the Piedmontese revolution, may be regarded as its forerunner. It moreover exposed to view the struggle of the two parties at the head of affairs, and showed which was the strongest; though the King was a stranger to it, from his benevolence.

The students of Turin had created much disturbance at the theatre of Angennes: it was but the turbulence of youth, which it would have been easy to restrain. On the night of the 11th January some of them decked themselves in red caps-an article of dress not uncommon in the provinces adjoining Lombardy, and having no sort of connexion with the events of 1793. The police take the alarm, and the young simpletons are arrested; their comrades surround them, and try to set them at liberty; but the police proves strongest, and they are carried off.

The matter should have rested here: there was nothing to be done but to enforce the existing laws. The University enjoyed privileges, of which, however, only a part of the students could avail themselves: yet several of those who had been taken up, were legally entitled to them. The police thought fit to give éclat to an incident, which was not of a nature to demand it. Absolute governments have all a kind of fondness for punishing without trial, or before trial, and they think they discover in a prison the secret of most things. On the 12th the students arrested the over-night were conducted to two different state-prisons, at a distance from the capital, and a point was made of passing them through Turin with the parade of a numerous escort. Their comrades become incensed; they claim their privileges, and the respect due to their tutelary laws. The Professors endeavour to appease them; but they could not deny the justice or legality of their complaints. In the afternoon the piazzas of the Rue du Pô are seen filled with students. A detachment of Carbineers keeps within the College its numerous pensioners, all young people under 25 years, who might otherwise have given a serious turn to the affair. A second detachment appears in the Rue du Pô, and is saluted with hootings. The Carbineers pass without taking the least notice. This conduct on the part of the public force deceived these hasty young men, who fancied that the government feared them. They take possession of the University, unpave the great Court, intrench themselves in the gateway with benches, and declare they will not separate till they have obtained the liberty of their comrades. Count Balba, the home minister, who was also head of the University, endeavoured to recall the students to reason. He went amongst them; they applauded, but demanded justice of him. He used the language of a fond though strict father; but they insisted on the liberation of the students: the tone of this demand became alarming. Count Balba promised nothing, neither

did any thing that fell from him announce the intention of employing force; and it is certain that these young men had no idea that their complaints would be answered by the sabre; they were even told they should have an answer in two hours. A quarter of an hour had elapsed, and the answer was brought by four companies of grenadiers.

The principle of severity got the better. But it will be seen presently, whether the authors of this determination had no other motive than to restore order, or whether they were desirous of intimidating public opinion by a cruel lesson. It is but justice to say that Count Balba was in no way to blame. He had recourse only to mild measures, and would have been placed in an unpleasant predicament by the event, if his reputation for probity had not placed him even beyond the reach of suspicion.

. I must observe, that the number of these students did not exceed 200 or 300: they had, it is true, arrived at the highest degree of presumption (exaltation). They walked about under the piazzas like madmen, exclaiming: "We demand our comrades, and we will have them, cost us what it may." They wrung their hands, embraced each other, swearing to live and die together; but, amidst all this folly, no cry of revolt was set up amongst them. The word Constitution was never named by them. They were mere children, aggravated by injustice.

The grenadiers arrive at seven o'clock at night; they were commanded by the Chevalier Ignace Thaon de Revel, Count of Pratolongo, governor of Turin. Several officers belonging to different regiments, and some of the body-guard, followed the Governor by an impulse that might have been termed zeal, if the conduct of the greater part of them had not stamped it with a very different character. Count Castelborgo, commandant of the province, began to harangue the students, who thereupon threw several stones at the grenadiers. I confess this circumstance: but it is also true, that there was scarcely time for these young people to hear the warning to retire: for there were persons present who reflected with pain on the bloody scene which was about to take place, whilst others regarded as a mere form the words spoken by the Governor to the grenadiers on quitting their barracks: "Remember that they are but children." Besides, the Governor was there ; and it behoved him to prove that these expressions came from the heart of this we shall be able to judge. The doors are broke open, and the unarmed students dispersed by the bayonet. Some stones thrown from the galleries terminate a resistance, which could not but prove fruitless. Nothing would have been easier at this time than to stop the effusion of blood, and bring every thing back to order; but this was not the object of a certain party.

The students are pursued up the staircases, into the schools, even to the Professors' chairs; and, shocking to relate, there were young men sabred in the chapel, and on the very steps of the altar! In the midst of this disgraceful carnage, it is pleasing to be able to mention some names without blushing. Colonel Ciravegna kept back his grenadiers, and, wrapped in his cloak, and favored by his tall figure, saved more than one victim. Count Cesar Balba, son of the minister, and the Chevalier Angelino Olivieri, rushed into the thick of the fray to restrain the soldiers.

Five and twenty students were carried off wounded to the hospital; many others, although wounded, contrived to escape from the carbineers, and reach their homes. It was soon ascertained that there were few of the wounded that had not received sabre cuts. Some, indeed, had been slashed, and others maimed in a shocking manner. It was not then by the bayonet that the most blood was shed! a circumstance that was repeated with horror in every company. Cries of indignation arose; and there seemed to be but one opinion. Never was public feeling more forcibly expressed, especially by the women; and the odious appellation of Sabreurs was applied to certain officers, whom I shall abstain from naming; they are in fact already too well known.

The University was not shut up; but many of the students were sent to their homes, and the remainder dispersed in several schools that were opened in different quarters of the town. Patroles of horse were continually traversing the streets of Turin.

