I was careful not to betray the depth of my thoughts. This persecution had altered my frame of mind on the subject of the journey to Prague; I was as desirous now of taking it alone in the interests of my Sovereign as I had been opposed to doing so with her when the roads were open to her. I dissimulated my real feelings and, wishing to keep the Governor to his good intentions of giving me a passport, I increased his loyal anxiety; I replied:
"Monsieur le gouverneur, you are suggesting a difficult thing to me. You know Madame la Duchesse de Berry; she is not a woman to be led as one pleases: if she has made up her mind, nothing will make her change it. Who knows? Perhaps it suits her to be arrested by the Emperor of Austria, her uncle[236], even as she was put in gaol by Louis-Philippe, her uncle! The legitimate kings and the illegitimate kings will be acting alike; Louis-Philippe will have dethroned the son of Henry IV., Francis II. will prevent the meeting of mother and son; M. le Prince de Metternich will relieve M. le Général Bugeaud at his post: that will be perfect!"
The Governor was beside himself:
"Ah, viscount, how right you are! That propaganda, why, it's everywhere! That youth no longer pays any attention to us! Not even so much in the Venetian States as in Lombardy and Piedmont!"
"And the Papal States!" I exclaimed. "And Naples! And Sicily! And the banks of the Rhine! And the whole world!"
"Ah, ah, ah!" cried the Governor. "We can't remain like this, always sword in hand, with an army under arms, without fighting. France and England an example to our peoples! A Young Italy now, after the Carbonari! Young Italy! Who ever heard of such a thing?"
"Monsieur," I said, "I will make every effort to persuade Madame to give you a few days; you must be so good as to grant me a passport: that concession alone can prevent Her Royal Highness from following her first resolve."
The Deputy of Padua.
"I will take it upon myself," said the reassured Governor, "to allow Madame to pass through Venice on her way to Trieste; if she loiters a little along the roads, she will reach the latter town at just the same time as the orders which you are going to fetch, and we shall be saved. The Deputy of Padua will give you your visa for Prague, in exchange for which you will leave a letter declaring Her Royal Highness' resolve not to go beyond Trieste. What a time! What a time! I congratulate myself upon being an old man, my dear and illustrious viscount, so that I cannot see what is going to happen."
While insisting on the passport, I inwardly reproached myself for perhaps somewhat abusing the Governor's perfect straightforwardness; for he might be held more guilty for allowing me to go to Bohemia than he would have been had he yielded to the Duchesse de Berry. My sole dread was lest some sly-boots of the Italian Police should put obstacles in the way of the visa. When the Deputy of Padua came to me, I found that he had a secretarial mien, a clerkly bearing, a prefect's air, like a man brought up in the French civil service. This bureaucratic capacity made me tremble. As soon as he had assured me that he had been a commissary in the Army of the Allies in the Department of the Bouches-du-Rhône, my hope revived: I attacked my enemy by taking straight aim at his self-respect I declared that the discipline of the troops stationed in Provence had been remarked upon. I knew nothing about it, but the Deputy, replying with an overflow of admiration, hastened to finish my business: I had no sooner obtained my visa than I ceased to care.