she differs. She then made a visit to her brother Eugene, who was residing at one of the country-seats of his father-in-law, the King of Bavaria. The summer she passed at a very retired watering-place called the baths of Geiss, among the mountains of Appensell. Her son was here her constant and'almost only companion: She taught him drawing and dancing herself, and every Saturday spent much of the day in reviewing his studies during the week.
The Abbe Bertrand was still his private tutor. Lebas, professor at the Athenmeum at Paris, became his instructor in the classics. IHe thus enjoyed every advantage which a child could enjoy for laying the foundation of a solid and liberal education. The summer passed rapidly away. But the Bourbons, who had been placed upon the throne of France, and who were still sustained there by foreign armies, could not rest in peace while one of the heirs of the great emperor, who had been placed upon the throne by the divine right of the almost unanimnous voice of the French people, was so near to the territory of.
Louis, though but a child of eight years, bore the charmed name of Napoleon,-a name which could, almost at any moment, rouse the masses of the French people to frenzy. The alarm of the Bourbons was so great, that the Grand Duke of Baden, early in the year , received peremptory orders from the allies, that he must immediately expel Hoitense and her child from his dominions. In the extreme north-eastern borders of Switzerland, on the southern shores of the Lake of Constance, there is the little canton of Thurgovia. Hortense had occasionally, in her drives, entered the canton, and had observed and admired a very beautiful estate called Arenemberg, which.
The althorities of this renote canton consented that she should take refuge there. She therefore purchased the estate for sixty thousand francs. This beautiful retreat became the home of Hortense until she died. It is still, we believe, in the possession of her illustrious son. Had Hortense known the career whiclh was to be opened before her child, she could not more assiduously have devoted herself to prepare him for it by all appropriate physical, moral, and intellectual training.
He learned fencing, riding, swimming. In all these manly exercises he became a proficient. It is said that he often spent hours in the lake, sporting among its waves. He studied the ancient classics and modern languages, polite literature, and the exact sciences. Here, in the seclusion of Arenemberg, he laid the foundation of that education which now classes him among the most accomplished men of the day. It is said that he speaks French, English, Italian, and German with almost equal fluency.
There are few men tb be found who are more conversant with all branches of knowledge.? Iis older brother, Napoleon Louis, was then with his father in Florence. Louis Napoleon was alone with his mother in the picturesque solitude of Arenemberg. As his mother had ample pecuniary means, she was enabled to furnish her son with all the private tutors he needecl. Many anecdotes are related illustrative of his character in these early years.
His mother one day censured him for giving away something of which she had made him a present. His characteristic reply was, " Mother, I am certain that you wished to cause me pleasure by the present; and I have now had a twofold pleasure, -first in receiving the gift from you, and then in giving it to another.
He frequently went to play with this boy at the mill. One day, Mademoiselle Cochelet, who was his mother's reader, saw young Louis returning from the mill in very singular plight. IIe was in his shirt-sleeves, and was walking home, evidently trying to avoid observation, barefooted in the melting snow and mud. There was a regiment garrisoned at Constance, which he often visited, and where he was ever received, under the title of Duke de St. By order of the federal government of Switzerland, the young Swiss soldiers met every year in camp at Thun, in the canton of Berne; the officers to be instructed in engineering and artillery practice, and the troops to perform grand military manceuvres under the direction of General Dufour, one of the most distinguished soldiers of the empire.
Young Louis Napoleon gained ready admission to the camp. There he bivouacked with the soldiers, partook of their rations, and shared in all their privations and hardships.
He often endured the severest fatigue; marching weary miles, regardless of the weather, with a compass in his hand, and a knapsack on his back; sometimes even dragging a truck over mountains and glaciers, through forests and swamps. They travel On foot from ten to twelve leagues a day,'knapsack on back; and at night sleep under a tent at the base of some glacier. Young Louis remembered his uncle vividly, and loved him passionately. I-e was told that his uncle was the chosen emperor of the French people; that an army of a million of foreigners - combined from despotisms who hated Napoleon, because he was the friend of the masses of the people -had seized him, torn him from France, and imprisoned him upon a rock in the ocean, leaving him there to die miserably; that nearly all the people of France mourned the loss of Napoleon, and longed for his return; that his brother and himself were the heirs of the great emperor; and that the time might yet come when the French people would be strong enough to rise again, and drive from France the kingls which foreigners had imposed upon them, and re-establish the empire, and place one of the heirs of Napoleon upon the throne.
