ereign's power may be a kind of spiritual prison to
the man. Since then, indeed, he had known another kind of happiness, had
been aware of a secret voice whispering within him that she was right
and had chosen wisely for him; but this was when he had realised that he
lived in a prison, and had begun to admire the sumptuous adornment of
its walls. For a while the mere external show of power amused him, and
his imagination was charmed by the historic dignity of his surroundings.
In such a setting, against the background of such a past, it seemed easy
to play the benefactor and friend of the people. His sensibility was
touched by the contrast, and he saw himself as a picturesque figure
linking the new dreams of liberty and equality to the feudal traditions
of a thousand years. But this masquerading soon ceased to divert him.
The round of court ceremonial wearied him, and books and art lost their
fascination. The more he varied his amusements the more monotonous they
became, the more he crowded his life with petty duties the more empty of
achievement it seemed.

At first he had hoped to bury his personal disappointments in the task
of reconstructing his little state; but on every side he felt a mute
resistance to his efforts. The philosophical faction had indeed poured
forth pamphlets celebrating his reforms, and comparing his reign to the
return of the Golden Age. But it was not for the philosophers that he
laboured; and the benefits of free speech, a free press, a secular
education did not, after all, reach those over whom his heart yearned.
It was the people he longed to serve; and the people were hungry, were
fever-stricken, were crushed with tithes and taxes. It was hopeless to
try to reach them by the diffusion of popular knowledge. They must first
be fed and clothed; and before they could be fed and clothed the chains
of feudalism must be broken.

Men like Gamba and Andreoni saw this clearly enough; but it was not from
them that help could come. The nobility and clergy must be coaxed or
coerced into sympathy with the new movement; and to accomplish this
exceeded Odo's powers. In France, the revolt from feudalism had found
some of its boldest leaders in the very class that had most to lose by
the change; but in Italy fewer causes were at work to set such
disinterested passions in motion. South of the Alps liberalism was
merely one of the new fashions from France: the men ran after the
pamphlets from Paris as the wome