“But that is not all,” said the bride's mother, who, though older than my comtesse, yet, as being handsomer and much richer, still kept her place as a belle, “we have a few trifles here besides.” And a set of pearls, a watch, rich chain, and all sorts of those ornamental trifles called breloques, were successively exhibited.
“And all this from your futur?” Thérèse smilingly assents. “My child, you are indeed happy!” and the marquise kisses her with warmth, mentally weighing the chances of finding for her own daughter, when she comes home from the convent where she is being educated, a match equal in wealth or munificence.
“Then there are all the other pretty presents and souvenirs,” and the mamma opens a cabinet of ivory and ebony, from the drawers of which she produces an infinite variety of morocco cases, some round, some long, some oval-shaped. Bracelets, ah, what bracelets! Enamelled, gem-encrusted, plain, arabesqued, inland, circles of emeralds and pearls, gold and coral, diamonds and rubies. Earrings too, and brooches to correspond. Crosses and lockets: a perfect shopful of trinkets. It is the realization of many a maiden's dream; surely of thine, Thérèse!
Every relation of the two families, almost every acquaintance, was here represented; the ambition of not being outdone in generosity on these occasions of almost public display, leading many of the donors, as the comtesse had truly said, and as I found confirmed by general opinion, to regard as a heavy tribute to custom that which should be the spontaneous offering of friendship. But a truce to such reflections. The marquise has produced her present, and a glittering bauble of some three hundred francs' value is added to the young bride's collection.
Fortunate Thérèse! Her wedding dress is now brought forward. Being summer time, white muslin has been selected as the most appropriate material, but this is so richly embroidered as to render it most costly. Her mother relates with complacency that the dressmaker has just sent her word that so magnificent a toilette de mariée has never issued from her work-rooms. Thérèse drinks all this in with silent rapture. What would it matter if she had to marry the Beast in the fairy-tale, with the certainty he could never turn into the Prince to boot, so long as all these joys are hers? Of her future husband, except as the appendage to their possession, she clearly never thinks, never has been taught to think. For the results of a marriage of affection such as this, the comtesse need have no fears.
CHAPTER XXXV.
The House of Savoy—Its warlike princes—The Green Count—Prostration of Piedmont—Persecution of the Vaudois—The Island of Sardinia—Genoa added to Piedmont—The constitution of 1848—War with Austria—Victor Emmanuel.
I shall not even take up one of the very few pages left at my disposal by any descriptions of the royal palace, the armoury, the churches, the houses of parliament, and the various other sights of Turin; neither do I purpose indulging in any further feminine gossip respecting its domestic manners. I will rather close these sketches of Italian life and contemporary history with a brief account of the rise and development of the Sardinian monarchy, which has proved the nucleus of Italian independence.
The founder of the House of Savoy, the oldest reigning house in Europe, was Beroldo, a powerful vassal of the King of Burgundy, who in the year 1000 was invested with the fief of Maurienne, in Savoy, in the possession of which he was succeeded by his eldest son, Umberto the White-handed; so named, it is recorded, from the unspotted honour and integrity of all his dealings.
It is good for a family, whether royal or otherwise, to have the example of such an ancestor to emulate; and accordingly, we find his successors, in an age when the code of Chivalry embodied all the virtues deemed essential to the well-being of society, proving themselves good knights and true, and spreading the fame of their prowess far beyond the narrow limits of their territories. By his marriage with Adelaide of Susa, a powerful and gifted princess, who brought as her dowry a considerable portion of the most fertile parts of Piedmont, the Count Oddone, fourth of his line, established a footing on the Italian side of the Alps, which secured Turin, Susa, Pignerol, and the valleys since so famous as the abode of the Waldenses, together with the title of Marquis of Italy to his descendants.