who opposed the loan
was the old apostle of retrogression, Count Solaro della Margherita,
who raised his solitary voice against the tide of revolution; and the
Savoyard the Marquis Costa de Beauregard whose speech was pathetic
from the melancholy foreboding which pervaded it that the making
of Italy meant the unmaking of Savoy. Speaking in the name of his
fellow-countrymen, the Marquis reconfirmed the profound love of
Savoy for her Royal House and her total lack of solidarity with the
aspirations of Italy. With time the Savoyards might have learnt to be
Italians as their king had learnt to be an Italian king. Or they might
not. Possibly the best solution would have been to join Savoy to the
Swiss Confederation, though the martial instincts of the race were not
favourable to their Conversion into peaceful Helvetic citizens. From
one point of view, that of military defence, the retention of the
province was of infinitely more moment to the future Italy than to
little Piedmont. Sardinia could keep the peace with France for an
indefinite period; Italy cannot. What is true of Savoy is far more
true of Nice. To have it in foreign keeping is to have a very
partially reformed burglar inside your house.

'Notre roi,' said an old ragged fisherman of the Lac de Bourget to the
writer of this book,--'Notre roi nous a vendus.' Not willingly did
Victor Emmanuel incur that charge, in which the rebound from love to
hate was so clearly heard; not willingly did he give up Maurienne,
cradle of his race, Hautecombe, grave of his fathers. It was the
greatest sacrifice, he said, that Italy could have asked of him. Nor
is there any reason to doubt his word. But it is incorrect to suppose,
as many have supposed, that Cavour promised at Plombieres to give up
Savoy (Nice he did not promise) without the King's knowledge. Before
he went there, he had brought Victor Emmanuel over to his own belief,
justified or not, that without a bait Napoleon could not be got to
move. Directly after the interview, he wrote a full account of it to
the King, in which he said: 'When the future fate of Italy was
arranged, the Emperor asked me what France would have, and if your
Majesty would cede Savoy and the county of Nice?' To which Cavour
answered 'Yes' as to Savoy, but objected that Nice was essentially
Italian. The Emperor twirled his moustache several times, and only
said that these were secondary questions, about which there would be
time to think later.

A