arts
on driving the foreigner out of Italy. Here at the citadel of Turin,
during the siege of 1706, occurred the memorable deed of Pietro Micca,
the peasant-soldier, who, when he heard the enemy thundering at the door
of the gallery, thought life and the welcome of wife and child and the
happy return to his village of less account than duty, and fired the
mine which sent him and three companies of French Grenadiers to their
final reckoning.

After vacillating for two or three days, Victor Emmanuel abdicated on
the 13th of March. The Queen desired to be appointed regent, but, to
her intense vexation, the appointment was given to Charles Albert. A
more unenviable honour never fell to the lot of man.

Deserted by the ministers of the crown, who resigned in a body, alone
in the midst of a triumphant revolution, appealed to in the name of
those sentiments of patriotism which he could never hear invoked
unmoved, the young Prince uttered the words which were as good as a
surrender: 'I, too, am an Italian!' That evening he allowed the
Spanish Constitution to be proclaimed subject to the arrival of the
orders of the new King.

The new King! No one remembered that there existed such a person. Nor
had anyone recollected that the Spanish Constitution abrogated the
Salic law, and that hence, instead of a new King, they had a new
Queen--the wife of the Duke of Modena! An eminent Turinese
jurisconsulist, who was probably the only possessor of a copy of the
charter in the town which was screaming itself hoarse for it, divulged
this awkward discovery.--Several hours were spent in anxious
discussion, when the brilliant suggestion was made that the article
should be cancelled. The article was cancelled.

But Charles Felix could not be disposed of so easily. The news of the
late events reached him at Modena of all places in the world, the
rallying-point of the Prince of Carignano's bitterest foes. He was not
long in sending his orders. He repudiated everything that had been
done, and commanded Charles Albert, 'if he had a drop of our royal
blood left in his veins,' to leave the capital instantly for Novara,
where he was to await his further instructions.

Charles Albert obeyed. He was accompanied on his journey--or, as it
may be called, his flight--by such of the troops as remained loyal.
At Novara he found a sentence of exile, in a fresh order, to quit
Piedmontese territory. Tuscany was indicated as the state where he was
to reside