of wishing to go over to the enemy that they were quietly taken back to Naples.  The cry of ‘God, the King, and the Constitution,’ was taken up through the land; General Pepe, who had long been a Carbonaro in secret, was enthusiastically hailed as commander of the Chartist forces, which practically comprised the whole army.  The King was powerless; besides which, when pushed up into any corner people who do not mind breaking their word have a facility for hard swearing.  On the 13th of July, Ferdinand standing at the altar of the royal chapel, with his hand on the Bible, swore to defend and maintain the Constitution which he had just granted.  If he failed to do so, he called upon his subjects to disobey him, and God to call him to account.  These words he read from a written form; as if they were not enough, he added, with his eyes on the cross, and his face turned towards heaven:  ’Omnipotent God, who with Thine infinite power canst read the soul of man and the future, do Thou, if I speak falsely, or intend to break my oath, at this moment direct the thunder of Thy vengeance on my head.’

The Neapolitans had got their liberties, but they soon found themselves face to face with perplexities which would have taxed the powers of men both wiser and more experienced in free government than they were.  In the first place, although a revolution may be made by a sect, a government cannot be carried on by one.  The Carbonari who had won the day were blind to this self-evident truth; and, to make matters worse, there was a split in their party, some of them being disposed to throw off the Bourbon yoke altogether; a natural desire, but as it was only felt by a minority, it added to the general confusion.  Then came, as it was sure to come, the cry for separation from Sicily.  The Sicilians wanted back the violated constitution obtained for them by the English in 1812, and would have nothing to do with that offered them from Naples.  In every one of the struggles between Sicily and Naples, it is impossible to refuse sympathy to the islanders, who, in the pride of their splendid independent history, deemed themselves the victims of an inferior race; but it is equally impossible to ignore that, politically, they were in the wrong.  In union, and in union alone, lay the only chance of resisting the international plot to keep the South Italian populations in perpetual bondage.  The Sicilian revolt was put down at first mildly, and finally, as mildness had no effect, with the usual violence by the Neapolitan Constitutional Government, which could not avoid losing credit and popularity in the operation.  Meanwhile, the three persons who traded under the name of Europe met at Troppau, and came readily to the conclusion that ’the sovereigns of the Holy Alliance exercised an incontestable right in taking common measures of security against states which the overthrow of authority by revolt placed in a hostile attitude towards every legitimate government.’