l
commissioners to take charge of the various provinces in Victor
Emmanuel's name. But these events, together with Prussia's menacing
attitude, began to alarm Napoleon, who, although he wished to destroy
Austrian influence in Italy, was afraid of a large and powerful Italian
state. Consequently, after Solferino, he concluded an armistice with
Austria at Villafranca on the 8th of July, without previously informing
Cavour. When Cavour heard of it he was thunderstruck; he immediately
interviewed the king at Monzambano, and in violent, almost disrespectful
language implored him not to make peace until Venice was free. But
Victor Emmanuel saw that nothing was to be gained by a refusal, and much
against his own inclination, signed the peace preliminaries at
Villafranca, adding the phrase, "pour ce qui me concerne," which meant
that he was not responsible for what the people of other parts of Italy
might do (July 12). Lombardy was to be ceded to Piedmont, Venetia to
remain Austrian, the deposed princes to be reinstated, and the pope made
president of an Italian confederation.

The cabinet resigned the next day, but remained in office provisionally,
and Cavour privately advised the revolutionists of central Italy to
resist the return of the princes, by force if necessary: "for we must
now become conspirators ourselves," he said. His policy was thus
continued after he left office, and Palmerston, who had meanwhile
succeeded Malmesbury as foreign minister, informed France and Austria
that Great Britain would never tolerate their armed intervention in
favour of the central Italian despots. The new Piedmontese ministry, of
which La Marmora was the president, but Rattazzi the leading spirit,
hesitated between annexing central Italy and agreeing to the terms of
peace, but on the 10th of November peace was signed at Zurich. Napoleon
proposed a new congress, which never met, and on the fall of the
Rattazzi-La Marmora cabinet the king, in spite of the quarrel at
Monzambano, asked Cavour to take office again. By January he was once
more premier, as well as minister for foreign affairs and of the
interior. His first act was to invite the people of Italy to declare
their own wishes with regard to annexation to Piedmont; but Napoleon
still refused to consent to the union of Tuscany with Piedmont, for he
contemplated placing one of his own relatives on the throne of the
grand-duchy. Cavour now saw that Napoleon might be ready to deal, and,