y insisted that
Napoleon's orders to this effect never reached him, but it was held up
against him that some of his officers on that occasion had vainly urged him
to march on the sound of the cannons at Waterloo. On October 10, Jerome
Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother and the quondam king of Westphalia, was
permitted to return to France after an exile of thirty-two years. Late in
the year, ex-Empress Marie Louise, Napoleon's second wife, died at the age
of fifty-six in Austria. Never beloved like her predecessor Josephine, she
lost the esteem of all Frenchmen by her failure to stand by her husband
after his downfall and exile to St. Helena, and by her subsequent liaison
with her chamberlain, Neipperg, to whom she bore several children. Other
events of lasting interest in France, during this year, were the opening of
the great canal from Marseilles to Durano, the death of Duc de Polignac,
who helped cause the downfall of his royal master Charles X., and the
publication of Merimee's "Carmen" and of "Aventures de Quatre Femmes et
d'un Perroquet," by the younger Dumas.

[Sidenote: Austrians occupy Ferrara]

[Sidenote: Italy aroused]

Under the stimulus of Pius IX.'s apparent sympathy for the cause of
national unity in Italy, as well as that of the teachings of Mazzini, the
Italian patriots took heart again. One group, consisting mostly of the
politicians and military men of Piedmont, centred their hopes in the
traditional antagonism of the princes of Savoy against Austria. Charles
Albert of Carrignano, whom Metternich had attempted to exclude from the
succession, showed marked independence in his dealings with Austria. In
1847, the Italian question came uppermost again when the Austrian
Government, on a new interpretation in one of the clauses in the treaty of
Vienna, occupied the town of Ferrara in the ecclesiastical states. Pius IX.
promptly protested against this trespass of his territories. The King of
Sardinia openly announced his intention to take the field against Austria,
should war break out. English and French warships appeared at Naples. In
Sicily and southern Italy the attitude of the patriots grew threatening.
Apprehensions of a general revolution throughout Italy at length induced
Metternich to agree with the neutral powers on a compromise concerning the
occupation of Ferrara. Lucca was united with Tuscany. Still patriotic
passion seethed in Italy.

[Sidenote: Mexican campaigns resumed]

[Sidenote: Santa Anna