Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/255

Rh Italy, from Alfieri to Uzo Foscolo, Gioberti, Guerazzi, Nicolino, Guiste, Lambruschini, Azeglio, and many others, who are living and laboring at this moment for the work of a peaceful liberation, the greater number in Piedmont, where alone, of all the Italian states, they can find shelter and safety. I learned that quite near to me, on the other side of the Alps, lived a noble people who were silently sighing after a freedom for which it fought and bled, but which did not possess strength enough to defend against powerful foes, both inward and outward; I learned that its heart beat and still burned, although silently, beneath the foot of the oppressor!

I sent for Signor Arduini to become my instructor; I read, with him, Dante, but soon laid him aside for the latest poets of Italy, Guist, so nobly bitter, so warm for his mother-land, (Povera Madre!) as he calls her; Nicolini, whose tragedy Arnoldi da Brescia advocates the rights of conscience in a style so noble, and beautiful; I became acquainted with the efforts of young Italy for a better education of her youth, for the freedom of thought, and the ennobling of life, and I heard the names of noble women mentioned as amongst the friends of the native land.

At the same time, I read the History of the Waldenses. I also now learned for the first time, that this little heroic flock of the oldest church, after centuries of persecutions, and of renewed combat for its faith and freedom, had, within a few years, won this liberty, and now lived happily in the valleys of Piedmont, protected by the King of Piedmont, and acknowledged by the laws, as a portion of its free people and