The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-9 in Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany / With Some Examination of the Previous Thirty-three Years

by C. Edmund Maurice

But in the meantime the people were not idle. The Italians in Vienna managed to keep up a secret correspondence with their countrymen in Lombardy, and to warn them that new troops might be sent against them; while the Milanese managed to circulate secret proclamations which stirred the hopes of their fellow Lombards. On the 16th or 17th of March one of these proclamations appeared, containing a final protest against all the tyrannies exercised by Austria in Lombardy since 1815, down to the massacres of 1848. The composers of the proclamation concluded by finally declaring their resolution "to feel as Italians, to think as Italians, to will once for all to be Italians; to resolve to break once and for all the infamous treaty that has sold our liberties without our consent; to exercise our rights as men, our revenge as Italians." Thus, by some mysterious freemasonry, the champions of liberty in Milan had gradually been drawn together and prepared for action; and when on the 17th of March the news arrived that the Viennese insurrection had succeeded, that liberty of the Press had been granted, and that the Congregations of Lombardy as well as the estates of the other parts of the Empire were to be called together, the news gave the signal for insurrection. The Congregations which, up to the time of Nazari's speech, had been so silent and helpless, and whose uselessness had been further proved by the failure of that very protest, could not be accepted as the representatives of national life; and the suggestion of freedom of the Press while Radetzky remained in Milan could only supply a subject for a caricature.

The leading spirit in the Milanese movement, so far as it is possible to single out any individual, was Augusto Anfossi. He had been born in Nice and educated by the Jesuits. That education, in this as in so many other cases, had produced the most violent reaction; and Anfossi's first claim to distinction was a bitter attack on his former teachers. In consequence of this, he had been compelled to fly to France; and he had served for a time in the French Army; but his hopes had been raised by the accession of Charles Albert; and he had returned to Piedmont to experience the disappointment shared by the other Liberals of that period. The punishments which followed the risings of 1831 had driven him again into exile; and he had then joined in the rising of the Egyptians against the Turks. But the movements of 1848 once more called his attention to Piedmont; and he now hastened to Milan and drew up a proclamation which was adopted and issued by the leaders of the insurrection. How little these leaders could have foreseen the actual result of the struggle may be gathered from the contents of the proclamation; for, eloquent and enthusiastic as are its opening words, its demands fall far short of the claim for that complete independence which the Lombards were for a time to achieve; while so little did the Milanese recognize the determined savagery of their opponents that the seventh demand made in this proclamation was that "neutral relations should be established with the Austrian troops, while we guarantee to them respect and the means of subsistence." But the only really important point in the proclamation was its final summons to the people to meet at three p.m. the next day in the Corsia dei Servi; and this appeal roused not merely the hopes, but the impatience of the people.

Three hours before the time appointed, while Casati and the Municipal Council were deliberating in the Broletto, or town-hall, they heard loud shouts in the streets of "Death to the Germans!" and "Long live Italy!" Then a crowd bearing sticks covered with the Italian colours entered the Broletto, and required that Casati and the leading Councillors should come with them at once to O'Donnell, to demand the establishment of a Civic Guard, and the placing of the police under the municipal authorities. Cesare Correnti, one of the Council, urged the leaders of the movement to trust to the municipality; but Enrico Cernuschi, one of the organizers of the movement, refused to yield to this suggestion; and a man named Beretta seized Casati by the arm to lead him to the Governor. O'Donnell was startled at this sudden demonstration: and Casati, on his part, was equally astonished at the position into which he had been forced. He shook hands with O'Donnell and encouraged him to look on him as a friend; and it was, perhaps, in reliance on this help that O'Donnell ventured at first to refuse the proposals to subject the police to the Municipal Council and to surrender their arms to the Civic Guard. Cernuschi, however, insisted that O'Donnell should not only yield these points, but that he should sign his name to his concessions. O'Donnell, in terror, consented; and then Casati desired to send a messenger to Torresani, the head of the police, to secure his approval of the concessions. But the movement had gone far beyond Casati's control; and, while his messenger was hastening to put the matter before Torresani in proper diplomatic form, Cernuschi and his friends had rushed to an armourer's shop to avail themselves of their new privilege.

