MY DEAR LADY JOHN,—­I have seen Braico—­Poerio brought him to me after I had offered my services to him in your name, and we have combined to dine together and to perform other feats, besides gastronomic ones, in order to cheer him whilst he resides in these (to a Parthenopean) Boeotian regions.

You mention in your letter the name of that scandal to royalty, Louis Napoleon.  What can I say of him?  Hypocrite and footpad combined.  He came to carry out an “idea,” and he prigs the silver spoons.  “Take care of your pockets” ought to be the cry whenever he appears either personally or by deputy.

But do not, I beg of you, consider and confound either the King of Sardinia or Cavour as his accomplice.  Think for a moment on the condition of Sardinia, who represents the nascent hope of Italy.  Think of the evil that man meant—­how he tried to trip up the heels of Tuscany, establish a precarious vicarial existence for the Romagna, and plots now at Naples.  Not to have surrendered when he cried “stand and deliver” would have been to have risked all that was gained—­would have given breathing time to Rome, reinforced and comforted Rome’s partisans in the Romagna—­have induced doubt, fear, and disunion throughout Italy.  Judging by the experience of the last eight years, I must say I saw no means of avoiding the rocks ahead save by a sop to Cerberus.  But do not lose confidence in the National party—­Cavour or no Cavour, Victor Emmanuel or another, that party is determined to give Italy an Italian representation.  I regret that the Nizzards (who have a keen eye to the value of building lots) are wrenched from us by a French filou; but I cannot forget that the Savoyards have constantly upheld the Pope, and have been firm and consistent in their detestation of Liberal Government in Sardinia. I am not speaking of the neutral parts, please remember.

    Your most devoted servant,

    JAMES HUDSON

Meanwhile the reign of Francis II of Naples and the Two Sicilies, who had succeeded Ferdinand, was proving if anything worse than his father’s.  Early in 1860 insurrections began to break out in Sicily, and on May 5th Garibaldi, on his own initiative, set sail from Genoa to help the rebels.  “I go,” he said, “a general without an army, to fight an army without a general.”  His success was extraordinarily rapid.  At the end of May he had taken Palermo from 24,000 regular troops with his volunteers and some Sicilian help, thus making the dictatorship of Sicily, which he had declared on landing, a reality.  It soon became known that he intended to recross to the mainland to free the people of Naples itself.  Piedmont, of course, wished Garibaldi to succeed in this further undertaking.  His cause was her cause.  Though this action was entirely independent, his dictatorship had been avowed as a preliminary step to handing over the island to Victor Emmanuel.  The King could not, therefore, oppose him nor prevent him re-embarking for Naples without separating himself from the cause of United Italy and making an enemy of almost every patriot in the country; but both he and Cavour were afraid either that Garibaldi might fail, in which case the union of Italy would have been postponed for many years, or that the pace at which changes were coming would lead France or Austria to interfere again.