udence would mean
failure.

Prime Minister in 1852, he saw an opportunity two years later of
winning fame for Piedmont. The Russians were resisting the western
powers which defended the dominions of the Porte. Ministers resigned
and the country marvelled, but Cavour signed a pledge to send forces of
15,000 men to the Crimea to help Turkey against Russia. It would be
well to prove that Italy retained the military virtues of her history
after the defeat of Novara, he said in reply to all expostulations.
The result showed the statesman's wisdom and justified his daring. The
Sardinians distinguished themselves in the Crimea, and Italy was able
to enter into negotiations with the great European powers who arranged
the Peace of Paris.

The Congress of Paris was the time for Cavour to gain sympathy for the
woes of Italian states, still subject to the tyrannous sway of Austria.
He denounced the enslavement of Naples also, and brought odium upon
King Ferdinand, but "Austria," he said, "is the arch-enemy of Italian
independence; the {201} permanent danger to the only free nation in
Italy, the nation I have the honour to represent."

England confined herself to expressions of sympathy, but Louis
Napoleon, now Emperor of France, seemed likely to become an ally. He
met Cavour at Plombieres, a watering place in the Vosges, in July 1858,
and entered into a formal compact to expel the Austrians from Italy.
The final arrangements were made in the following spring in Paris. "It
is done," said Cavour, the minister triumphant. "We have made some
history, and now to dinner."

Mazzini, in England, read of the alliance with gloomy misgivings, for,
as a Republican, he distrusted the President of France who had made
himself an Emperor. He said that Napoleon III would work now for his
own ends. He protested in vain. Garibaldi rejoiced and returned from
Caprera, where he had been trying to plant a garden on a barren island.

Cavour fought against some prejudice when he offered to enrol Garibaldi
and his followers in the army of Sardinia. Charles Albert had refused
the hero's sword in the days of his bitter struggle, and the regular
officers still looked askance on the Revolutionary captain.

But the Austrian troops were countless, numbering recruits from the
Tyrol and Bohemia, from the valleys of Styria and the Hungarian
steppes. There was need of a vast army to oppose them. The French
soldiers fought gallantly, yet they were