rted nobility, the common
people were helping him fight his battles, but, if he hoped to occupy
Italy permanently, his real appeal had to be made to the educated class.
Accordingly, the arts of peace were used in the interests of the god of
war; public improvements of all kinds were begun over all Italy, under
the supervision of the French officials, canals were built, marshes were
drained, academies of learning were founded, commerce was stimulated,
schools for girls were started at Milan, Bologna, and Verona in
imitation of those which had already been established in France, and, in
fact, everything was done to prove to the people that the rule of the
French was beneficial to the best interests of the peninsula. Many men
of letters were won over by fair promises, and scientific men were, in
many instances, so aided in their researches and so loaded with honors
that it was difficult to resist the approaches of the emperor; and there
resulted much fulsome praise in honor of Napoleon, who was hailed as a
veritable god. Some there were, however, who resisted the advances of
the conquerors and were loath to see the country so completely in the
control of a foreign nation. It is true that Italy was enjoying a great
prosperity in spite of the demands made upon it by the French, but this
sudden accession of Republican ideas and the consciousness that Italian
armies were fighting bravely all over the continent had aroused a
national spirit which had lain dormant for centuries; the more
far-seeing patriots were already looking forward to a time when Italy
might be not only free but independent.

Among those unmoved by French promises were a number of brilliant women,
who were outspoken in their hostility, and who gathered about them many
of the most able men of the time. Though it is true that the French set
the fashions, and in every city it was usual to find that the French
officials were eagerly courted by the inhabitants, it is none the less
true that in many of these cities there was some small but active centre
of opposition, the salon of some gifted woman who was working might and
main for the final triumph of the principle of Italian control in Italy.
Napoleon had penetration enough to take such opposition at its just
valuation. Women had already given him many a _mauvais quart d'heure_ in
Paris; Madame de Stael and, later, the beautiful Madame Recamier were
forced to go into exile because he feared their power, and here