conveyed to the King
information of what had happened, asking at the same time that no
measures should be taken against incriminated persons.

In fact, no precautions of any kind seem to have been taken. Victor
Emmanuel, frightened at first, was soon reassured. The revolution, which
was to have begun on the 8th, actually broke out on the 10th of March at
Alessandria, where the counter orders issued at Charles. Albert's
request, after the interview just described, were not obeyed. The
garrison 'pronounced' in favour of the Spanish Constitution. It was now
impossible to draw back. From Alessandria the revolution spread to the
capital. The bulk of the army sympathised with the movement, and relied
on the support of the people. The greatest ladies mixed with the crowds
which gathered under the Carbonaro flag--black, blue and red. On the
other hand, there were a few devoted servants of the House of Savoy who
beheld these novelties with the sensations of a quiet person who sees
from his window the breaking loose of a menagerie. Invincibly ignorant
of all that was really inspiring in this first breath of freedom, they
saw nothing in it but an unwarrantable attack on the authority of their
amiable, if weak, old King, for whom they would gladly have shed every
drop of their blood--not from the rational esteem which the people of
Italy, like the people of England, now feel for their sovereign, but
from the pure passion of loyalty which made the cavalier stand blindly
by his prince, whether he was good or bad, in the right or in the wrong.
Men of their type watched the evolution of Piedmont into Italy from
first to last with the same presentiment of evil, the same moral
incapacity of appreciation. A handful of these loyal servitors hurried
to Victor Emmanuel to offer their assistance. They marshalled their
troop in battle-array in the courtyard of the palace. Their arms were
antiquated pistols and rapiers, and they themselves were veterans, some
of them of eighty years, mounted on steeds as ancient. The King thanked
them, but declined their services; nor would he give _carte blanche_ to
Captain Raimondi, who assured him that with his one company he could
suppress the insurrection if invested with full powers. Soon after this
refusal, a firing of guns announced that the citadel was in the hands
of the insurgents. The troops within and without fraternised; it was a
fine moment for those who knew history and who were bent in their he