l-omened shore of Pizzo, he
need not refuse to uncover his head in silence.

When Mantua surrendered, the Milanese sent a deputation to Paris with
a view of securing for Lombardy the position of an independent kingdom
under an Austrian prince. They hoped to obtain the first by
acquiescing in the second. They were aroused from their unheroic
illusions with startling rapidity. Lord Castlereagh, to whom they went
first (for they fancied that the English were interested in liberty),
referred them 'to their master, the Austrian Emperor.' The Emperor
Francis replied to their memorial that Lombardy was his by right of
conquest; they would hear soon enough at Milan what orders he had to
give them. Even after that, the distracted Lombards hoped that the
English at Genoa would befriend them. All uncertainty ceased on the
23rd of May 1814, when Field-Marshal Bellegarde formally took
possession of Lombardy on behalf of his Sovereign, dissolved the
Electoral Colleges, and proclaimed himself Regent. There was no
question of reviving the conditions under which Austria ruled Lombardy
while there was still a German Empire: conditions which, though
despotic in theory, were comparatively easy-going in practice, and did
not exclude the native element from the administration. Henceforth the
despotism was pure and simple; for Italians to even think of politics
was an act of high treason.

It is not generally known that a British army ultimately sent to Spain
was intended for Italy,[1] but its destination was changed because the
Italians showed so little disposition to rise against Napoleon. The
English Government was continually advised by its agents in Italy to
make Sicily, which was wholly in its power, the _point d'appui_ for a
really great intervention in the destinies of the peninsula. 'The
grand end of all the operations in the Mediterranean,' wrote one of
Lord Castlereagh's correspondents, 'is the emancipation of Italy, and
its union in one great state.' Lord William Bentinck urged that if
Sicily were reunited to Naples under the Bourbons, liberty,
established there by his own incredible efforts, would be crushed, and
the King would wreck vengeance on the Constitution and its supporters.
Universal terror, he said, was felt at 'the unforgiving temper of
their Majesties.' He strongly supported a course proposed for her own
reasons by Queen Caroline: the purchase of Sicily by the English
Government which could make it 'not only the mod