Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/467

Rh by his people, and is inviolably faithful to the statutes of the constitution. His portrait represents him as a bon-vivant, and perhaps it does not do him injustice. It is said that he expresses his surprise at his father having so long delayed to give Piedmont its constitution. For his part, he finds it in the highest degree comfortable and convenient to be a constitutional monarch. He need not hold himself responsible for that which goes forward in the state, as it all belongs to the ministers.

It is said, that of the King's three sons, the eldest is a remarkably gifted and promising youth. The eldest of the daughters, the Princess Clotilde, now thirteen, is said to resemble her heavenly mother.

There is, in a park-like grove in Turin, a beautiful white marble statue, representing an elderly man, sitting as in calm conversation. The countenance is noble and regular, and the lofty forehead denotes a thinker. It is the figure of Count Cesare Balbo, the noble Piedmontese aristocrat, and friend of liberty, of whom I have already spoken. He liked to assemble around him in his house the promising young men of Piedmont, and many of these have to thank his conversation, as well as his writings, for their insight into the nature of true, constitutional liberty, and also for the acquirement of higher views regarding the means by which a noble, self-conscious, popular life, is to be obtained. It is only two years since he was living and teaching in Turin, surrounded by numerous friends and pupils.

One notability of another kind—I beg pardon for the great leap!—I am in duty bound to mention before I