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twg_000012929000 | great refrigerant, and I wish some chemist would inquire into the matter. Are we ever to begin this blessed language? said Mrs OD. to me, after four days of close arrest--snow still falling and the thermometer going daily down, down, lower and lower. Now I had made inquiries the day before from the landlord, and learned that he knew of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929001 | a most competent person, not exactly a regular teacher who would insist upon our going to work in school fashion, but a man of sense and a gentleman--indeed, a person of rank and title, with whom the world had gone somewhat badly, and who was at that very moment suffering for his political opinions, far in advance, as they were, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929002 | of those of his age. Hes a friend of Gioberti, whispered the landlord in my ear, while his features became animated with the most intense significance. Now, I had never so much as heard of Gioberti, but I felt it would be a deep disgrace to confess it, and so I only exclaimed, with an air of half-incredulity, Indeed! As | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929003 | true as Im here, replied he. He usually drops in about noon to read the Opinione, and, if you permit, Ill send him up to you. His name is Count Annibale Castrocaro. I hastened forthwith to Mrs OD., to apprise her of the honour that awaited us; repeating, a little _in extenso_, all that the host had said, and finishing | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929004 | with the stunning announcement, and a friend of Gio-berti. Mrs ODowd never flinched under the shock, and, too proud to own her ignorance, she pertly remarked, I dont think the more of him for that. I felt that she had beat me, and I sat down abashed and humiliated. Meanwhile Mrs OD. retired to make some change of dress; but, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929005 | reappearing after a while in her smartest morning toilette, and a very coquettish little cap, with cherry-coloured ribbons, I saw what the word Count had done at once. Just as the clock struck twelve, the waiter flung wide the double doors of our room, and announced, as pompously as though for royalty, II Signor Conte di Castrocaro, and there entered | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929006 | a tall man slightly stooping in the shoulders, with a profusion of the very blackest hair on his neck and shoulders, his age anything from thirty-five to forty-eight, and his dress a shabby blue surtout, buttoned to the throat and reaching below the knees. He bowed and slid, and bowed again, till he came opposite where my wife sat, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929007 | then, with rather a dramatic sort of grace, he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. She reddened a little, but I saw she wasnt displeased with the air of homage that accompanied the ceremony, and she begged him to be seated. I own I was disappointed with the Count, his hair was so greasy, and his hands | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929008 | so dirty, and his general get-up so uncared for; but Mrs OD. talked away with him very pleasantly, and he replied in his own broken English, making little grimaces and smiles and gestures, and some very tender glances, do duty where his parts of speech failed him. In fact, I watched him as a sort of psychological phenomenon, and I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929009 | arrived at the conclusion that this friend of Giobertis was a very clever artist. All was speedily settled for the lessons--hour, terms, and mode of instruction. It was to be entirely conversational, with a little theme-writing, no getting by heart, no irregular verbs, no declensions, no genders. I did beg hard for a little grammar, but he wouldnt hear of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929010 | it. It was against his system, and so I gave in. We began the next day, but the Count ignored me altogether, directing almost all his attentions to Mrs OD.; and as I had already some small knowledge of the elementary part of the language, I was just as well pleased that she should come up, as it were, to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929011 | my level. From this cause I often walked off before the lesson was over, and sometimes, indeed, I skulked it altogether, finding the system, as well as Giobertis friend, to be an unconscionable bore. Mrs OD., on the contrary, displayed an industry I never believed her to possess, and would pass whole evenings over her exercises, which often covered several | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929012 | sheets of letter-paper. We had now been about five weeks in Turin, when my brother wrote to request I would come back as speedily as I could, that a case in which I held a brief was high in the cause-list, and would be tried very early in the session. I own I was not sorry at the recall. I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929013 | detested the dreary life I was leading. I hated Turin and its bad feeding and bad theatres, its rough wines and its rougher inhabitants. Did you tell the Count we are off on Saturday? asked I of Mrs OD. Yes, said she, dryly. I suppose hes inconsolable, said I, with a sneer. Hes very sorry were going, if you mean | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929014 | that, Mr ODowd; and so am I too. Well, so am not I; and you may call me a Dutchman if you catch me here again. The Count hopes you will permit him to see you. He asked this morning whether