"In consequence, we shall retire beyond the walls with our army, confiding in the loyalty and the love of our subjects for the preservation of order and for respect being shown to authority.
"In taking this determination we are conscious of a duty which our ancient and uncontested rights, our honor, the interest of our heirs and successors, and more than all, the welfare of our most beloved subjects, have imposed upon us, and therefore we protest loudly against all acts which have been accomplished up to this time, and against the events which are on the point of completion, or which may be accomplished in future. We reserve, then, all our rights and privileges, arising from the most sacred and incontestable laws of succession as well as from the force of treaties, and we declare solemnly that all the aforesaid acts and events are null, void, and of no effect. For what concerns us we leave our cause, and the cause of our people, in the hands of Almighty God, under the firm conviction that during the short space of our reign we have not entertained a single thought that was not devoted to the happiness and the good of our subjects. The institutions which we have irrevocably guaranteed are the proof of this.
"This protest of ours will be transmitted to every court, and we desire that, signed by us, provided with the seal of our royal arms, and countersigned by our minister of foreign affairs, it should be preserved in our royal offices of the exterior, of the privy council and of grace of justice, as a record of our firm resolution always to oppose reason and right to violence and usurpation.
(Signed,)
"Francesco II.
"De Martino.
"Naples, Sept. 6, 1860."
ROYAL PROCLAMATION.
"Among the duties prescribed to kings, those of the days of misfortunes are the grandest and the most solemn, and I intend to fulfill them with resignation, free from weakness, and with a serene and confident heart, as befits the descendants of so many monarchs.