It is not difficult to conceive how vivid an impression these reiterated instructions must have produced upon the sensitive mind of the young prince. He seemed even then to have imbibed the idea that he was destined to the throne of France. It is certain that this thought gradually grew to a conviction, so deeply seated that it became part of his very nature. In the darkest hours of his subsequent career, and in the gloomiest depths of his many griefs, this faith never forsook him..
In the year , there was a partial reconciliation between Hortense and her husband; and the two brothers, their children, enjoyed each other's. His judicious mother felt it now to be desirable that her son should enjoy the advantages of a more public education, and of association with young men of his age and rank. She therefore went to Augsburg in Bavaria, where she entered her two sons in the celebrated gymnasium or college of that city. Hortense took a house, since called Pappenheem Palace, in Holy-cross Street.
Prince Napoleoi, at the close of tlhe first year, ranked as twenty-fourth in a class of fifty-six students. It is said that his rank would have been higher if he had then been more conversant with the German language. He, however, made rapid progress in the language, so that he was soon able to express himself in it fluently and correctly. His favorite studies were history, philosophy, and mathematics. He is represented to have been popular with his fellow-students, though he was naturally retiring and reticent.
Many years after this, on the 2d of September, , there was a general gathering at Augsburg of the graduates of the gymnasium-four hundred and fifty in number — in honor of their clncda mater. Louis Napoleon was then Emperor of France. The following letter accompanied the gift: I have never forgotten the time which I spent in Germany, where my mother found a noble hospitality, and I enjoyed the first benefits of education. Exile offers melancholy though useful experiences. It teaches us to become better acquainted with foreign nations, to estimate their good qualities at the,t The King of Iolland, Louis, after his abdication in , retired into Styrio.
When Austria declared war ag-ainst France, he left that province, and sought an asylum at Lausanne in Switzerland. There, in the midst of the great distractions which divided Europe, the philosophic king' had no other ambition but to live obscurely in the bosom of his fiiendship. In , when all Europe rose against Napoleon, he retired to Rome. Appointed peer of France in , he took his scat in the Chamber as prince imperial. After the calamity of Waterloo, new domestic griefs assailed him.
Your meeting affords me the opportunity to express these my feelings to you. He was taking a walk upon the banks of the Rhine with his aunt, his two cousins, the Princesses Josephine and Maria, and several members of the court. The conversation turned upon the gallantry of gentlemen in olden time.
The Princess Maria, a very spirited, vivacious girl, extolled in the highest terms the chivalry of those ancient days when the knight took for his motto, "God, my king, and my lady;" and insisted that the gentlemen of modern times had sadly degenerated. Louis Napoleon, with great ardor, espoused the other side of the question, affirming that the modern gentleman had no less of true chivalric devotion than the knight-errant of past ages. The river was swollen by the melting snows into a turbid flood.
Mairie de France : La région de l' Alsace
The grand duchess and the whole party were thrown into the greatest consternation as they saw the gallant young prince swept down the stream. They ran along the banks, shouting, in their terror, for help. But Napoleon, being a remarkable swimmer, regained the flower, and, clambering up the bank, presented it with a bow to Maria, saying, " Here is the flower, my fair cousin; but I entreat you," he added, laughing, as he pointed to his dripping clothes, " for the future, to forget your knights of old.
Hortense spent her summers in Arenemberg, and her winters in Rome, where her husband resided. At Rome, her residence was the centre of the most brilliant and polished society of the city. Young Louis Napoleon here saw the most distinguished men from all lands, olcd friends of the empire, who never permitted him to forget the noble name he bore. Prince Borghese, a descendant of one of the most ancient and proud of Italian families, was the inheritor of great wealth. He enjoyed from his own estates an ahnual income of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
In addition to this, he received a dowry with his young wife of two million five hundred thousand dollars. The marriage of Pauline, who was then the young widow of General Le Clerc, with Prince Borghese, was considered as one of the most brilliant alliances which had ever taken place in Europe. The lot of Pauline was a very remarkable one. She had wealth, rank, beauty, health, brilliant intellect, and was endowed with almost every accomplishment. The prince had, in the vicinity of Rome, one of the most magnificent villas in the world. Such was the home which the young Prince Louis Napoleon enjoyed with his mother when they were in Rome.
