Austrians held out: he then received
the chief men of the city with easy Italian grace; and in the evening
he gave a sumptuous ball, at which all the dignity, wealth, and beauty
of the old Lombard capital shone resplendent. For a brief space all
went well between the Lombards and their liberators. He received with
flattering distinction the chief artists and men of letters, and also
sought to quicken the activity of the University of Pavia. Political
clubs and newspapers multiplied throughout Lombardy; and actors,
authors, and editors joined in a paean of courtly or fawning praise, to
the new Scipio, Caesar, Hannibal, and Jupiter.

There were other reasons why the Lombards should worship the young
victor. Apart from the admiration which a gifted race ever feels for
so fascinating a combination of youthful grace with intellectual power
and martial prowess, they believed that this Italian hero would call
the people to political activity, perchance even to national
independence. For this their most ardent spirits had sighed,
conspired, or fought during the eighty-three years of the Austrian
occupation. Ever since the troublous times of Dante there had been
prophetic souls who caught the vision of a new Italy, healed of her
countless schisms, purified from her social degradations, and uniting
the prowess of her ancient life with the gentler arts of the present
for the perfection of her own powers and for the welfare of mankind.
The gleam of this vision had shone forth even amidst the thunder claps
of the French Revolution; and now that the storm had burst over the
plains of Lombardy, ecstatic youths seemed to see the vision embodied
in the person of Bonaparte himself. At the first news of the success
at Lodi the national colours were donned as cockades, or waved
defiance from balconies and steeples to the Austrian garrisons. All
truly Italian hearts believed that the French victories heralded the
dawn of political freedom not only for Lombardy, but for the whole
peninsula.

Bonaparte's first actions increased these hopes. He abolished the
Austrian machinery of government, excepting the Council of State, and
approved the formation of provisional municipal councils and of a
National Guard. At the same time, he wrote guardedly to the Directors
at Paris, asking whether they proposed to organize Lombardy as a
republic, as it was much more ripe for this form of government than
Piedmont. Further than this he could not go; but at