er to the future prospects of
Italy as resulting from her alliance with Prussia, or to the fidelity of
the latter in carrying out the terms of it. I do not know whether this
gentleman intended his anecdote to be taken cum grano salis, but I
certainly understood him to say that he had deplored to the minister the
want of vigour and the absence of success accompanying the operations of
the Italian allies of Prussia, when His Excellency replied: 'C'est bien
vrai. Ils nous ont tromps; mais que voulez-vous y faire maintenant? Nous
aurons le temps de les faire egorger apres.'

It is difficult to suppose that there should exist a preconceived
intention on the part of Prussia to repay the sacrifices hitherto made,
although without a very brilliant accompaniment of success, by the
Italian government in support of the alliance, by making her own
separate terms with Austria and leaving Italy subsequently exposed to
the vengeance of the latter, but such would certainly be the inference
to be drawn from the conversation just quoted.

It was only on arriving in the port of Marseilles, however, that the
full enmity of most of my travelling companions towards Italy and the
Italians was manifested. A sailor, the first man who came on board
before we disembarked, was immediately pounced upon for news, and
he gave it as indeed nothing less than the destruction, more or less
complete, of the Italian fleet by that of the Austrians. At this
astounding intelligence the Prussian burst into a yell of indignation.
'Fools! blockheads! miserables! Beaten at sea by an inferior force! Is
that the way they mean to reconquer Venice by dint of arms? If ever they
do regain Venetia it will be through the blood of our Brandenburghers
and Pomeranians, and not their own.' During this tirade a little old
Belgian in black, with the chain of St. Peter at his buttonhole by way
of watchguard, capered off to communicate the grateful news to a group
of his ecclesiastical fellow-travellers, shrieking out in ecstasy:

'Rosses, Messieurs! Ces blagueurs d'Italiens ont ete rosses par
mer, comme ils avaient ete rosses par terre.' Whereupon the reverend
gentlemen congratulated each other with nods, and winks, and smiles,
and sundry fervent squeezes of the hand. The same demonstrations would
doubtless have been made by the Neapolitan passengers had they belonged
to the Bourbonic faction, but they happened to be honest traders with
cases of coral and lava for the Paris m