a high character. In his disputes with the Pope, he successfully maintained the right of the state to make all ecclesiastical appointments; and the concordat was confirmed by Benedict the Fourteenth, in 1742. The new code of 1770 was in advance of the times, and the country flourished under its provisions. But these incidental advantages were not sufficient to modify the natural influence of despotism upon the character of the people; and the acknowledged superiority of the Sardinians in vigor and breadth of nature is, perhaps, not less owing to local and social circumstances. Among these we are disposed to reckon the variety of elements that constitute the state; it combines interior plains with mountains and sea-coast the fertile levels of Asti and Alessandria, and the distant island of Sardinia; while Piedmont, as its name suggests, lies at the foot of the Pennine Alps (in which are the Great Saint Bernard on her north), and of the Grecian and Cottian Alps, including Mont Blanc and Mont Cenis, towards France and Savoy; in the direction of the south are the Maritime Alps, separating her from Genoa and Nice.

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Another propitious influence that distinguishes Piedmont is the existence of a large body of Protestants, whose contests with the Catholic power early broke up the monotony of prescriptive opinion, and tended to enlighten and invigorate the adjacent people. Milton's noble sonnet to the Waldenses of Piedmont is a familiar memorial of their heroism and sufferings. Protected by their mountain barriers, they defeated the army of the Pope, who lost not less than seven hundred men in the struggle. The actual effect, however, of so complete a despotism as that which originally invested the territory, has been described in a vivid and graphic manner by another poet. Alfieri, in his ingenuous autobiography, gives us a melancholy picture of an education under royal authority. His fame is one of the redeeming associations that beguile the traveller at Turin.

In 1798, Charles Emanuel the Fourth ceded his whole territory to the French, with the exception of the island of Sardinia; and, four years subsequently, abdicated in favor of his brother, who, upon his return after the peace of Paris, in 1815, restored the old constitution as far as practicable, reädmitted the Jesuits, subscribed to the Holy Alliance, and established a rigorous cen

sorship. The next year, harassed by the occupation of his kingdom by the Austrians, he also resigned in favor of his brother, Charles Felix. The Congress of Vienna, in 1822, provided for the evacuation of foreign troops; but, before three years had elapsed, the usual enactments of arbitrary power crushed whatever germs of a liberal policy remained. By a royal edict, such of the inhabitants as were not possessed of at least four hundred dollars were forbidden to acquire the first elements of learning; and only those having a certain investment in the funds were allowed to enter the university. Translations of Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, and other authors, were prohibited. From time to time, formidable conspiracies against a government so tyrannical were discovered; the most important, that of 1821, was not without temporary success, since the regent, Charles Albert, was compelled to swear to the Spanish constitution. The spirit of the age and the lessons of experience were not altogether lost upon this prince, whose real character seems but recently to have been appreciated. We can desire no better evidence of his sincere love of country, and benign projects, than the fact that, many years since, when comparative tranquillity prevailed in Europe, he was accustomed to hold long and confidential interviews with our representative at his court, for the purpose of eliciting information as to the means and method of gradually ameliorating the institutions not only of Sardinia, but of Italy.

He long cherished the hope of giving her national unity, of combining from all her states an efficient army, and thus expelling the Austrians from the soil. This he believed to be the first step towards a constitutional government; popular education and military training he more or less encouraged in his own dominions, with this great ultimate object in view; and he certainly possessed the most efficient native troops, and the best-founded popularity, among the Italian princes. Since his death, impartial observers concur in deeming him far more unfortunate than treacherous; a reäction has justly taken place in the public estimation of his motives and career; and no candid inquirer can fail to recognize in him a brave ruler, who gave a decided

impulse to liberal ideas, advanced the Italian cause, and became one of its involuntary martyrs.

"Yea, verily, Charles Albert has died well;

And if he lived not all so, as one spoke,

The sin passed softly with the passing bell.

For he was shriven, I think, in cannon-smoke,
And, taking off his crown, made visible

A hero's forehead. Shaking Austria's yoke,
He shattered his own hand and heart. 'So best.'

His last words were, upon his lonely bed,
'I do not end like popes and dukes at least,
Thank God for it.' And now that he is dead,
Admitting it is proved and manifest

That he was worthy, with a discrowned head,
To measure heights with patriots, let them stand
Beside the man in his Oporto shroud,

And each vouchsafe to take him by the hand,
And kiss him on the cheek, and say aloud,
Thou, too, hast suffered for our native land!
My brother, thou art one of us. Be proud!'