In reference to the reports which have been so extensively circulated injurious to the reputation of Pauline, the Berkeley Men say, " No satisfactory evidence has ever been adduced, in any quarter, that Pauline was not a virtuous woman. Those who were mainly instrumental in originating and circulating these slanders at the time about her were the very persons who had endeavored to load the name of Josephine with obloquy.
Upon his downfall, she placed at his disposal all her fortune and her private jewels. She followed him to Elba; and when the captive was dying at St. Helena, without a relative permitted to be near him to close his eyes, she wrote to the British'Government, - "' The malady by which the emperoi is attacked will prove mortal at St. In the name of all the members of the family, I ask for a change of climate. If so reasonable a request be denied, it will be a sentence of death pronounced on him; in which case, I beg permission to depart for St.
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Helena, to join my brother, and receive his parting breath. I know that the moments of his life are numbered; and I should eternally reproach myself if I did not use all the means in my power to assuage the sufferings of his last hours,. The permission, however, came too late: Napoleon was already dead.
In the villa of Pauline, young Prince Louis Napoleon was not likely to have the enthusiasm abated with which his mother had taught him to regard his uncle. Pauline was the idol of the brilliant circles which were gathered in her magnificent saloons. Louis Napoleon silently listened to their conversation as they recounted the achievements of his uncle; and, as he mused, the fire burned.
Thus the period of youth passed away. The year came. Louis Napoleon was then twenty-two years of age. In July of that year, as he was at Rome with his mother, the exciting tidings reached them, that the French people had again risen, and driven out the Bourbons. All Italy was instantly thrown into a tumult of insurrection. Before describing the scenes which ensued, we must turn back a few leaves of the pages of history.
At the signal of a gun, three cheers were given by this multitudinous throng. It was the despot's shout of victory, defiant and exultant; probably the most awful roar of human voices ever heard upon earth: Alison, speaking of this event, says, "Even at this distance of time, those cheers sound, as it were, fresh in the ears of those who heard them. Their sublimity, like the roar of the ocean when near, and gradually melting away in the distance, was altogether overpowering.
A general salute was then given by a rolling fire along the lines, from right to left: This congress, taking its name from the year of its session, which was mainly , was composed of a motley, discordant, contentious assemblage, held together but by the single bQn'd of a common hatred of those principles of equal rights for all which Napoleon had so grandly maintained in France, and which the masses of the people in all the nations of Europe were so eagerly coveting.
This assembly of kings constituted the most formidable conspiracy against the rights of humanity of which we have any record. Truly does " The British Quarterly " say, — "The treaties of Vienna in , though the most desperate efforts have been made by the English diplomatists to embalm them as monuments of political wisdom, should be got under ground with all possible despatch; for no compacts so worthless, so wicked, so utterly subversive of the rights of humanity, are to be found in the annals of nations. Metternich, its presiding officer, gave a banquet.
At the table, the conversation turned upon those principles of popular equality, for the advocacy of which Napoleon was then entering upon the long agony of St. After dinner, Lord Castlereagh and Metternich stepped out upon a balcony which commanded an extensive view of the surrounding country. Metternich pointed to the peasants-men, women, and girls -toiling in the fields, and said, "Behold, my lord, the true philosophy of society! The Pope was represented by Cardinal Consalvi. The Bourbons of France were represented by Talleyrand and others. Aletternich, the Austrian minister, presided over the deliberations.
Mlost of the questions were decided by the five great powers, - England, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and the Bourbons of France. In some cases, the minor powers — Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, and Sardinia — were permitted to take part in the deliberations.
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We can refer to but a few of the measures of this congress as a specimen of the rest. The kingdoms of Italy which Napoleon had aided the Italians to establish, with freedom of conscience and equal rights for all, were overthrown, and the old and loathsome regimes of civil and religious despotisms were re-inaugurated. This country had become destitute of every element of national life: Italian armies were created, which gave birth to a sense of military honor amnong the people. The organization of the judicial tribunals was improved, and justice much better administered.
Industry was awakened and encouraged. Schools received new attention, and the sciences were concentrated in large and effective learned societies. In short, a new life was awakened; and no Italian or German who wishes well to his country can read, without deep interest, the passage in Las Casas''Memorial' in which Napoleon's views on those two countries are given. His prophecy that Italy will one clay be united, we hope will be fulfilled. Union has been the ardent wish of Italians for centuries, and the want of it is the great cause of the suffering of this beautiful and unfortunate country.
