Guard was granted; its institution was therefore
interpreted as a decisive act of rebellion against the Imperial
dictatorship. The red, white and green tricolor, not yet permitted in
Piedmont, floated already from all the towers of the city on the Arno.

Where there were no signs of improvement was in the government of the
Two Sicilies. King Ferdinand undertook a journey through several parts
of the country, but as Lord Napier, the British Minister, expressed
it: 'Exactly where the grace of the royal countenance was principally
conferred, the rebels sprung up most thickly.' A revolution was
planned to break out in all the cities of the kingdom, but the project
only took effect at Messina and at Reggio, and in both places the
movement was stifled with prompt and barbarous severity. When the
leader of the Calabrian attempt, Domenico Romeo, a landed proprietor,
was caught on the heights of Aspromonte, his captors, after cutting
off his head, carried it to his young nephew, whom they ordered to
take it to Reggio with the cry of 'Long live the King.' The youth
refused, and was immediately killed. In the capital, Carlo Poerio and
many patriots were thrown into prison on suspicion. Settembrini had
just time to escape to Malta.

The year 1847 closed amid outward appearances of quiet.

CHAPTER VI

THE YEAR OF REVOLUTION

1848

Insurrection in Sicily--The Austrians expelled from Milan and
Venice--Charles Albert takes the Field--Withdrawal of the Pope and King
of Naples--Piedmont defeated--The Retreat.

On the 12th of January, the birthday of the King of the Two Sicilies,
another insurrection broke out in Sicily; this time it was serious
indeed. The City of the Vespers lit the torch which set Europe on
fire.

So began the year of revolution which was to see the kings of the
earth flying, with or without umbrellas, and the principle of monarchy
more shaken by the royal see-saw of submission and vengeance than ever
it was by the block of Whitehall or the guillotine of the Place Louis
XV.

In Italy, the errors and follies of that year were not confined to
princes and governments, but it will remain memorable as the time when
the Italian nation, not a dreamer here or there, or a handful of
heroic madmen, or an isolated city, but the nation as a whole, with an
unanimity new in history, asserted its right and its resolve to exist.

King Ferdinand sent 5000 soldiers to 'make a garden,' as he described
it, of Pal