, with his hand on
the Bible, swore to defend and maintain the Constitution which he had
just granted. If he failed to do so, he called upon his subjects to
disobey him, and God to call him to account. These words he read from
a written form; as if they were not enough, he added, with his eyes on
the cross, and his face turned towards heaven: 'Omnipotent God, who
with Thine infinite power canst read the soul of man and the future,
do Thou, if I speak falsely, or intend to break my oath, at this
moment direct the thunder of Thy vengeance on my head.'

The Neapolitans had got their liberties, but they soon found
themselves face to face with perplexities which would have taxed the
powers of men both wiser and more experienced in free government than
they were. In the first place, although a revolution may be made by a
sect, a government cannot be carried on by one. The Carbonari who had
won the day were blind to this self-evident truth; and, to make
matters worse, there was a split in their party, some of them being
disposed to throw off the Bourbon yoke altogether; a natural desire,
but as it was only felt by a minority, it added to the general
confusion. Then came, as it was sure to come, the cry for separation
from Sicily. The Sicilians wanted back the violated constitution
obtained for them by the English in 1812, and would have nothing to do
with that offered them from Naples. In every one of the struggles
between Sicily and Naples, it is impossible to refuse sympathy to the
islanders, who, in the pride of their splendid independent history,
deemed themselves the victims of an inferior race; but it is equally
impossible to ignore that, politically, they were in the wrong. In
union, and in union alone, lay the only chance of resisting the
international plot to keep the South Italian populations in perpetual
bondage. The Sicilian revolt was put down at first mildly, and
finally, as mildness had no effect, with the usual violence by the
Neapolitan Constitutional Government, which could not avoid losing
credit and popularity in the operation. Meanwhile, the three persons
who traded under the name of Europe met at Troppau, and came readily
to the conclusion that 'the sovereigns of the Holy Alliance exercised
an incontestable right in taking common measures of security against
states which the overthrow of authority by revolt placed in a hostile
attitude towards every legitimate government.' The assumption was too
broadly