Francis felt deeply annoyed by the narrow limits of his dominions, and his annoyance did not decrease with the decreasing chances of his ousting the Prince of Carignano from the Sardinian throne.  He was intensely ambitious, and one of his subjects, a man, in other respects, of high intelligence, thought that his ambition could be turned to account for Italy.  It was the mistake over again that Machiavelli had made with Cesare Borgia.

Ciro Menotti, who conceived the plan of uniting Italy under the Duke of Modena, was a Modenese landed proprietor who had exerted himself to promote the industry of straw-plaiting, and the other branches of commerce likely to be of advantage to an agricultural population.  He was known as a sound philanthropist, an excellent husband and father, a model member of society.  Francis professed to take an interest in industrial matters; Menotti, therefore, easily gained access to his person.  In all the negotiations that followed, the Modenese patriot was supported and encouraged by a certain Dr Misley, who was of English extraction, with whom the Duke seems to have been on familiar terms.  It appears not doubtful that Menotti was led to believe that his political views were regarded with favour, and that he also received the royal promise that, whatever happened, his life would be safe.  This promise was given because he had the opportunity of saving the Duke from some great peril—­probably from assassination, though the particulars were never divulged.

Misley went to Paris to concert with the Italian committee which had its seat there; the movement in Modena was fixed for the first days of February.  But spies got information of the preparations, and on the evening of the 3rd, before anything had been done, Menotti’s house was surrounded by troops, and after defending it, with the help of his friends, for two hours, he was wounded and captured.  Next day the Duke despatched the following note to the Governor of Reggio-Emilia:  ’A terrible conspiracy against me has broken out.  The conspirators are in my hands.  Send me the hangman.—­Francis.’

Not all, however, of the conspirators were in his hands; the movement matured, in spite of the seizure of Menotti, and Francis, ’the first captain in the world,’ as he made his troops call him, was so overcome with fright that on the 5th of February he left Modena with his family, under a strong military escort, dragging after him Giro Menotti, who, when Mantua was reached, was consigned to an Austrian fortress.

Meanwhile, the revolution triumphed.  Modena chose one of her citizens as dictator, Biagio Nardi, who issued a proclamation in which the words ‘Italy is one; the Italian nation is one sole nation,’ testified that the great lesson which Menotti had sought to teach had not fallen on unfruitful ground.  Wild as were the methods by which, for a moment, he sought to gain his end, his insistance on unity nevertheless gives Menotti the right to be considered the true precursor of Mazzini in the Italian Revolution.