Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/471

Rh and to become free as men who have attained to years of discretion, and it would grieve me if thou wast not of the same mind, if thou wouldst not give thy voice for the highest sacred right of this people! Piedmont is at this moment a witness before the world, that what Italy desires it can also attain. Piedmont has taken the first step out of the realm of the ideal into that of reality, yet still adhering to the ideal. Can this path be pursued without Italy coming into conflict with the sole governing principle of the Roman Catholic church, that of a right over the human conscience and belief? I think not. No: Catholicism must be born again, must be regenerated in the source of the gospel, if it is to become a religious creed for an independent people possessed of political and civil liberty. This is evident to me, and—perhaps may arise more than one bloody recompense upon the people who persecuted with fire and sword the faithful professors of the gospel during centuries. Piedmont has liberated, has adopted its first witness, the Waldenses; Piedmont has perhaps, in so doing, obtained for herself full amnesty from the Supreme Judge. Be it so!

I can now leave Turin with a good conscience. I have seen Monte Viso and M. de Cavour; but how am I to leave it? That is the question. Tidings arrive daily of the devastation occasioned by the floods; bridges are washed away; railways broken up; nearly all communication is uncertain; the road from Turin to Genoa is said to be impassable, and it was to Genoa that I now intended to proceed. They