Beaumont and his son walked to the coast to bathe.  Minnie, Ampere, and I strolled among the deep shady lanes of the plateau above the castle.  Throughout Normandy the fields are small and are divided by mounds planted with trees.  The farmhouses, and even the cottages, are built of primitive rock, granite, or old red sandstone.  At a distance, peeping out of the trees that surround them, they look pretty, but they, have more than the usual French untidiness.  The outhouses are roofless, the farmyards are full of pools and dung heaps, which often extend into the road; and the byroads themselves are quagmires when they do not consist of pointed stones.  I was struck by the paucity of the children and the absence of new houses.  The population of Normandy is diminishing.

We conversed on the subject of Italy.

‘If we are in Rome next winter,’ I asked, ’shall we find the French there?’

‘I think not,’ said Ampere; ’I think that you will find only the Piedmontese.

’Every day that Louis Napoleon holds Rome is a day of danger to him, a danger slight perhaps now, but serious if the occupation be prolonged.  The Anti-papal party, and it includes almost all that are liberal and all that are energetic, are willing to give him time, but not an indefinite time.  They are quiet only because they trust him.  He is a magician who has sold himself to the Devil.  The Devil is patient, but he will not be cheated.  The Carbonari will support Louis Napoleon as long as he is doing their work, and will allow him to do it in his own way and to take his own time, as long as they believe he is doing it.  But woe to him if they believe that he is deceiving them.  I suspect that they are becoming impatient, and I suspect too, that he is becoming impatient.  This quarrel between Merode and Goyon is significative.  I do not believe that Goyon used the words imputed to him.  We shall probably keep Civita Vecchia, but we shall give up Rome to the Piedmontese.’

‘And will the Pope,’ I asked, ‘remain?’

‘Not this Pope,’ said Ampere, ’but his successor.  Nor do I see the great evil of the absence of the Pope from Rome.  Popes have often been absent before, sometimes for long periods.’

‘Most of my French friends,’ I said, ’are opposed to Italian Unity as mischievous to France.’

‘I do not believe,’ he answered, ’in the submission of Naples to this Piedmontese dynasty, but I shall be delighted to see all Italy north of the Neapolitan territory united.

’I do not think that we have anything to fear from the kingdom of Italy.  It is as likely to be our friend as to be our enemy.  But the Neapolitans, even if left to themselves, would not willingly give up their independence, and Celui-ci is trying to prevent their doing so.’

‘What do they wish,’ I asked, ‘and what does he wish?’

‘I believe,’ he answered, ’that their wishes are only negative.