further delay. He wanted, however, to get a
little fresh air. Not even a servant knew that
the airing he then went for, was that prescribed
by Radetzky. He went to San Stefano.

When tidings of this journey readied Florence,
the Chambers met, and were invaded by
the populace declaring their unfaithful sovereign
deposed, the Chambers dissolved, and citizens
Guerrazzi, Montanelli, and Manzoni a provisional
triumvirate. Then again Guerrazzi by his eloquence
softened the tumult and maintained the
Chambers with a semblance of some constitutional
authority. But when somebody proposed
that the provisional government should be
administered in the name of Leopold the Second,
Guerrazzi, interrupting him with much
impetuosity, declared that "he had served the prince
with sincerity and fidelity, but that he had found
him disloyal and untrustworthy; and that he
should be lying to himself and to the public if
he did not seize the opportunity of declaring
that he now intended to govern solely in the
name of the people." So the people dragged a
huge tree into the piazza; Guerrazzi alone
hindered them from setting it up as a thing of
evil omen called a Tree of Liberty. The owners,
drivers, ostlers and others, connected with horse
traffic between Florence and Empoli, broke up
the rails and burnt the railway station at Empoli;
arms were to be given to good men and
true; upon which there was a rush of rascals
claiming to be good and true, by whom the arms
were scrambled for.

On the twenty-third of March, in the year
'forty-nine, Charles Albert lost the battle of
Novara. The Austrian power became absolute
again, but a great part of Italy, and in it
Tuscany, hardly observant of the loss, was still
busy about, the establishment of republican and
constitutional ideas. All was lost for a season,
and Charles Albert's heart was broken; but had
not Mazzini come to make speeches in Florence?
He demanded instant declaration of the republic,
and fusion with that of Rome. Lawful
representatives of the country, not a street populace,
ought to decide concerning that, Guerrazzi
urged. Mazzini replied that it was necessary
not to persuade, but to impose the republic on
people who did not know and could not understand
its advantages. " But," urged Guerrazzi,
"thus we do not reach our end; thus we arrive
at bloodshed."   " So much the better," cried
Mazzini; " by blood so shed, the republic is
solidified and sanctified."   " Well, then,"
Guerrazzi proposed, " give me two thousand well-
armed and tried men, and I will proclaim the
Republic."   " Two thousand!" shouted the mob,
"ten, thirty thousand, if you want them!" The
lists, accordingly, were opened for enrolment;
every volunteer was cheered as he came up; but
some two or three hundred names were all that
could be got, and the postponement of the Red
Republic was permitted. The heartiest patriots,
who yielded heroes to the field at Curtatone,
held aloof from the excesses of this period, and
had returned to their old quietness.

Guerrazzi, made at last Dictator, though the
trust put by moderate men in his moderation
caused him to be looked upon with jealousy by those
he led, found that he could not man Florence
with troops unless he brought them from
Leghorn. These rough and ragged soldiers from a
rival municipality offended the populace of
Florence. The ill-will rose to its height, and
when, too late, the Dictator marched the Livornese
away, stones were thrown, shots fired, a
deadly strife began. The Livornese were hunted
down and killed. That was the last day of rule
for the republicans in Florence.

The mild Tuscans having slept upon this deed,
were shocked beyond measure. The agitators,
whether enthusiasts or Austrian fomenters of
discord, kept within doors. The people, with the old
Italian instinct, though they had a Parliament,
turned to their municipality for help. The
reactionists, early in the morning, had let the
peasants into Florence by threes and by fours,
and raised from a low murmur the cry of Death to
Guerrazzi! That leader was trapped into prison,
and his throne was offered back to the Grand-
Duke. Then followed Te Deum singing, and
the archbishop, this time, was so far from hiding
himself, that he uncovered for that particular
occasion an ancient picture of the Madonna that
worked miracles whenever it saw daylight. To
the archduke, who had now run away to Gaëta,
it was said, " You will restore your
constitutional throne, surrounded by popular
institutions, as you wished it to be." He
assented by proclamation, and so came back
with the Austrians, who crept forward, none
fairly knew how, from city to city. They
disbanded, by their own authority, the national
guard established by a fundamental statute which
the sovereign had recognised and sanctioned.
"Every form of liberty," observes Mr. Trollope,
"was repressed and suppressed by those who
protested the while their intentions to observe
them all." The Constitution was abolished
formally. An Austrian marshal at Verona
exercised sovereign rights over the Tuscans.
Austrian commandants punished ordinary, civil
crimes by military law. Tuscan citizens, even
in Florence, were flogged by the order of
an Austrian soldier. Police were fetched from
Naples. Relatives of those who fell at
Curtatone were shot at the altar when they
carried garlands to the tombs upon the
anniversary of that day, but in the same church
were celebrated anniversaries of Austrian
triumphs. Details of such things were recorded
in a document on " Tuscany and Austria,"
which my Lord Normanby has pronounced very
treasonable but very tedious; and upon which
Mr. Trollope shrewdly remarks that "a long,
long bill, rigidly scored up, every one of the
numerous articles in which must be paid for, is,
it must be owned, a very tedious document to
the debtor when the day of reckoning has
come."

Italy has, in fact, now been taught by her
enemies what is the first necessity of life with
her—  Out with the Austrian! For the last ten
years, she has been taking to heart the lesson of