he might call on you about four oclock. Yes, Ill see him with sincere pleasure for once, I cried; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929015 | since it is to say good-bye to him. I was in my dressing-room, packing up for the journey, when the Count was announced and shown in. Excuse me, Count, said I, for receiving you so informally, but I have a hasty summons to call me back to England, and no time to spare. I will, notwithstanding, ask you for some | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929016 | of that time, all precious as it is, said he in French, and with a serious gravity that I had never observed in him before. Well, sir, said I, stiffly; I am at your orders. It is now seventeen long years since that interview, and I am free to own that I have not even yet attained to sufficient calm | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929017 | and temper to relate what took place. I can but give the substance of our conversation. It is not over-pleasant to dwell on, but it was to this purport:--The Count had come to inform me that, without any intention or endeavour on his part, he had gained Mrs ODowds affections and won her heart! Yes, much-valued reader, he made this | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929018 | declaration to me, sitting opposite to me at the fire, as coolly and unconcernedly as if he was apologising for having carried off my umbrella by mistake. It is true, he was most circumstantial in showing that all the ardour was on one side, and that he, throughout the whole adventure, conducted himself as became a Gran Galantuomo, and the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929019 | friend of Gioberti, whatever that might mean. My amazement--I might almost call it my stupefaction--at the unparalleled impudence of the man, so overcame me, that I listened to him without an effort at interruption. I have come to you, therefore, to-day, said he, to give up her letters. Her letters! exclaimed I; and she has written to you! Twenty-three times | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929020 | in all, said he, calmly, as he drew a large black pocket-book from his breast, and took out a considerable roll of papers. The earlier ones are less interesting, said he, turning them over. It is about here, No. , that they begin to develop feeling. You see she commences to call me Caro Animale--she meant to say Annibale, but, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929021 | poor dear! she mistook. No. is stronger--Animale Mio--the same error; and here, in No. , she begins, Diletto del mio cuore, quando non ti vedo, non ti sento, il cielo stesso, non mi sorride piu. Il mio Tiranno--that was _you_. I caught hold of the poker with a convulsive grasp, but quick as thought he bounded back behind the table, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929022 | and drew out a pistol, and cocked it. I saw that Giobertis friend had his wits about him, and resumed the conversation by remarking that the documents he had shown me were not in my wifes handwriting. Very true, said he; these, as you will perceive by the official stamp, are sworn copies, duly attested at the Prefettura--the originals are | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929023 | safe. And with what object, asked I, gasping--safe for what? For you, lllustrissimo, said he, bowing, when you pay me two thousand francs for them. Ill knock your brains out first, said I, with another clutch at the poker, but the muzzle of the pistol was now directly in front of me. I am moderate in my demands, signor, said | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929024 | he, quietly; there are men in my position would ask you twenty thousand; but I am a galantuomo---- And the friend of Gioberti, added I, with a sneer. Precisely so, said he, bowing with much grace. I will not weary you, dear reader, with my struggles--conflicts that almost cost me a seizure on the brain--but hasten to the result. I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929025 | beat down the noble Counts demand to one-half and for a thousand francs I possessed myself of the fatal originals, written unquestionably and indisputably by my wifes hand; and then, giving the Count a final piece of advice, never to let me see more of him, I hurried off to Mrs ODowd. She was out paying some bills, and only | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929026 | arrived a few minutes before dinner-hour. I want you, madam, for a moment here, said I, with something of Othello, in the last act, in my voice and demeanour. I suppose I can take off my bonnet and shawl first, Mr ODowd, said she, snappishly. No, madam; you may probably find that youll need them both at the end of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929027 | our interview. What do you mean, sir? asked she, haughtily. This is no time for grand airs or mock dignity, madam, said I, with the tone of the avenging angel. Do you know these? are these in your hand? Deny it if you can. Why should I deny it? Of course theyre mine. And you wrote this, and this, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929028 | this? cried I, almost in a scream, as I shook forth one after another of the letters. Dont you know I did? said she, as hotly; and nothing beyond a venial mistake in one of them! A what, woman? a what? A mere slip of the pen, sir. You know very well how I used to sit up half the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929029 | night at my exercises? Exercises! Well, themes, if you like better; the Count made me make clean copies of them, with all his corrections, and send them to him every