But, as they still wished to place the Municipal Council, as far as possible, at the head of their movement, they carried their arms to the Broletto, where they demanded to be enrolled in the new Civic Guard. In the meantime, Torresani had refused to act without Radetzky's authority, and Radetzky was furious at the news of O'Donnell's concessions. Hearing that one of his officers, who was ill in bed, had offered to give his sanction to these concessions, the savage General threatened to have him dragged from his bed and shot, if he did not at once recall the order; and troops were despatched to the Broletto to suppress the movement. Casati, indeed, had fled from the scene of action, and taken refuge in a private house; but the people, who had brought the arms to the Broletto, closed the gates against Radetzky's force; and, though they had only fifty guns with them, they prepared to defy the Austrian cannon, backed by more than 2,000 soldiers. The proposal to capitulate was rejected with scorn; and, from seven to nine p.m., this little band, many of them boys, defended the Municipal Council Hall. But it was impossible to conquer against such odds; and at last the Austrian soldiers broke in, attacked all whom they found there, whether armed or unarmed; hurled down into the streets some boys whom they found on the roofs, hung one little child, and marched off the rest of their prisoners to the castle, to be tortured by Radetzky.

But, as they were actually on their way to the castle, the victorious soldiers met some of their comrades who were flying before the citizens. Augusto Anfossi had been, in the meantime, reducing into order the gallant, but undisciplined defenders of their country; and, before the morning of the 19th, stones and wood had been put together and fastened with iron; and thus secure barricades had risen in many of the streets. Amongst other interesting materials for the barricades may be mentioned O'Donnell's carriage, which had been seized for this purpose. Radetzky, startled at the vigour of the opposition, wrote to Ficquelmont that "the nature of this people is changed as if by magic; fanaticism has infected every age, every class, and both sexes." In his alarm he offered to grant the demand which had been made in the morning, that the police should be placed under the command of the Municipal Council. Casati would, even then, have accepted this as a settlement of the struggle; but he was now quite powerless. For, while he was signing decrees, and appointing as head of the police a man who was still prisoner to the Austrians, the bells throughout Milan were ringing for a storm.

At no stage of the struggle were there greater efforts of heroism than on this 19th of March. At the bridge of San Damiano two men held at bay a whole corps of Austrians; not far from the Porta Romana another champion carried off some youthful scholars, one after another, on his shoulders, in the face of a body of Croats. Guns were often wanting, but the insurgents used swords and sticks instead. The Tyrolese fired from the tower of the cathedral upon the people, and the cannons from the Piazza Mercante played upon them; but three cannoneers were killed, and at last the cannon were captured by the Milanese. The 19th of March was a Sunday; and, as the congregation came out from mass in the church of San Simpliciano, they were attacked by the Austrians and driven back into the church. Food was brought them from neighbouring houses; and they retained their position till four o'clock in the afternoon, when they succeeded in making their escape. Nor were there wanting touches of the Milanese humour to relieve the terrors of the fight; boys sometimes exhibiting a cat, sometimes a broomstick with a cap on it, as a mark for the Austrians to fire at. But the fiercest fight raged at the Porta Nuova, on the south side of the town, where Augusto Anfossi commanded in person. There a band of Austrian grenadiers brought their cannon to bear on the defenders of the city; and Anfossi had a long and fierce struggle before he could drive them back. At last, however, he made his way to the gate; and, lifting on high the Italian flag, he kissed it, and planted it on the arch of the gateway.

On the 20th the Austrians began to show signs of giving way. The Tyrolese fled down the giddy staircases of the Cathedral tower and escaped through secret passages; and the family of Torresani fell into the hands of the insurgents. But the Milanese, though they had seen their children spitted on the bayonets of the soldiers, their women insulted, and the prisoners tortured by Radetzky, were ready to take charge of the family of one of their worst tyrants, and to protect them from violence. Even the brutal Bolza, when he became a prisoner in their hands, was carefully guarded from ill-treatment; and he is said to have been so much impressed by this unexpected magnanimity that he died penitent. Again offers of compromise were made by the Austrians, and a truce of fifteen days was proposed till the officers could hear from Vienna. Again Casati hesitated; but again his hesitation had no effect on the struggle.