religion and philosophy led him into a bitter struggle with Rome.  For Camille another sort of life was planned.  It was decided that he must “do something,” and at the age of ten he was sent to the Military Academy at Turin.  He did not like it, but it was better for him than if he had been kept at home.  Mathematics were well taught at the Academy, and in this branch he soon outstripped all his schoolfellows.  He himself always spoke of his mathematical studies as having been of great service in forming the habit of precise thought; from the study of triangles, he said, he went on to the study of men and things.  On the other hand the boys were taught little Latin and less Greek, and nothing was done to furnish them with the basis of a literary style, a fact always deplored by Cavour, who insisted that the art of writing ought to be acquired when young; otherwise it could not be practised without labour, and never with entire success.  He once said that he found it easier to make Italy than a sonnet.  In his own case he regretted never having become a ready writer, because he knew that the pen is a force; he held that a man should cultivate every means at his disposal to increase his power.

In 1824, when Charles Albert returned to Piedmont after three years’ exile in consequence of the part he was suspected of having taken in the abortive revolution of 1821, one of his first acts was to obtain a nomination for young Cavour as page in the royal household.  The pages were all inmates of the Military Academy, where the expense of their education was borne by the king after they received the appointment.  The Count d’Auzers, a strong Legitimist, was one of the oldest friends of the Prince of Carignano, who was regarded at the Palazzo Cavour as the victim of false accusations of liberalism.  Charles Albert always seemed to reflect the opinions of the person to whom he was writing or speaking.  Thus it is certain that in his letters to the Count he appeared as a convinced upholder of white flags.  Cavour must have heard him often defended from the charge of patriotism.  Perhaps this created in his mind a first aversion, which was strengthened by personal contact in the course of his duties at Court.  At any rate it is clear that he never liked or trusted him.

When Cavour left the Military Academy in 1826 he came out first in the final examinations.  He entered the army with the rank of lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.  He began to learn English.  In a letter written at this time he speaks of the utility of modern languages and a real knowledge of history, but adds that a man who wishes to make a name should concentrate his faculties rather than disperse them among too many subjects and pursuits.  Even then he had an almost definite project of preparing himself to play a part in life.  There is not much to show what were his political ideas, except a memorandum written when he was eighteen on the Piedmontese revolution of 1821, in which he adopted the views of Santorre