‘All Sicilians!’ said the chief.  ’We must give up the Nice programme; the general opinion is that we shall lose all if we try for too much.’  He added that he had hoped to carry out the Nice plan first, but now everything must be sacrificed to freeing Sicily.  And he asked Oliphant to join the Thousand, an offer which the adventurous Englishman never ceased to regret that he did not accept.  As it was, he elected to go all the same to Nice, where he was the spectator and became the historian of the arts which brought about the semblance of an unanimous vote in favour of annexation to France.

The ratification of the treaty—­which, by straining the constitution, was concluded without consulting Parliament—­was reluctantly given by the Piedmontese Chambers, the majority of members fearing the responsibility of upsetting an accomplished fact.  Cavour, when he laid down the pen after signing the deed of cession, turned to Baron de Talleyrand with the remark:  ‘Now we are accomplices!’ His face, which had been depressed, resumed its cheerful air.  In fact, though Napoleon’s dislike of the central annexations was unabated, he could no longer oppose them.  Victor Emmanuel accepted the four crowns of Central Italy, the people of which, during the long months of waiting, and under circumstances that applied the most crucial test to their resolution, had never swerved from the desire to form part of the Italian monarchy under the sceptre of the Re Galantuomo.  The King of Sardinia, as he was still called, had eleven million subjects, and on his head rested one excommunication the more.  The Bull fulminated against all who had, directly or indirectly, participated in the events which caused Romagna to change hands, was published a day or two before the opening of the new Parliament at Turin.

Addressing for the first time the representatives of his widened realm, Victor Emmanuel said:  ’True to the creed of my fathers, and, like them, constant in my homage to the Supreme Head of the Church, whenever it happens that the ecclesiastical authority employs spiritual arms in support of temporal interests, I shall find in my steadfast conscience and in the very traditions of my ancestors, the power to maintain civil liberty in its integrity, and my own authority, for which I hold myself accountable to God alone and to my people.’

The words:  ‘Della quale debbo ragione a Dio solo ed ai miei popoli,’ were added by the King to the speech prepared by his ministers; it was noticed that he pronounced them with remarkable energy.  The speech concluded:  ’Our country is no more the Italy of the Romans, nor the Italy of the Middle Ages; no longer the field for every foreign ambition, it becomes, henceforth, the Italy of the Italians.’

CHAPTER XIV

THE MARCH OF THE THOUSAND

1860

Origin of the Expedition—­Garibaldi at Marsala—­Calatafimi—­The
Taking of Palermo—­Milazzo—­The Bourbons evacuate Sicily.