Perhaps I have been helped in describing the events clearly, by the fact that I am familiar with almost all the places where they occurred, from the heights of Calatafimi to the unhappy rock of Lissa. Wherever the language of the _Si_ sounds, we tread upon the history of the Revolution that achieved what a great English orator once called, 'the noblest work ever undertaken by man.'
The supreme interest of the re-casting of Italy arises from the new spectacle of a nation made one not by conquest but by consent. Above and beyond the other causes that contributed to the conclusion must always be reckoned the gathering of an emotional wave, only comparable to the phenomena displayed by the mediæval religious revivals. Sentiment, it is said, is what makes the real historical miracles. A writer on Italian Liberation would be indeed misleading who failed to take account of the passionate longing which stirred and swayed even the most outwardly cold of those who took part in it, and nerved an entire people to heroic effort.
Italy from the Battle of Lodi to the Congress of Vienna
Revolutions in the Kingdom of Naples and in Piedmont--The Conspiracy against Charles Albert
Political Trials in Venetia and Lombardy--Risings in the South and Centre--Ciro Menotti
Accession of Charles Albert--Mazzini's Unitarian Propaganda--The Brothers Bandiera
Events leading to the Election of Pius IX.--The Petty Princes--Charles Albert, Leopold and Ferdinand
Insurrection in Sicily--The Austrians expelled from Milan and Venice--Charles Albert takes the Field--Withdrawal of the Pope and King of Naples--Piedmont defeated--The Retreat
Garibaldi arrives--Venice under Manin--The Dissolution of the Temporal Power--Republics at Rome and Florence
Novara--Abdication of Charles Albert--Brescia crushed--French Intervention--The Fall of Rome--The Fall of Venice
The House of Savoy--A King who Keeps his Word--Sufferings of the Lombards--Charles Albert's death
Restoration of the Pope and Grand-Duke of Tuscany--Misrule at Naples-- The Struggle with the Church in Piedmont--The Crimean War
Pisacane's Landing--Orsini's Attempt--The Compact of Plombières--Cavour's Triumph
Austria declares War--Montebello--Garibaldi's Campaign--Palestro-- Magenta--The Allies enter Milan--Ricasoli saves Italian Unity-- Accession of Francis II.--Solferino--The Armistice of Villafranca