In 1867 Garibaldi made another attempt on Rome, but was arrested near Lake Thrasimene and sent back to Caprera.  Again he left his island, landed on the Tuscan coast, and advanced to Rome with his body of volunteers, and was again defeated and sent back to Caprera.  The government dealt mildly with this prince of filibusters, in view of his past services and his unquestioned patriotism.  His errors were those of the head and not of the heart.  He was too impulsive, too impatient, and too rash in his schemes for Italian liberty.

It was not until Louis Napoleon was defeated at Sedan that the French troops were withdrawn from Rome, and the way was finally opened for the occupation of the city by the troops of Victor Emmanuel in 1870.  A Roman plebiscite had voted for the union of all Italy under the constitutional rule of the House of Savoy.  From 1859 to 1865 the capital of the kingdom had been Turin, the principal city of Piedmont; with the enlargement of the realm the latter year saw the court removed to Florence, in Tuscany; but now that all the States were united under one rule, Rome once again, after long centuries had passed, became the capital of Italy, and the temporal power of the Pope passed away forever.

On the fall of Napoleon III. in 1870 Italian nationality was consummated, and Victor Emmanuel reigned as a constitutional monarch over united Italy.  To his prudence, honesty, and good sense, the liberation of Italy was in no small degree indebted.  He was the main figure in the drama of Italian independence, if we except Cavour, whose transcendent abilities were devoted to the same cause for which Mazzini and Garibaldi less discreetly labored.  It is remarkable that such great political changes were made with so little bloodshed.  Italian unity was effected by constitutional measures, by the voice of the people, and by fortunate circumstances more than by the sword.  The revolutions which seated the King of Piedmont on the throne of United Italy were comparatively bloodless.  Battles indeed were fought during the whole career of Victor Emmanuel, and in every part of Italy; but those of much importance were against the Austrians,—­against foreign domination.  The civil wars were slight and unimportant compared with those which ended in the expulsion of Austrian soldiers from the soil of Italy.  The civil wars were mainly popular insurrections, being marked by neither cruelty nor fanaticism; indeed, they were the uprising of the people against oppression and misrule.  The iron heel which had for so many years crushed the aspirations of the citizens of Venice, of Milan, and Rome, was finally removed only by the successive defeats of Austrian armies by Prussia and France.