Into this amphibious country, -as Piedmont is quaintly called by the Italian tragic poet, into this kingdom composed of the fragments of shattered dynasties, the scene of religious persecution, the heritage of a long line of brave and despotic kings, who adorned it with magnificent temples of religion by taxes wrung from an ignorant people and extorted from a pampered nobility, -into this romantic land, crowned with Alpine summits and indented with emerald vales, a region memorable for many a hard-fought field, and which boasts the home of Rousseau, Alfieri, and Pellico, Massimo d'Azeglio was born, on the second of October, 1798. His family was both ancient and noble; his native city was Turin, a capital so near the confines of France as to be more exposed to the influx of Continental ideas than any other metropolis of the land. A more vigorous and intelligent race tread its streets, and a bolder peasantry dwell amid the mountains around, than belong to the sickly Campagna or the Lazzaroni shores; the soldier has a manlier bearing, and the priest a franker aspect; while in society, not only the language, but the enlightenment, of the French prevails. At the cafés you find

* Mrs. Browning's "Casa Guidi Windows."

more foreign journals, in the salons a less antediluvian tone; the mellow atmosphere of the past which broods over the more southern districts is here scarcely perceptible, and a certain modern air and freshness of life immediately strike the traveller from that direction, as he enters the Sardinian capital.

Here Azeglio's early education was strictly private; he then passed through the usual college tuition, entered the militia, and soon became an army officer. His natural tastes, however, were for art and politics. Accordingly, when sent minister to Rome, at a subsequent period, we find him assiduously cultivating the fine arts; and in a short time he became a skilful landscape painter. Here his latent and instinctive taste and capabilities · genially unfolded; the impressive ruins, the treasures of the Vatican, and the companionship of artists, continually informed and inspired his mind, which rapidly and gracefully developed in an atmosphere so accordant with its original bias. We frequently have occasion to remark the affinity between the fine arts and certain departments of literature; and seldom can this relation be traced with more charming effect than in the writings of D'Azeglio. The clearness of design, the felicitous adaptation of the atmosphere to the outline, the grouping, scenic descriptions, and fidelity to those laws of historical perspective, which are so analogous to the same principles in painting, all unfold themselves to the critical reader of his masterly narratives. We feel, as we read, that the best preparation for that species of literary art is the discipline of the accomplished draughtsman; for an historical romance, in its true significance, is like an elaborate picture, subject to the same conditions of light and shade, truth to fact and nature, and harmonious conception.

D'Azeglio delineates in language with a patient attention to details, a wise regulation of color, and a constant eye to unity of effect, which we at once refer to his studies in the Roman Academy and galleries, and his familiarity with the pencil and palette. It was not, however, until the maturity of his powers that his genius found scope in language. Before he had acquired fame as a novelist, the intrinsic qualities of the man won him an exalted place in the estimation of a circle of friends, including the most illustrious names of Lombardy. On his removal to Milan, in

1830, his urbanity of spirit, fluent expression, manliness, and evident intellectual ability, had thus gained him numerous admirers; and Rossi and Manzoni were among his most intimate and attached companions. It is an interesting coincidence, that the destined successor of the first of Italian novelists became his sonin-law. D'Azeglio espoused the daughter of Manzoni; and somewhat of the domestic pathos which gives a melancholy charm to his principal work is doubtless the reflection of his own sad experience, for but a single year of conjugal happiness followed his marriage, his bride having died soon after giving birth to a daughter.

The social character of Milan is rather literary than artistic; and it seems a natural inference, that, when the embryo statesman and clever landscape painter exchanged the Eternal City for the Lombard capital, and found himself in the centre of a distinguished group of patriotic men of letters, the chief of whom was bound to him by ties of family as well as sympathy of taste, he should catch the spirit of authorship, and seek to embody in that form the knowledge acquired in another field, and the aspirations that craved more emphatic utterance than could be expressed by the silent canvas. In 1833, therefore, appeared "Ettore Fieramosca, or the Challenge of Barletta," the best Italian historical romance since the "Promessi Sposi." Its easy and copious style, its truth of description and distinct characterization, the simplicity of its plot, and, above all, the thoroughly Italian nature of the argument, instantly established its popularity. The incident upon which the story is founded is as familiar to the historical reader as it is memorable in the annals of Italy; — that of a drawn battle between thirteen Italian and the same number of French knights, occasioned by the challenge of the former, for an imputation cast upon their national bravery by one of the latter. Sanctioned as was the encounter by the leaders of both armies, witnessed by a large concourse, including citizens and soldiers of France, Spain, and Italy, the ferocious zeal of the combatants, the duration of the struggle, the patriotic as well as individual sense of honor involved, and, finally, the signal triumph of the Italian arms, combine to render the scene one of intense interest.