It is a singular thing that Prince Metternich, from the very first, had an instinctive feeling that the unfortunate boy, who seemed the most hopeless and helpless of human creatures, would prove the evil genius of the Austrian power.  He therefore set to work to deprive him of his eventual rights.  He was confident of success, as fortune had arranged matters in a manner that offered a ready-made plan for carrying out the design.  Victor Emmanuel had four daughters, precluded from reigning by the Salic law, which was in force in Piedmont.  His wife, the Queen Maria Teresa, a woman of great beauty and insatiable ambition, was sister to the Austrian Archduke Francis d’Este, Duke of Modena.  Francis had never married, having been robbed of his intended bride, the Archduchess Marie-Louise, by her betrothal to Napoleon.  What simpler than to marry the eldest of the Sardinian princesses to her uncle, abrogate the Salic law, and calmly await the desired consummation of an Austrian prince, by right of his wife, occupying the Sardinian throne?

The first step was soon taken; princesses came into the world to be sacrificed.  The plot ran on for some time, the Queen, who was in the habit of calling Charles Albert ‘that little vagrant,’ giving it her indefatigable support.  Victor Emmanuel was weak, and stood in considerable awe of his wife, who had obtained a great ascendancy over him in the miserable days of their residence in the island of Sardinia.  His nephew, who was almost or wholly unknown to him, partook of the nature of a disagreeable myth.  Nevertheless he had a sense of justice, as well as Savoy blood, in his veins—­he resisted; but the day came when his surrender seemed probable.  Just at that moment, however, the Duke of Modena prematurely revealed the project by asking through his representative at the Congress of Vienna for the port of Spezia, in order that he might conveniently connect his own state with his prospective possession, the island of Sardinia.  Prince Talleyrand was alarmed by the vision of Austria supreme in the Mediterranean, and through his opposition the conspiracy, for the time, was upset, and the rights of Charles Albert were recognised.

Curiously enough, Prince Metternich had insisted on the young Prince, then seventeen, visiting the headquarters of the Allies.  Charles Felix (who was unconnected with the Modena scheme) wrote a letter to the King on this subject, in which he stated it as his belief that the Austrian plan was to get Charles Albert accidentally killed, or to plunge him in vice, or to make him contract a discreditable marriage.  This was why they had invited him to their camp.  He adds the characteristic remark that their nephew would be in no less danger at the headquarters of the Duke of Wellington ‘a cause de la religion.’  Have him home and have him married, is his advice.  ’We are well treated, because there is the expectation of soon devouring our remains by extinguishing the House of Savoy.  It is the habit of the cabinet of Vienna; it was thus they made an end of the House of Este.’