The Neapolitan troops, of whom 41,000 were promised, 17,000 being on
the way already, were intended to reinforce Durando's corps in
Venetia. With the two or three battalions which Manin could spare from
the little army of Venice, the Italian forces opposed to Nugent's
advance would have been brought up to 60,000 men; in which case not
even Charles Albert's 'masterly inactivity' could have given Austria
the victory.

The Neapolitan Parliament convoked under the new Constitution was to
meet on the 15th of May. A dispute had been going on for several days
between the Sovereign and the deputies about the form of the
parliamentary oath, the deputies wishing that the Chambers should be
left free to amend or alter the Statute, while the King desired that
they should be bound by oath to maintain it as it was presented to
them. It was unwise to provoke a disagreement which was sure to
irritate the King. However, late on the 14th, he appeared to yield,
and consented that the wording of the oath should be referred to the
discussion of Parliament itself. It seems that, at the same time, he
ordered the troops of the garrison to take up certain positions in the
city. A colonel of the National Guard raised the cry of royal treason,
calling upon the people to rise, which a portion of them did, and
barricades were constructed in the Toledo and other of the principal
streets. A more insane and culpable thing than this attempt at
revolution was never put in practice. It was worse even than that 20th
of May at Milan, which threw Eugene into the arms of Austria. Its
consequences were those which everyone could have foreseen--a two
days' massacre in the streets of Naples, begun by the troops and
continued by the lazzaroni, who were allowed to pillage to their
hearts' content; the deputies dispersed with threats of violence,
Parliament dissolved before it had sat, the original Statute torn up,
and (by far the most important) the Neapolitan troops, now at Bologna,
recalled to Naples. This was the pretty work of the few hundred
reckless rioters on the 15th of May.

Had not Pius IX. by this time repudiated all part in the war, the King
of the Two Sicilies would have thought twice before he recalled his
contingent, though the counsels of neutrality which he received from
another quarter--from Lord Palmerston in the name of the English
Government--strengthened his hand not a little in carrying out a
defection which was the direct ruin of the It