arles Albert with volunteers at a time when not a
crowned head in Italy dared offer the least open opposition to such a
movement? The King of Naples, sorely against his will, sent his regular
army, consisting of about fourteen thousand men, to fight for the cause,
and withdrew them in about six weeks, as soon as a base act of treachery
had given him the victory at home. General Pepe, their commander, wished
to disobey the order and move forward; but "nearly the whole army turned
its back on the Po and on him, and moved backward in the direction of
the Neapolitan Kingdom." Two hundred volunteers had previously set out
from Naples for Upper Italy, under the guidance and at the expense of an
enthusiastic woman, the Princess Belgioioso. "She had lived as an exile
in France, and was at first enthusiastic for the _Giovine Italia_; she
afterward became averse to it, and sided with Guizot, Duchatel, and
Mignet, her intimate friend. She was well versed--or mixed herself
much--in literature, politics, the study of theology, and journalism; a
woman that had some of the feelings and anxieties of men, together with
all those of her own sex, and who was now travelling through Italy
intent upon manly business, but after woman's fashion. Other volunteers
afterward started, and a vessel set sail for Leghorn, which carried
them, along with the Tenth Regiment of the line." The Sicilians at the
same time determined to separate entirely from Naples and the rest of
the peninsula; "and thus all the ability and spirit, the arms and
wealth, of that powerful island were applied to the effort for insular
independence, and drawn off from that for the independence of the
nation." From Tuscany there went to this national war "about three
thousand volunteers, and perhaps as many more regulars"--a number so
small that Farini apologizes for it, and endeavors to prove that it
ought "not to be imputed to any lukewarmness in the affection for
Italy." The army from the Roman States, which the Pope had set on foot,
but hoped to retain as a defensive force within the northern boundary of
his dominions, numbered about sixteen thousand, of whom more than half
were volunteers. The conduct of the people of Lombardy, who though the
conflict raged on their own soil, and their own freedom was immediately
at stake, wasted their strength in quarrelling with one another instead
of succoring Charles Albert, has long been a topic of wonder and
censure. In short, all Italy