is consent was obtained
to some progressive measure, he withdrew it at the last moment, or
insisted on the introduction of modifications which nullified the
whole. His want of stability drove one of his ministers to jump out of
a window. In spite of the candid reference to the Jesuit's cup of
chocolate, he allowed the Society of Jesus to dictate its will in
Piedmont. Victor Amadeus, the first King of Sardinia, took public
education out of the hands of the Jesuits, after receiving the
following deathbed communication from one of the Order who was his own
confessor: 'Deeply sensible of your many favours, I can only show my
gratitude by a final piece of advice, but of such importance that
perhaps it may suffice to discharge my debt. Never have a Jesuit for
confessor. Do not ask me the grounds of this advice, I should not be
at liberty to tell them to you.' The lesson was forgotten now. Charles
Albert was not content to wear a hair-shirt himself; he would have
liked to see all his subjects furnished with the same garment. The
result was, that Piedmont was not a comfortable place for Liberals to
live in, nor a lively place for anyone. Yet there is hardly anything
more certain than that all this time the King was constantly dreaming
of turning the Austrians out of Italy. His government kept its
attention fixed on two points: the improvement of the army, and the
accumulation of a reserve fund to be available in case of war. Drill
and thrift, which made the German Empire out of Prussia, if they did
not lead straight to equally splendid results south of the Alps, were
still what rendered it possible for Piedmont to defy Austria when the
time came. In 1840, Charles Albert wrote to his Minister of War: 'It
is a fine thing to win twenty battles; as for me, I should be content
to win ten on behalf of a cause I know of, and to fall in the
tenth--then, indeed, I would die blessing the Lord.' A year or two
later, he unearthed and reassumed the ancient motto of the House of
Savoy: 'J'attends mon astre.' Nevertheless, to the outward world his
intentions remained enigmatical, and it was therefore with extreme
surprise that Massimo d'Azeglio (who, on his return from the Roman
states, asked permission to inform the King of the impressions made on
him by his travels) received the injunction to tell his Liberal
friends 'that when the occasion presented itself, his life, the life
of his sons, his treasure, and his army would all be spent for th