ut again and placed under the hated yoke of Austria. Soldiers from
Piedmont and Lombardy, from Venice and Naples, Parma and Modena, had
fought side by side, sharing the glory of a military despot and willing
to endure a tyranny that gave them a firm administration and a share of
justice. They saw that prosperity for their land would follow the more
regular taxation and the abolition of the social privileges oppressive
to the peasants. They looked forward to increase of trade as roads
were made and bridges built, and they welcomed the chance of education
and the preparation for a national life. Napoleon had always held
before them the picture of a great Italian State, freed from foreign
princes and realizing the promise of the famous Middle Ages.

{184}

Yet Napoleon had done nothing to forward the cause of Italian freedom
before his final exile. The Italians would have made Eugene
Beauharnais king, of a united Italy, but Eugene was loyal to the
stepfather who had placed under his power the territory lying between
the Alps and the centre of the peninsula. Murat, Napoleon's
brother-in-law, would have grasped the sceptre, for he was devoured by
overwhelming ambition. He owed his rapid advance from obscurity to the
position of a general to the Corsican, whose own career had led him to
help men to rise by force of merit. Murat bore a part in the struggle
for Italy when the cry was ever Liberty. A new spirit had come upon
the indolent inheritors of an ancient name. They were burning to
achieve the freedom of Italy, and hearkened only to the voice that
offered independence.

Prince Metternich, the absolute ruler of Austria, set aside the
conflicting claims, and parcelled out the states among petty rulers all
looking to him for political guidance. Italy was "only a geographical
expression," he remarked with satisfaction. Cadets of the Austrian
house held Tuscany and Modena, and Marie Louise, the ex-empress, was
installed at Parma. Pius VII took up the papal domain in Central Italy
with firmer grasp. Francis II, Emperor of Austria, seized Venice and
Lombardy, while a Bourbon, in the person of Ferdinand I, received
Naples and Sicily, a much disputed heritage. Victor Emmanuel, King of
Sardinia, received also the Duchies of Savoy and Piedmont. San Marino
was a republic still, standing solitary and mournful upon the waters of
the Adriatic. Italy was divided state from state, as in the medieval
times, but now, ala