memoirs of the noble Poerios, of Settembrini, gentlest but most
fearless of human souls, of the Calabrian Morellis, all patriots and
martyrs; of the Duke of Castromediano, who lately, in his old age, has
set down a few recollections of the years he spent at the Neapolitan
galleys. He records in these notes what he calls the most perilous
moment in his life. It was when he was summoned, with six
fellow-prisoners who had asked for and obtained freedom, to hear, as
he feared, his own pardon pronounced. For pardon was equivalent to
dishonour; it was granted either in consequence of real submission and
retraction, or in order to be able to blacken the character of the
pardoned man by falsely asserting that such submission had been made.
His fear was groundless. He had been led out, perhaps, in the hope
that the example of the others would prove contagious. He was not
pardoned. As he returned to his prison, he thanked Divine Providence
for the chains which left him pure.

Strange to tell, Ferdinand II. rendered one considerable service to
the national cause; not that he saw it in that light, but the service
was none the less real because its motive was a narrow one. Austria
proposed a defensive league between the Italian Sovereigns: defensive
not only with the view to outward attack, but also and chiefly against
'internal disorder.' Piedmont was to be invited to join as soon as she
had renounced her constitutional sins, which it was sanguinely
expected she would do before very long. Meanwhile Parma, Modena,
Tuscany and Rome embraced the idea with enthusiasm, but the King of
the Two Sicilies, who dimly saw in it an opening for interference in
his own peculiar governmental ways, boldly declined to have anything
to do with it. And so, to Prince Schwarzenberg's serious
disappointment, the scheme by which he had hoped to create an
absolutist Italian federation, came to an untimely end.

The Grand Duke of Tuscany timidly inquired of the Austrian premier if
he might renew the constitutional _regime_ in his state. Schwarzenberg
replied with the artful suggestion that he should hear what the Dukes
of Modena and Parma, the Pope, and King Ferdinand had to say on the
subject. Their advice was unanimously negative: Cardinal Antonelli
going so far as to declare that Constitutionalism in Tuscany would be
regarded as a constant menace and danger to the States of the Church.
The different counsels of Piedmont, conveyed by Count Balbo, weigh