The Government thought, or affected to think, that the 12th of January 1821 was a sort of prelude to revolution; it was no such thing. The friends of liberty were total strangers to the enter prise of these scholars, and had lamented its sad termination: but it was easy to foresee that the event would be attended with results favorable to the Liberal cause. Public opinion had proclaimed that the popular hatred would be entailed on those soldiers who should embrue their hands in the blood of their brethren; and facts, speaking a language to which alone the common people will listen, taught them how many misfortunes may be brought on by the non-execution of the laws, and the capricious conduct of the police: but it was highly important that the great cause should not be stained by acts of individual vengeance. This was the object of our most anxious solicitude. There were some among the students whose minds were filled with wrath: they went to see their friends in the hospital, they heard their groans, they witnessed those suf

A rumour was whispered at Turin, of the death of several students, whose bodies, it was said, had been removed under cover of night, and secretly buried. I have heard some probable grounds as to this fact; but probabilities are not proofs, and I therefore give it only as a popular report.

orders to take arms. From Alexandria there was no news. SantaRosa, Saint-Marsan, Lisio, and Collegno, reunited themselves. There was but one voice; "Let us depart." In twenty minutes Saint-Marsan and Lisio find themselves on the roads of Verceil and Pignerol; Santa-Rosa followed: Lisio.

I shall follow the various movements of the Revolution, stating only what I know to be true; but I shall not say all the truth; lest my words might prove injurious to some friends of liberty who remain at the mercy of their persecutors. However, the cir cumstances I shall conceal or pass lightly over, make no alteration in the character of the facts. I can say all that is important; if it were otherwise I should not have taken the pen.

The movement at Alexandria commenced on the 10th of March at two in the morning. The Count of Palma, captain, caused the regiment of Genoa, quartered in the citadel, to take arms, and proclaimed the Constitution to the cries of Vive le Roi! The King's dragoons, led by the Chevalier Baronis and the Chevalier Bianco, the former capt., and the latter lieut., silently leave their different barracks, assemble at the Bridge of Tanaro, find the city gate open, by the care of the officer commanding the post, and enter the citadel; the citizens united for the Italian cause, soon forming a battalion, enter with them. Ansaldi, lieut.-col. of Savoy, takes the command of the citadel, and forms a provisional junto, composed of Urbain Ratazzi, Appiano, Dossena, and. Luzzi, citizens of Alexandria, and de Palma, Baronis, and Bianco, officers. Ansaldi, the president, signifies to the Chevalier de Varax his appointment as governor of Alexandria, and requires the necessary rations for the troops.

The Chevalier Collegno, and Radice, capt. of artil., arrived in the citadel on the 11th, and the Marquis de Saint-Marsan, on the evening of the same day. His measures, for deciding at that moment the dragoons of the Queen, of which he was second colonel, and for declaring himself for the cause of his country, had been disconcerted by the Count de Sambuy, colonel of the corps, who reached Verceil some hours before him.'

'Some journals have formed out of this subject a history without one word of truth. Charles de Saint-Marsan neither saw his regiment nor Col. Sambuy then; his friends came to meet him, found him at some distance from Verceil, informed him of the state of affairs, and compelled him to retrace his steps.

M. de Beauchamp states this fact differently. It was the chef d'escadron Lisio, according to him, who endeavoured to excite the garrison de Novare to revolt on the 9th of March, and who failed in his designs, thanks to the vigilance of the Count de la Jour. It may be seen that M. Beauchamp is exceedingly careful in the accuracy of his details, and that the particular tokens of which he speaks in his preface have perfectly answered his pur

pose.

a strong light the liberality of his principles and the warmth of his patriotism, it also became evident that there was no question of employing force. The Marquis de Prié could have no other fault in the eyes of government than having spoken for some time past the language of freedom. The crime of the Chevalier Perron consisted in an ardent but ill-dissembled attachment to the great Italian cause.

But the Court and the Ministers in general entertained a deep resentment against Prince Cisterna and his friends. He publicly professed his opposition to government, and had kept himself aloof from public affairs from the time of the death of his father, and in his name had solicited certain legal exemptions, not with the view of depriving the creditors of his family of their rights, as many of the Noblesse have done, but in order more promptly to satisfy the incumbrances on his entailed estates. His situation in society, his generous disposition, his personal acquirements, in short every thing seemed to designate him for the leader of a party, and as one who would be the more likely to justify the confidence of the Italian Liberals, because he had no vestige remaining of that aristocratic spirit which might give them alarm. He however never assumed that post; and I have always considered as unfortunate for the country those circumstances which kept him at a distance from Piedmont during the winter of 1820, and caused him to be thrown into a state-prison the moment he arrived.

The arrests I have mentioned were a warning to the friends of liberty to make a proper estimate of their forces, and to set them in motion without further delay. The Austrian army was in full march, and could not retrace its steps with the view of overwhelming us before we were prepared to receive it. It was besides important to encourage the Neapolitans after their first encounters, by the display of an auxiliary force at the other extremity of Italy. Some people thought it would be better for us to wait the issue of affairs in Naples; but most of the leaders of the conspiracy considered, that if these encounters, however unimportant, should turn out to the disadvantage of the Neapolitans, the Piedmontese would grow cool in the cause.

'It will be concluded, from all I have said of the character of the King, that he did not participate in this resentment; I have even reason to think that he felt the greatest reluctance in consenting to the recent arrests. It is false, besides, that a letter of Prince Cisterna to his sister, seized amongst his correspondence, was transmitted to its address unopened. The author of the pamphlet entitled Thirty Days' Revolution,' who relates this fact, has been misinformed. The letter was returned to Prince Cisterna, open, after he came out of prison. I wish to believe that the King has respected family secrets; but he has either not enjoined his Police Minister to respect them also, or he has been ill obeyed.