ther of wider meaning. During the previous night, speaking to
the Lombard officer above mentioned, the King said: 'I shall preserve
intact the institutions given by my father; I shall uphold the
tricolor flag, symbol of Italian nationality, which is vanquished
to-day, but which one day will triumph. This triumph will be,
henceforth, the aim of all my efforts.' In 1874, on the twenty-fifth
anniversary of Novara, Count Vimercati wrote to the King of Italy from
Paris to remind him of the words he had then spoken.

When the King started for his capital, Radetsky offered to draw up his
troops as a guard of honour over the whole extent of occupied
territory between Novara and Turin. The offer was declined, and Victor
Emmanuel took a circuitous route to avoid observation. His journey was
marked throughout by a complete absence of state. Before he arrived, a
trusty hand consigned to him a note written in haste and in much
anguish by the Queen, in which she warned him to enter by night, as he
was likely to have a very bad reception. On the 27th of March he
reviewed the National Guard in the Piazza Castello on the occasion of
its taking the oath of allegiance. The ceremony was attended by Queen
Maria Adelaide in a carriage with her two little boys, the Princes
Umberto and Amedeo. There was no hostile demonstration, but there was
a most general and icy coldness.

That evening, the terms of the armistice were communicated to the
Chamber. As was natural, they evoked the wildest indignation, a part
of which fell undeservedly on the King. Twenty thousand Austrians were
to occupy the district between the Po, Sesia and Ticino and half the
citadel of Alessandria. The excitement rose to its height when it was
announced that the Sardinian Fleet must be recalled from Venetian
waters, depriving that struggling city of the last visible sign of
support from without. The Chamber sent a deputation to the King, who
succeeded in persuading its members that, hard though the terms were,
there was no avoiding their acceptance, and that the original
stipulations were harder still.

On the 29th, Victor Emmanuel took the oath to observe the Statute, to
exercise the royal authority only in virtue of the laws, to cause
justice to be fairly and fearlessly administered, and to conduct
himself in all things with the sole view to the interest, honour and
prosperity of the nation.

A trifling accident occurred which might have been far from trifling;
one