day--here are the rough ones; and she opened a drawer filled with a mass of papers all scrawled over and blotted. And now, sir, once more, what do you mean? | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929030 | I did not wait to answer her, but rushed down to the landlord. Where does that Count Castrocaro live? I asked. Nowhere in particular, I believe, sir; and for the present he has left Turin--started for Genoa by the diligence five minutes ago. Hes a Gran Galantuomo, sir, added he, as I stood stupefied. I am aware of that, said | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929031 | I, as I crept back to my room to finish my packing. Did you settle with the Count? asked my wife at the door. Yes, said I, with my head buried in my trunk. And he was perfectly satisfied? Of course he was--he has every reason to be so. I am glad of it, said she, moving away--he had a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929032 | deal of trouble with those themes of mine. No one knows what they cost him. I could have told what they cost _me_; but I never did, till the present moment. I need not say with what an appetite I dined on that day, nor with what abject humility I behaved to my wife, nor how I skulked down in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929033 | the evening to the landlord to apologise for not being able to pay the bill before I left, an unexpected demand having left me short of cash. All these, seventeen years ago as they are, have not yet lost their bitterness, nor have I yet arrived at the time when I can think with composure of this friend of Gioberti. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929034 | Admiral Dalrymple tells us, amongst his experiences as a farmer, that he gave twenty pounds for a dung-hill, and hed give ten more to any one whod tell him what to do with it. I strongly suspect this is pretty much the case with the Italians as regards their fleet. There it is--at least, there is the beginning of it; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929035 | and when it shall be complete, where is it to go? what is it to protect? whom to attack? The very last thing Italians have in their minds is a war with England. If we have not done them any great or efficient service, we have always spoken civilly of them, and bade them a God-speed. But, besides a certain | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929036 | goodwill that they feel for us, they entertain--as a nation with a very extended and ill-protected coast-line ought--a considerable dread of a maritime power that could close every port they possess, and lay some very important towns in ashes. Now, it is exactly by the possession of a fleet that, in any future war between England and France, these people | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929037 | may be obliged to ally themselves to France. The French will want them in the Mediterranean, and they cannot refuse when called on. Count Cavour always kept telling our Foreign Office, A strong Italy is the best thing in the world for you. A strong Italy is the surest of all barriers against France. There may be some truth in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929038 | the assertion if Italy could spring at once--Minerva fashion--all armed and ready for combat, and stand out as a first-rate power in Europe; but to do this requires years of preparation, long years too; and it is precisely in these years of interval that France can become all-dominant in Italy--the master, and the not very merciful master, of her destinies | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929039 | in everything. France has the guardianship of Italy--with this addition, that she can make the minority last as long as she pleases. Perhaps my Garibaldian companion has impregnated me with an unreasonable amount of anti-French susceptibility, for certainly he abuses our dear allies with a zeal and a gusto that does ones heart good to listen to; and I do | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929040 | feel like that honest Bull, commemorated by Mathews, that I hate prejudice--I hate the French. So it is: these revolutionists, these levellers, these men of the people, are never weary of reviling the French Emperor for being a _parvenu_. Human inconsistency cannot go much farther than this. Not but I perfectly agree with my Garibaldian, that we have all agreed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929041 | to take the most absurdly exaggerated estimate of the Emperors ability. Except in some attempts, and not always successful attempts, to carry out the policy and plans of the first Empire, there is really nothing that deserves the name of statesmanship in his career. Wherever he has ventured on a policy, and accompanied it by a prediction, it has been | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929042 | a failure. Witness the proud declaration of Italy from the Alps to the Adriatic, with its corroboration in the Treaty of Villafranca! The Emperor, in his policy, resembles one of those whist-players who never plan a game, but play trick by trick, and rather hope to win by discovering a revoke than from any honest success of their own hand. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929043 | It is all the sharp practice of statecraft that he employs: nor has he many resources in cunning. The same dodge that served him in the Crimea he revived at Villafranca. It is always the same ace he has in his sleeve! The most ardent Imperialist will not pretend to say that he knows his road out of rome or | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929044 | Mexico, or even Madagascar. For small intrigue, short speeches to deputations, and mock stag-hunts, he has not his superior anywhere. And now, here we are in Genoa, at the Hotel Feder, where poor OConnell died, and theres no fleet, not a frigate, in the port. Where are they? At Spezia. Where is Spezia? The landlord, to whom this question is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929045 | propounded, takes out of a pigeon-hole of his desk a large map and unfolds it, saying, proudly, There, sir, that is Spezia--a harbour that could hold Portsmouth, and Plymouth, and Brest, and Cherbourg --Im not sure he didnt say Calais--and yet have room for our Italian fleet, which, in two years time, will be one of the first in Europe. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929046 | The ships are building, I suppose? said I. They are. And where? In America, at Toulon, and in England. None in Italy? Pardon me; there is a corvette on the stocks at Leghorn, and they are repairing a boiler at Genoa. Ah! Signor John Bull, take care; we have iron and coal mines, we have oak and hemp, and tallow | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929047 | and tar. There was a winged lion once that swept the seas before people sang Rule Britannia. History is going to repeat itself. Let me be called at eight to-morrow morning, and my coffee be ready by nine. And we shall want a vetturino for Spezia, added my Garibaldian; let him be here by eleven. GARIBALDIS WORSHIPPERS. The road from | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929048 | Genoa to Spezia is one of the most beautiful in Europe. As the Apennines descend to the sea they form innumerable little bays and creeks, alongside of which the road winds--now coasting the very shore, now soaring aloft on high-perched cliffs, and looking down into deep dells, or to the waving tops of tall pine-trees. Seaward, it is a succession | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929049 | of yellow-stranded bays, land-locked and narrow; and on the land side are innumerable valleys, some waving with horse-chestnut and olive, and others stern and rock-bound, but varying in colour from the bluish-grey of marble to every shade of porphyry. For several miles after we left Genoa, the road presented a succession of handsome villas, which, neglected and uncared for, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929050 | in most part untenanted, were yet so characteristically Italian in all their vast-ness--their massive style and spacious plan--as to be great ornaments of the scenery. Their gardens, too--such glorious wildernesses of rich profusion--where the fig and the oleander, the vine and the orange, tangle and intertwine--and cactuses, that would form the wonder of our conservatories, are trained into hedgerows to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929051 | protect cabbages. My companion pointed out to me one of these villas on a little jutting promontory of rock, with a narrow bay on one side, almost hidden by the overhanging chestnut-trees. That, said he, is the Villa Spinola. It was from there, after a supper with his friend Vecchi, that Garibaldi sailed on his expedition to Marsala. A sort | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929052 | of decent secrecy was maintained as to the departure of the expedition; but the cheers of those on shore, as the boats pulled off, told that the brave buccaneers carried with them the heartfelt good wishes of their countrymen. Wandering on in his talk from the campaign of Sicily and Calabria, my companion spoke of the last wild freak of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929053 | Garibaldi and the day of Aspromonte, and finally of the heros imprisonment at Varignano, in the Gulf of Spezia. It appeared from his account that the poor wounded sufferer would have fared very ill, had it not been for the provident kindness and care of his friends in England, who supplied him with everything he could want and a great | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929054 | deal he could by no possibility make use of. Wine of every kind, for instance, was largely sent to one who was a confirmed water-drinker, and who, except when obliged by the impure state of the water, never ventured to taste wine. If now and then the zealous anxiety to be of service had its ludicrous side--and packages arrived of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929055 | which all the ingenuity of the Generals followers failed to detect what the meaning might be--there was something very noble and very touching in this spontaneous sympathy of a whole people, and so Garibaldi felt it. The personal homage of the admirers--the worshippers they might be called--was, however, an infliction that often pushed the patience of Garibaldis followers to its | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929056 | limit, and would have overcome the gentle forbearance of any other living creature than Garibaldi himself. They came in shoals. Steamboats and diligences were crammed with them, and the boatmen of Spezia plied as thriving a trade that summer as though Garibaldi were a saint, at whose shrine the devout of all Europe came to worship. In vain obstacles were | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929057 | multiplied and difficulties to entrance invented. In vain it was declared that only a certain number of visitors were daily admitted, and that the number was already complete. In vain the doctors announced that the Generals condition was prejudiced, and his feverish state increased, by these continual invasions. Each new arrival was sure to imagine that there was something special | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929058 | or peculiar in his case to make him an exception to any rule of exclusion. I knew Garibaldi in Monte Video. You have only to tell him its Tomkins; hell be overjoyed to see me. I travelled with him from Manchester to Bridgeport; hell remember me when he sees me; I lent him a wrapper in the train. I knew | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929059 | his son Menotti when at school. I was in New York when Garibaldi was a chandler, and I was always asking for his candles; such and suchlike were the claims which would not be denied. At last the infliction became insupportable. Some nights of unusual pain and suffering required that every precaution against excitement should be taken, and measures were | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929060 | accordingly concerted how visitors should be totally excluded. There was this difficulty in the matter, that it might fall at this precise moment some person of real consequence might have, or some one whose presence Garibaldi would really have been well pleased to enjoy. All these considerations were, however, postponed to the patients safety, and an order was sent to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929061 | the several hotels where strangers usually stopped to announce that Garibaldi could not be seen. There is a story, said my companion, which I have heard more than once of this period, but for whose authenticity I will certainly not vouch. _Se non vero e ben trovato_, as regards the circumstance. It was said that a party of English ladies | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929062 | had arrived at the chief hotel, having come as a deputation from some heaven-knows-what association in England, to see the General, and make their own report on his health, his appearance, and what they deemed his prospect of perfect recovery. They had come a very long journey, endured a considerable share of fatigues and certain police attentions, which are not | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929063 | exactly what are called amenities. They had come, besides, on an errand which might warrant a degree of insistance even were they--which they were not--of an order that patiently puts up with denial. When their demand for admission was replied to by a reference to the general order excluding all visitors, they indignantly refused to be classed in such a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929064 | category. They were not idle tourists, or sensation-hunting travellers. They were a deputation! They came from the Associated Brothers and Sisters of Freedom--from the Branch Committee of the Ear of Crying Nationalities--they were not to be sent away in this light and thoughtless manner. The correspondence was animated. It lasted the whole day, and the last-sent epistle of the ladies | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929065 | bore the date of half-past eleven at night. This was a document of startling import; for, after expressing, and not always in most measured phrase, the indignant disappointment of the writers, it went on to throw out, but in a cloud-like misty sort of way, the terrible consequences that might ensue when they returned to England with the story of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929066 | their rejection. Perhaps this was a mere chance shot; at all events, it decided the battle. The Garibaldians read it as a declaration of strict blockade; and that, from the hour of these ladies arrival in England, all supplies would be stopped. Now, as it happened that, in by far the greater number of cases, the articles sent out found | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929067 | their way to the suite of Garibaldi, not to the General himself, and that cambric shirts and choice hosiery, silk vests, and fur-lined slippers, became the ordinary wear of people to whom such luxuries were not known even by description, it was no mean menace that seemed to declare all this was to have an end. One used to sleep | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929068 | in a rich fur dressing-gown; another took a bottle of Arundels port at his breakfast; a third was habituating himself to that English liqueur called Punch sauce, and so on; and they very reasonably disliked coming back to the dietary supplied by Victor Emmanuel. It was in this critical emergency that an inventive genius developed itself. There was amongst the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929069 | suite of Garibaldi an old surgeon, Eipari, one of the most faithful and attached of all his followers, and who bore that amount of resemblance to Garibaldi which could be imparted by hair, mustache, and beard of the same yellowish-red colour, and eyes somewhat closely set. To put the doctor in bed, and make him personate the General, was the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929070 | plan--a plan which, as it was meant to save his chief some annoyance, he would have acceded to were it to cost him far more than was now intended. To the half-darkened room, therefore, where Eipari lay dressed in his habitual red shirt, propped up by pillows, the deputation was introduced. The sight of the hero was, however, too much | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929071 | for them. One dropped, Madonna-wise, with hands clasped across her bosom, at the foot of his bed; another fainted as she passed the threshold; a third gained the bedside to grasp his hand, and sank down in an ecstasy of devotion to water it with her tears; while the strong-minded woman of the party took out her scissors and cut | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929072 | four several locks off that dear and noble head. They sobbed over him--they blubbered over him--they compared him with his photograph, and declared he was libelled--they showered cards over him to get his autograph; and when, at length, by persuasion, not unassisted by mild violence, they were induced to withdraw, they declared that, for those few moments of ecstasy, theyd | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929073 | have willingly made a pilgrimage to Mecca. It is said, continued my informant, that Ripari never could be induced to give another representation; and that he declared the luxuries that came from England were dear at the cost of being caressed by a deputation of sympathisers. But to Garibaldi himself, the sympathy and the sympathisers went on to the last; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929074 | and kind wishes and winter-clothing still find their way, with occasionally very tiresome visitors, to the lone rock at Caprera. SOMETHING ABOUT SOLFERINO AND SHIPS. Our host of the Feder was not wrong. There was not a word of exaggeration in what he said of Spezia. It could contain all the harbours of France and England, and have room for | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929075 | all the fleets of Europe besides. About seven miles in depth, and varying in width from two to three and a half, it is fissured on every side by beautiful little bays, with deep water everywhere, and not a sunk rock, or shoal, or a bar, throughout the whole extent. Even the sea-opening of the Gulf has its protection by | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929076 | the long coast-line of Tuscany, stretching away to the southward and eastward, so that the security is perfect, and a vessel once anchored within the headlands between Lerici and Palmaria is as safe as in dock. The first idea of making a great arsenal and naval depot of Spezia came from the Great Emperor. It is said that he was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929077 | not more than one day there, but in that time he planned the fort which bears his name, and showed how the port could be rendered all but impregnable. Cavour took up the notion, and pursued it with all his wonted energy and activity during the last three or four years of his life. He carried through the Chamber his | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929078 | project, and obtained a vote for upwards of two millions sterling; but his death, which occurred soon after, was a serious blow to the undertaking; and, like most of the political legacies of the great statesman, the arsenal of Spezia fell into the hands of weak executors. The first great blunder committed was to accord the chief contract to a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929079 | bubble company, who sold it, to be again resold; so that it is said something like fifteen changes of proprietary occurred before the first spadeful of earth was turned. The inordinate jealousy Italians have of foreigners, and their fear lest they should utilise Italy, and carry away all her wealth with them, has been the source of innumerable mistakes. From | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929080 | this, and their own ignorance of marine engineering, Spezia has already, without the slightest evidence of a commencement, swallowed up above eight millions of francs--the only palpable results being the disfigurement of a very beautiful road, and the bankruptcy of some half-dozen contractors. There is nothing of which one hears more, than of the readiness and facility with which an | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929081 | Italian learns a new art or a new trade, adapts himself to the use of new tools, and acquires a dexterity in the management of new machinery. Every newly-come English engineer was struck with this, and expressed freely his anticipations of what so gifted a people might become. After a while, however, if questioned, he would confess himself disappointed--that after | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929082 | the first extraordinary show of intelligence no progress was made--that they seemed marvellous in the initiative, but did nothing after. They speedily grew weary of whatever they could do or say, no matter in what fashion, and impatiently desired to try something new. The John Bull contentedness to attain perfection in some one branch, and never ask to go beyond | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929083 | it, was a sentiment they could not understand. Every one, in fact, would have liked to do everything, and, as a consequence, do it exceedingly ill. Assuredly the Count Cavour was the political Marquis de Carabas of Italy. Everything you see was his! No other head seemed to contrive, no other eye to see, nor ear to hear. These railroads--as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929084 | much for military movements as passenger traffic--this colossal harbour, even to the two iron-clads that lie there at anchor--were all of his designing. They are ugly-looking craft, and have a look of pontoons rather than ships of war; but they are strong, and have a low draught of water, and were intended especially for the attack of Venice, just when | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929085 | the Emperor pulled up short at Villafranca. It is not generally known, I believe, but I can vouch for the fact, that so terrified were the Austrians on receiving at Venice the disastrous news of Solferino, that three of the largest steamers of the Austrian Lloyds Company were brought up, and sunk within