been printed. Even in a fit of madness he can hardly have spoken some
of the words attributed to him. That he advised the King to withdraw
his army or to abdicate rather than agree to the peace which was being
plotted behind his back, seems past doubting. It is said that after
attempting in vain to calm him, Victor Emmanuel brought the interview
to a sudden close. Cavour came out of the house flushed and exhausted,
and drove back to Desenzano. He had resigned office.

The King showed extraordinary self-control. Bitter as the draught was,
he saw that it must be drunk, and he was determined to drink it with
dignity. Probably no other Italian grasped as clearly as he did the
real reason which actuated Napoleon; at any rate his chivalrous
appreciation of the benefits already received, closed his lips to
reproaches. 'Whatever may be the decision of your Majesty,' he said to
the Emperor on the eve of Villafranca, 'I shall feel an eternal
gratitude for what you have done for the independence of Italy, and I
beg you to believe that under all circumstances you may reckon on my
complete fidelity.'

If there was sadness in the Sardinian camp, so there was in that of
Austria. The Austrians by no means thought that the game was up for
them. It would be interesting to know by what arguments Napoleon
persuaded the young Emperor to renounce the hope of retrieving his
disasters, whilst he slowly pulled to pieces some flowers which were
on the table before which he and Francis Joseph sat. When they left
the house, the heir to all the Hapsburgs looked pale and sad. Did he
remember the dying counsels of 'Father' Radetsky--not to yield if he
was beaten on the Mincio, on the Tagliamento, on the Isonzo, before
the gates of Vienna.

When, on the evening of the same day, the Emperor of Austria signed
the preliminaries of peace, he said to Prince Napoleon, who took the
document to Verona for his signature: 'I pray God that if you are ever
a sovereign He may spare you the hour of grief I have just passed.'
Yet the defeat of Solferino and the loss of Lombardy were the first
steps in the transformation of Radetsky's pupil from a despot, who
hourly feared revolution in every land under his sceptre, to a wise
and constitutional monarch ruling over a contented Empire. To some
individuals and to some states, misfortune is fortune.

CHAPTER XIII

WHAT UNITY COST

1859-1860

Napoleon III. and Cavour--The Cession of Savoy and Nice--Anne