the rescue, and on this
personal goodwill his last hope was built. Prince Napoleon was
despatched from the camp at Chalons to see what he could do. At this
eleventh hour (19th August) Napoleon was ready to yield about Rome. At
the camp, the influence which guided him in Paris was less felt, or it
is probable that he would not have yielded even now. Prince Napoleon
carried a sheet of white paper with the Emperor's signature at the
foot. He showed it to Lanza when he reached Florence, and told him to
fill it up as he chose. Whatever he asked for was already granted. A
month before, such terms would have won both Italy and Austria--not
now.

The Prince found his father-in-law eager to give the 50,000 men that
were asked for, but the ministers protested that the Italian army was
unprepared for war. Still, to satisfy the King, who signified his
irritation so clearly to Lanza that this good servant was on the point
of resigning, they agreed to submit the case to Austria; if Austria
would co-operate, they would re-consider their decision. Austria
replied: 'Too late.'

When, in 1873, Victor Emmanuel paid a visit to Berlin, he caused some
sensation at a grand State banquet by saying to his host: 'But for
these gentlemen' (and he waved his hand towards the ministers who
accompanied him) 'I should have gone to war with you.' Courtiers did
not know which way to look, but the aged Emperor was not displeased by
the soldierly bluntness of the avowal.

Prince Napoleon remained in Florence, throwing away his eloquence,
till the 2nd of September cut short the argument. When he had left his
cousin, the Emperor was resolved to fall back on Paris according to
MacMahon's plan, but the ministers and the Empress Regent forced him
to his doom. On the 2nd of September Sedan was lost; on the 4th the
Empire fell.

'And to think,' exclaimed Victor Emmanuel when he heard the news,
'that this good man was always wanting to give me advice!'

From the date of the declaration of war, and still more since the
evacuation of Rome by the French troops (begun on the 29th of July,
ended on the 19th of August), Italy had been too deeply agitated for
any sane person to suppose that the prescriptive right of the nation
to seize the opportunity which offered itself of completing its unity
could be resisted by the artificial dyke of a compromise which made
the Government the instrument of France. Lanza was determined to
maintain order; he had Mazzini arrest