There are dispersed in Europe upwards of thirty millions of French, fifteen millions of Spaniards, fifteen millions of Italians, and thirty millions of Germans; and it was my intention to incorporate these several peoples, each into one nation. It would have been a noble thing to have advanced into posterity with such a train, and attended by the blessings of future ages.
I felt myself worthy of this glory. In this state of things, there would have been some chance of establishing in every country a unity of codes, of principles, of opinions, of sentiments, views, and interests. Then, perhaps, by the help of the universal diffusion of knowledge, one might have thought of attempting in the great European family the application of the American Congress'or the Amphyctions of Greece. What a perspective of power, grandeur, happiness, and prosperity, would thus have appeared!
Three or four years would have restored the Spaniards to profound peace and brilliant prosperity. They would have become a compact nation, and I should have well deserved their gratitude; for I should have saved them from the tyranny by which they are now oppressed, and the terrible agitations that await them.
Continents
The people were daily becoming more firmly established in the unity of principles and legislation, and also in the unity of thought and feeling,-that certain and infallible cement of human concentration. The union of Piedmont to France, and the junction of Parma, Tuscany, and Rome, were, in my mind, only temporary.
In this state of things, what would have been the weight of all the nations of the north? What human efforts could have broken through so strong a barrier? The concentration of the Germans must have been effected more gradually, and therefore I had done no more than simplify their monstrous complication. How happens it that no German prince has yet formed a just notion of the spirit of his nation, and turned it to good account?
Certainly, if Heaven had made me a prince of Germany, amid the critical events of our times, I should infallibly have governed the thirty millions of Germans combined. The impulse is given; and I think, that, since my fall and the-destruction of my system, no grand equilibrium can possibly be established in Europe, except by the concentration and confederation of the principal nations. The sovereign, who, in the first great conflict, shall sincerely embrace the cause of the people, will find himself at the head of all Europe, and may attempt whatever he pleases.
As the Italians had, for a short time, enjoyed the blessings of a government instituted for the benefit of the masses of the people, it was well known that they would be restive under the tyranny re-imposed upon them. Italy was therefore cut up by the allies at Vienna into fragments, and so parcelled out as to render any rising of the people almost impossible. The Emperor of Austria received the territory of Venetia, and the whole of Lombardy as far westward as the Ticino. These two provinces, containing over seventeen thousand square miles and above five millions of inhabitants, he organized into a monarchy, which he called the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom.
This realm the Emperor of Austria governed through one of the Austrian dukes, who was constituted viceroy at Milan. From the people, thus enslaved, Austria extorted an annual revenue of one hundred and seventy million livres, - about thirty-four million dollars. The little province of Modena, which was about as large as the State of Delaware, was reconstituted into a duchy, and was conferred upon one of the nephews of the Austrian emperor. The duchy contained a population of about five hundred thousand, and afforded a revenue of one million five hundred thousand dollars.
Parma was also re-organized into a duchy of about the same size and population as Modena. Its government and revenues were conferred upon Maria Louisa, the daughter of Francis I. The grand duchy of Tuscany, being a thousand square miles larger than the State of Massachusetts, with a population of one and a half millions and a revenue of five millions, was given to the Austrian emperor's son, Ferdinand. The States of the Church, consisting of nineteen departments,.
From the lower part of Italy the kingdom of Naples was cut off, containing about forty-two thousand square miles, being about the size of the State of Louisiana, and given back to that hoary debauchee, Ferdinand, who had married a daughter of the Austrian emperor, and who was as merciless and contemptible a tyrant as ever sat upon a throne. Sardinia, on the extreme western frontier of Italy, and bordering upon France, was a realm about two hundred miles long and two hundred and forty broad.
It contained a population of four and a half millions. Its annual revenue has been nearly thirty millions of dollars. This little kingdom, with the adldition of Piedmont, Savoy, and the provinces of Genoa, was assigned to Victor Emanuel I. Thus it will be seen that the whole of Italy, with the exception of Sardinia, was surrendered to Austria, and was virtually cut up into provinces of the Austrian Empire. Every privilege which the Italian people had gained in the line of popular rights was taken from them;'and they were delivered, bound hand and foot, to their old masters.
