ians were told by Pius IX. that he would not
allow their troops to pass through his territory. Had they attempted
to pass in spite of his warning, events would have taken a different
turn, as the Pope would have been driven into a war with Austria then
and there; perhaps he would have been glad, as weak people commonly
are, of the compulsion to do what he dared not do without compulsion.
The Austrian Government was too wise to force a quarrel; it was easy
to lock up Austrian subjects for crying 'Viva Pio Nono,' but the
enormous importance of keeping the Head of the Church, if possible, in
a neutral attitude could not be overlooked. All thoughts of going to
Ferdinand's help were politely abandoned, and he, seeing himself in a
defenceless position, and pondering deeply on the upsetting of Louis
Philippe's throne, which was just then the latest news, decided on
that device, dear to all political conjurors, which is known as taking
the wind out of your enemy's sails. The Pope, the Grand Duke of
Tuscany and the King of Sardinia, had worried him for six months with
admonitions. 'Very well,' he now said; 'they urge me forward, I will
precipitate them.' Constitution, representative government, unbridled
liberty of the press, a civic guard, the expulsion of the Jesuits;
what mattered a trifle more or less when everything could be revoked
at the small expense of perjury? Ferdinand posed to perfection in the
character of Citizen King. He reassured those who ventured to show the
least signs of apprehension by saying: 'If I had not intended to carry
out the Statute, I should not have granted it.'

Not many days later, the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the King of
Sardinia each promulgated a Charter. In the case of Charles Albert, it
had been formally promised on the 8th of February, after sleepless
nights, severe fasts, much searching of the heart--contrasting
strangely with the gay transformation scene at Naples; but promises
have a more serious meaning to some persons than to others. Nor did
Charles Albert take any pleasure in the shouts of a grateful people.
'Born in revolution,' he once wrote, 'I have traversed all its phases,
and I know well enough what popularity is worth--_viva_ to-day,
_morte_ to-morrow.'

In the Lombardo-Venetian provinces all seemed still quiet, but the
brooding discontent of the masses increased with the increasing
aggressiveness of the Austrian soldiers, while the refusal to grant
the studiously moderate d