h sufficient energy against
the revolutionists, the incident was settled: and Napoleon was, in fact,
afraid that if he did not help the Italian cause more such attempts
would be made. A month after the Orsini outrage he laid before Cavour a
proposal for a Franco-Piedmontese alliance and the marriage of Prince
Jerome Bonaparte with Princess Clothilde, the daughter of Victor
Emmanuel.

An "accidental" meeting between Napoleon and Cavour was arranged and
took place at Plombieres in July, and although no one knew what passed,
the news of it fell like a bombshell on the diplomatic world. No
definite treaty was signed, but the basis of an agreement was laid,
whereby France and Piedmont were to declare war against Austria with the
object of expelling her from Italy, and a north Italian state was to be
formed; in exchange for this help France was to receive Savoy and
possibly Nice. But the emperor still hesitated, and refused to decide on
war unless Austria attacked Piedmont; the British government, too, in
its anxiety to preserve peace, was not very friendly to the Italian
cause. Cavour saw that the only way to overcome all these obstacles was
to force Austria's hand. Then there was the danger lest an Italy freed
by French arms should be overwhelmed under French predominance; for this
reason Cavour was determined to secure the co-operation of volunteers
from other parts of Italy, and that the war should be accompanied by a
series of risings against Austria and the local despots. It was also
necessary that the risings should break out in the various provinces
_before_ the Piedmontese and French troops arrived, so that the latter
should not appear as invaders and conquerors, but merely as liberators.

The moment war was seen to be imminent, parties of Italians of all
classes, especially Lombards, poured into Piedmont to enlist in the
army. Cavour also had a secret interview with Garibaldi, with whom he
arranged to organize volunteer corps so that the army should be not
merely that of Piedmont, but of all Italy. Every day the situation grew
more critical, and on the 10th of January 1859 the king in his speech
from the throne pronounced the memorable words "that he could not remain
deaf to the cry of pain (_il grido di dolore_) that reached him from all
parts of Italy"--words which, although actually suggested by Napoleon,
rang like a trumpet-call throughout the land. In the meanwhile the
marriage negotiations were concluded, and