port in that quarter for his anti-unionist conspiracy. His
earliest scheme was that the federative plan should be presented to
Europe by Great Britain. Lord John Russell answered: 'We are asked to
propose a partition (_morcellement_) of the peoples of Italy, as if we
had the right to dispose of them.' It was a happy circumstance for
Italy that her unity had no better friends than in the English
Government during those difficult years. Cavour's words soon after
Villafranca, 'It is England's turn now,' were not belied.

One thing should have made Napoleon uneasy; a man like Cavour, when
his blood is roused, when his nature is fired by the strongest
passions that move the human heart, is an awkward adversary. If there
was an instant in which the great statesman thought that all was lost,
it was but an instant. With the quick rebound of virile characters he
recovered his balance and understood his part. It was to fight and
conquer.

'Your Emperor has dishonoured me,' he said to M. Pietri in the
presence of Kossuth (the interview taking place at Turin on the 15th
of July). 'Yes, sir, he has dishonoured me,' and he set forth how,
after promising to hunt the last Austrian out of Italy, after secretly
exacting the price of his assistance to which Cavour had induced his
good and honest King to consent, he now left them solemnly in the
lurch; Lombardy might suffice! And, for nothing to be wanting, the
King was to be forced into a confederation with Austria and the
Italian princes under the presidency of the Pope. After painting the
situation with all the irony and scorn of which he was master, he gave
his note of warning: 'If needs be, I will become a conspirator, I will
become a revolutionist, but this treaty shall never be executed; a
thousand times no--never!'

The routine business of the Prime Minister still fell to Cavour, as
Rattazzi, who succeeded him, had not yet formed his cabinet. He was
obliged, therefore, to write officially to the Royal Commissioners at
Modena, Bologna and Florence to abandon their posts. But in the
character of Cavour, the private citizen, he telegraphed to them at
the same time to remain and do their duty. And they remained.

On one point there was a temporary lull of anxiety. Almost the last
words spoken by Napoleon to Victor Emmanuel before he left Turin were:
'We shall think no more about Nice and Savoy.' The mention of Nice
shows that though it had not been promised, Napoleon was all along