LOUIS NAPOLEON’S INTERVENTION
[1857-1859 A.D.]
That war between Sardinia and Austria was merely a question of time became apparent to everyone toward the end of the fifties. Fortunately for Sardinia, Austria’s position was an isolated one owing to the enmity which her attitude during the Crimean War had won for her from Russia, and her inborn jealousy and distrust of Prussia. The many-headed German confederation was not in a position to interfere in political questions of world-importance, and it was Napoleon’s most earnest endeavour to reconcile Russia with France and Sardinia that a restoration of the alliance which had received its death-blow in the Crimean War might be made impossible for the future. It was not long before Russian men-of-war were to be seen in the Mediterranean, and Napoleon’s efforts on behalf of France were no less successful. The cautious emperor Napoleon might not have been so ready to champion the weaker side had it not been for the attempt on his life made by Orsini, as described in volume XIII.
The emperor had once held close relations with the Italian patriots, had even been a member of an Italian secret society, and now, regarded by his former associates as a traitor to their cause, he was condemned by them to death. In February a letter written by Orsini was made public in which he adjured the emperor to restore to Italy the independence it had lost in 1849 through France’s fault; to free it forever from the Austrian yoke. “Without Italian independence,” the letter closed, “the peace of Europe, even your majesty’s own safety is but an empty dream. Free my unhappy fatherland and the blessings of twenty-five million people will follow you into the next world.”
On the 13th of March Orsini and Pieri perished on the scaffold, the two remaining accomplices having been deported to America. The courage with which Orsini met death, and the love of country he manifested up to his last breath aroused universal sympathy. What Orsini living had failed to bring about, he accomplished dead. While the murderous attempt was made the pretext for robbing France of all freedom by means of the security law of the 28th of January, Napoleon in conjunction with Cavour—who with artful smoothness calmed his imperial associate’s anger toward Italy, the hotbed of conspiracies—proceeded to carry out the wishes of Orsini.
Several weeks later Cavour held a secret conference with Napoleon at which plans regarding Italy were perfected. “Italy to be free as far as Adria; the whole of upper Italy to be united in a kingdom, France to be enlarged by the annexation of Savoy,” these were the terms agreed upon in the interview. It was further proposed that the bond between the two reigning houses should be made still firmer by the betrothal of Prince Napoleon Bonaparte with Clotilde, the daughter of Victor Emmanuel.[32]