Five years passed away, during which the discontent of the Italian people rapidly increased. In Naples, which, under the beneficent reign of Joseph Bonaparte and Murat, had enjoyed the Code Napoleon, Ferdinand re-instituted all the tyranny of the old regime. All the public works which the French had planned were neglected, and many which they had executed were permitted to fall into decay. The education of the people was entirely abandoned; for the funds which had been appropriated for that object were needed to supply the voluptuousness of the court.
In defiance of dungeons and death, the murmurs of the Italian people gradually became so loud, that it was manifest to all observers that troubles were at hand. A secret society was organized, or rather revived, called the Carbonari. The object of this society was to liberate Italy fiom Austrian sway, and to establish a monarchy, with a constitution which would insure civil and religious liberty. This society spread with such unprecedented rapidity, that it is said, that in the month of March, , six hundred and fifty thousand members were admitted.
Louis Napoleon and his brother both enrolled their names on the list of this secret and formidable association, though we do not know the precise date of their membership. Nearly the whole genius, intelligence, and patriotism of Italy were to be found in the ranks of the Carbonari. Manuel, were enlisted in this effort.
Louis Blanc informs us that the Carbonari, in a very short space of time, spread through all the quarters of Paris. It invaded all the schools. A penetrating fire seemed to circulate through the veins of the young men. Every one kept his secret. Every one proved himself a devotee. The duties of the Carbonari were to have a musket and fifty cartridges, and to be ready to devote themselves, with blind obedience, to the orders of their unknown chief.
There was, at that time, a parliamentary committee to which Lafayette belonged. Lafayette joined the Carbonari, and many of his colleagues followed him. Such vigorous measures were adopted by this secret society, that, in the last months of the year , all things were prepared for insurrections in nine of the most important cities of France.
The basis of a constitution was drawn up. A provisional government was organized of five directors, with Lafayette at their head. This attempt, however, at a revolution, was a failure. The soldiers at that post promptly fraternized with the insurgent people. The emeute spread like wildfire, and the court at Naples was plunged into consternation, The students, the professional men, the whole intelligent class, and nearly entire regiments of native soldiers, rallied to the cry of " The Constitution!
The success of this movement in the kingdom of Naples roused the people in the Papal States. Nearly the whole population sprang to arms. They were, however, mercilessly shot down by the well-trained troops; and the movement was drowned in blood. In Sardinia, the insurrection was still more serious.
This little kingdom was directly on the eastern border of France. A large portion of its territory had been attached to the empire under Napoleon. Very many of the people were thoroughly imbued with those popular political principles which Napoleon lhad infused into all the governments of Europe over which he had obtained an influence. In Sardinia, as in France, and as in other portions of Italy, the most influential part of the community, including the educated classes, the officers of the army, and the merchants, were members of the Carbonari.
The standard of rebellion against the aristocratic institutions which the treaties of had imposed upon them was first raised by the students in the small town of Ardennes. The whole of the little kingdom was immediately thrown into commotion. There seemed to be entire unianimity in the resolve to throw off the yoke of absolutism, and to establish a constitutional monarchy. In Turin, the capital, the insurrection was so general and formidable, and the cry rang so menacingly, through the streets, "Death to the Austrians! The Italian tricolor, green, red, and blue, was hoisted on the ramparts of the citadel in the midst of a scene of indescribable tumult and enthusiasm.
In this emergency, the King of Sardinia held a long conference with his cabinet and. IIe was greatly embarrassed, for he was powerless to resist the unanimous demands of the people; but, before the allies had allowed him to assume the crown of Sardinia, they extorted from him an oath of fidelity to the political principles which they advocated. To grant the constitution was inevitable war, not only with Austria, but with all the despotic powers which were banded together in the Holy Alliance to prevent the people from asserting their rights. In this dilemma, the king decided to abdicate. He transmitted the crown to his brother, Charles Felix, who was then at Modena.
Charles Albert, Prince of Carigan; was appointed regent. The abdicated king, with the royal family and a large escort, left Turin for Nice. The new government immediately adopted the constitution which the people were so impetuously demanding. Thus both Naples and Sardinia had broken from the treaties of , anl were instituting governments which contained the germs, at least, of civil and religious liberty. This, however, was but the commencement of the arduous work which they had undertaken.
