the docile crowd. Thus they were detained in
the Piazza till near ten o'clock, when a general
advance to the walls of the fortress took place.
It was then the duty of our royal troops to fire
into the mass and disperse them. Still the
citizens marched bravely on. And it may be
surmised that those tombola conversations,
Saint Gallo Gate promenades, and fraternally
consumed cups of coffee and "pouches," had
not left the Florentines any grave expectation
that they would be fired on. Still it was an
anxious moment. The men and officers had
been much talked to. It was generally
supposed throughout the city that the army was
unhesitatingly of the same mind as the people.
It had been currently reported, many days
previously, that the Grand-Duke's Austrian general
had said to him, in speaking of the state of his
army, "If your highness orders your troops to
join the Austrians, your general will march, but
he will not be able to carry a man with him.
If you command us to join Piedmont, your
army will march with alacrity, but your general
would be obliged to decline accompanying them."
So notorious was the disposition of the troops.

Great was the outburst of joy and enthusiasm
when a huge tricolor flag, showing gaily, in the
morning sunshine, the green, white, and red
stripes of Italian nationality, was unfurled upon
the walls, held up for the nonce, till some—not
worthier—flagstaff could be prepared for it, by
a tall soldier at either end. Then burst forth
irrepressibly all the excitable enthusiasm of the
demonstrative Southern nature. Men rushed
into each other's arms. Tears ran down many a
black-bearded cheek. Embraces, hand-clasping,
and congratulations were exchanged on all sides.

So the flag of freedom floated on the strong-
hold of despotism. The revolution was near
its final accomplishment; and the Grand-Duke's
ministers, we were assured, had been still sitting
"en permanence" all night.

              VI.    THE PITTI PALACE.

HITHERTO our history has treated of the
revolution as it showed itself in the streets; but
the story cannot be completely told without
some account of the results produced within the
palace walls by the forces that were put in
operation in the streets—the moral forces, be it
understood. For, throughout this most notable
demonstration of the will of a nation, the
utmost precautions were taken to avoid the
appearance even of physical force, or pressure from
the menace of it. While the citizens were
congratulating each other throughout the city,
and the soldiers were, at all their various posts
and quarters, hoisting the tricolor, emblem of
undying hostility to Austria and her protégés,
it will be understood that the present writer
can no longer speak as an eye-witness.

Some of those who were principally engaged
in that sort of ambassadorial mediation which
transacted the business of the day between
the city and the court, have seen fit to print
accounts of their negotiations. These
documents will assist in completing our little
history. Prince Corsini, one of the court party,
published a statement of his share in the events
of the previous day, under the title of A
History of Four Hours. This little publication was
shortly followed by the Marchese Ridolfi's Short
Note to the History of Four Hours. The
Marchese Ridolfi was one of the small band
who possessed much of the nation's confidence
and esteem, without having wholly broken with
the court.

The Marchese Lajatico had sent repeated
warnings to the ministry, representing to them
the state of feeling in the country, the
fraternisation of the troops with the people, and the
impossibility of maintaining matters in their then
position. But the ministers were "sitting in
permanence." The Egyptian idols would move
neither head, hand, nor eye. And no response
was vouchsafed to Lajatico's well-meant warning.
When, on the morning of the 27th, they so
far relaxed their permanence as to wait on their
sovereign in his palace, far from representing to
him the real state of matters, they assured him
that the movement in the city was occasioned
merely by a knot of vagabonds. A declaration
from the chiefs of the army, that they could no
longer keep the troops in control without a
promise of alliance with Piedmont in the war with
Austria, was, Lajatico tells us, the first thing that
"revealed to the eyes of the sovereign the
importance and peril of the situation." Thereupon a
colonel of gendarmes was sent to him in all haste
to summon him to the court. Having consulted
some friends, it was determined, with the
concurrence of the Sardinian minister, that an
attempt to save the Grand-Duke be made. The
Marchese hurried on to the Pitti. He was not
admitted to the presence of the Grand-Duke.
But Signor Baldasseroni, one of the ministers,
who had been sitting so disastrously long in
permanence, received him, and told him that the
Grand-Duke was disposed to consent to the
wishes of his people, to ally himself with
Piedmont and France, and to restore the constitution,
when things should be got into order. The
Grand-Duke, he was told further, was then
conferring on these matters with the foreign
ministers whom he had called around him.

With these tidings Lajatico returned in all haste
to his friends still assembled at the Sardinian
minister's house; where he found many others
who had now joined them. He laid before the
assembly thus spontaneously formed, the promises
and intentions of the Grand-Duke. It was at
once replied, he says, that these promises
and proposals were too late; that further
guarantees were now required; and that things
had reached the point at which the only remaining
chance for saving the dynasty was
abdication.

Lajatico was obliged, therefore, to return to
the Pitti, as he says, "with desolation in his
heart," to communicate to the Grand-Duke the
ultimatum of his subjects. The conditions
proposed were as follows:

Abdication of the Grand-Duke, and proclamation
of his son as Ferdinand the Fourth.