Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/448

464 and the Piedmontese army, and the many fine actions of the honest allies, the campaign soon became a retreat, sometimes a flight.

In August, 1848, Carlo Alberto saw himself necessitated to conclude a truce with Austria, which was nothing less than honorable to Piedmont.

But nevertheless, the prospects of the other Italian States were far worse. After an actual Bacchanalian of joy and freedom, in which these people forgot all moderation and sense, a time of blood-stained sorrow succeeded. The Pope and the Monarchs, driven back by the people's intoxication of freedom, relapsed into the old state, under shelter of the cannon of France and Austria. Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, were all compelled within a few months to lay down their arms and submit themselves to their former rulers, mercy or no mercy. Nearly all the rights and immunities, which had been promised to the people, or which they had obtained for themselves, they were now compelled to resign. The free constitutions were withdrawn, or no more spoken of; “the people could not govern themselves; they had just proved it; they must be ruled and governed as formerly!”

The supporters of freedom and the patriots bled, were imprisoned, or they dispersed on all sides.

In one only of the Italian States, in Piedmont alone, the liberal movement did not go backwards. Carlo Alberto had given a constitution to his people; he alone, of all the Italian princes, did not retake that which he had given. Amidst raging war—amidst the bitterest opposition, he continued to allow its statutes to be carried out and to take effect. Piedmont