Russia, Austria, and Prussia had signed in Paris, in September, , a treaty of what they called a Holy Alliance, in which they mutually pledged the whole power of their military organization to crush any uprisings of the people in favor of liberty, — an alliance which Lord Brougham truly stigmatized as "nothing but a convehtion for the enslaving of mankind under the mask of piety and religion.
Nearly the whole military force of Austria was instantly in motion, crowding by forced marches, through the defiles of the Tyrol, upon the plains of doomed Italy. The Prussian artny followed behind. In their rear came pressing on one hundred thousand Russian troops. In the words of the treaty, "The three allied sovereigns, regarding themselves but as delegates appointed by Providence to govern three branches of the same family,-to wit, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, —will render to each other, on every occasion and under all circumstances, assistance, aid, and succor.
The treacherous King Ferdinand, who had reluctantly granted the constitution, fled from his kingdom, joined the Austrian army, and came back in the rear of its batteries. A few sanguinary and hopeless conflicts terminated the strife. The banners of liberty were trampled in the dust, the constitution torn to shreds, and all the leading patriots were sent to the galleys, or shot or hanged. Fortytwo thousand Austrian troops, including seven thousand cavalry, were placed in the fortresses of the reconquered kingdom to hold the people in subjection.
And now the "Holy Allies" directed the march of their armies to Sardinia to settle the account with that unhappy realm. What could Sardinia do to resist Austria, Russia, and Prussia united? Not the shadow of a hope remained. The Austrians, in overpowering pumbers, took possession of the realm. The popular cause was as effectually crushed in Sardinia as in the kingdom of Naples, and the old authority of absolutism re-established. Confiscations and executions followed mercilessly.
Austrian detachments were placed in all the principal fortresses. The Sardinians were compelled to support these foreign troops at an expense of a hundred thousand dollars a month, and thirteen thousand rations daily. Thus terminated the first efforts of the Italians, in the years and , to throw off the yoke imposed upon them by the treaties of At this time, Louis Napoleon was but twelve years of age.
Busily engaged in his studies at Arenemberg, he could take no part in the strife; though it is very certain that the sympathies of the thoughtful child were with the patriot Italians, who were so heroically struggling to regain the popular rights of which the allies had deprived them. Ten years more passed away, while France and all Europe were held in the chains imposed, by the Congress of Vienna.
The proud nation felt indignant and disgraced in having a king imposed upon them by foreigners; but allied Europe had conquered France, and submission was inevitable. He piqued himself, though neither young nor handsome, upon his power of rendering himself agreeable to them in the way which he alone desired, which was within the limits of Platonic attachment. He spent several hours every dcay in this refined species of trifling; and prided himself as much on the turn of his flattery in notes to ladies, as on the charter which was to give liberty to France, and peace to Europe.
Aware of this disposition on the part of the sovereign, the Royalists, in whose saloons such a person was most likely to be found, had for a long time been on the lookout for some lady attached t ttheir principles, who might win the confidence of Louis, and insensibly insinuate her ideas on politics in the midst of the complimentary trifling or unreserved confidence of the boudoir.
Such a person was found in a young and beautiful woman then in Paris, who united a graceful exterior to great powers of conversation, and' an entire command of diplomatic tact and address; and to her influence the future policy of his reign is in a. By stratagem, she was introduced to the king. He was instantly dazzled by her grace and beauty. So admirably did she perform her part, that she obtained the entire ascendency over the mind of the weak old man, whose obesity was. Several hours every day she spent in the presence of the monarch, who seemed ever uneasy when she was out of his sight.
By this secret influence the king was governed, and the destinies of France controlled. Such was the man in whose hands the allies had placed the sceptre which the French people, by the voice of universal suffrage, had intrusted to Napoleon. The French could not forget that he belonged to that Bourbon family whom they had already twice driven from the throne.
The year had now come. Fifteen years had passed away since the allied armies of Europe had overthrown the empire, and restored the monarchy of the old riegime. During all these fifteen years, the people of France had been growing increasingly restive under the galling yoke imposed upon them. The press ventured to utter loud and bitter remonstrances. The king, by the advice of these obnoxious ministers, issued a decree prohibiting the publication of any journals or pamphlets but such as were authorized by the goyernment. Alison, quoting from Lamartine, gives the following account of the scene witnessed when the ordinances were signed containing this decree.
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