twelve hours after the battle. So hurriedly | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929086 | was the whole done that no time was given to remove the stewards stores, and the vessels went down as they stood! This reminds me of a little incident, for whose exact truth I can guarantee. On the day of the battle of Solferino, the Austrian Envoy at Rome dined with the Cardinal Antonelli. It was a very joyous little | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929087 | dinner, each in the highest spirits--satisfied with the present, and full of hope for the future. The telegram which arrived at mid-day told that the troops were in motion, and that the artillery fire had already opened. The position was a noble one--the army full of spirit, and all confident that before the sun should set the tide of victory | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929088 | would have turned, and the white legions of the Danube be in hot pursuit of their flying enemy. Indeed, the Envoy came to dinner fortified with a mass of letters from men high in command, all of which assumed as indisputable that the French must be beaten. Of the Italians they never spoke at all. As the two friends sat | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929089 | over the dessert, they discussed what at that precise moment might be going on over the battle-field. Was the conflict still continuing? Had the French reserves been brought up? Had they, too, been thrown back, beaten and disordered? and where was the fourth corps under the Prince Napoleon? They were forty thousand strong--could they have arrived in time from the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929090 | Po? All these casualties, and many others, did they talk over, but never once launching a doubt as to the issue, or ever dreaming that the day was not to reverse all the late past, and bring back the Austrians in triumph to Milan. As they sat, the Prefect of Police was announced and introduced. He came with the list | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929091 | of the persons who were to be arrested and sent to prison--they were one hundred and eighteen, some of them among the first families of Rome--so soon as certain tidings of the victory arrived, and the game of reaction might be safe to begin. No news yet, Signor Prefetto! come back at ten, said the Cardinal At ten he presented | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929092 | himself once more. The Cardinal and his friend were taking coffee, but less joyous, it seemed, than before. At least they looked anxious for news, and started at every noise in the street that might announce new-come tidings. We have heard nothing since you were here, said the Cardinal. His Excellency thinks that, at a moment of immense exigency, they | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929093 | may not have immediately bethought them of sending off a despatch. There can be no doubt what the news will be when it comes, said the Envoy, and Id say, make the arrests at once. I dont know; Im not sure. I think Id rather counsel a little more patience, said the Cardinal. What if you were to come back | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929094 | at, let us say, midnight. The Prefect bowed, and withdrew. At midnight it was the same scene, only that the actors were more agitated; the Envoy, at least, worked up to a degree of impatience that bordered on fever; for while he persisted in declaring that the result was certain, he continued to censure, in very-severe terms, the culpable carelessness | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929095 | of those charged with the transmission of news. Ah! cried he, there it comes at last! and a loud summons at the bell resounded through the house. A telegram, Eminence, said the servant, entering with the despatch. The Envoy tore it open: there were but two words,--_Sanglante droute_. The Cardinal took the paper from the hands of the overwhelmed and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929096 | panic-struck minister, and read it. He stood for a few seconds gazing on the words, not a line or lineament in his face betraying the slightest emotion; then, turning to the Envoy, he said, Bon soir; allons dormir; and moved away with his usual quick little step, and retired. And all this time I have been forgetting the Italian fleet, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929097 | which lies yonder beneath me. The Garibaldi, that they took from the Neapolitans; the Duca di Genova, the Maria Adelaide, and the Regina are there, all screw-propellers of fifty guns each; the Etna, a steam-corvette; and some six or seven old sailing craft, used as school ships; and, lastly, the two cuirasse gunboats, Formidabile and Terribile, and which, with a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929098 | jealousy imitated from the French, no one is admitted on board of. They are provided with rams under the water-line, and have a strange apparatus by which about one-third of the deck towards the bow can be raised, like the lid of a snuff-box, leaving the forepart of the ship almost on a level with the water. Under what circumstances, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012929099 | and how, this provision is to be made available, I have not the very vaguest conception. These vessels were never intended as sea-going ships; and the batteries are an exaggeration of the mistake in the Gloire, for even with the slightest sea the ports must be closed. Besides this defect, they roll abominably, and with a full head of steam | 60 | gutenberg |
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