E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Julia Neufeld,
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The Patriot (Piccolo Mondo Antico) waspublished in Milan in 1896, and has reachedits forty-fourth edition, which is in itself sufficientproof of its popularity; for Italians do not purchasebooks largely, and one volume will oftenmake the tour of a town, coming out of the campaignin rags and a newspaper cover.
Although The Patriot is not an historical novelin the true sense of the term, it certainly throws awonderful side-light on those ten years of "deadlycold and awful silence," a silence broken only fromtime to time by the cries of the martyrs of Mantua,by the noise of inward strife in the Papal States,and by the weeping of mothers who saw their sonsdisappear behind the clanging doors of Austrianfortresses. These ten years stretched drearilyfrom the disastrous field of Novara to the gloriousdays of Magenta, Solferino and San Martino(1849–59).
Antonio Fogazzaro, born in Vicenza in 1842,was a child when the battle of Novara was foughtand lost; but when the French drove the Austriansfrom the bloody field of Magenta, he, ayouth of seventeen, was ready to be fired withpatriotic enthusiasm.
[Pg iv] During those years, there was little the patriotscould do save to feed the fire of hatred againstthe foreign oppressors, and prepare, as best theycould, in secret and in constant danger of death,for the moment when Piedmont should once moregive the signal of revolt.
In the night that succeeded the battle of Novara,King Carlo Alberto, who had risked all for thefreedom of the rest of Italy—for it must be rememberedthat his own kingdom of Sardinia wasindependent of Austria—discouraged, mortified,and impoverished, abdicated in favour of his son,Victor Emmanuel. It was no longer possible tocontinue hostilities, and Carlo Alberto hoped thathis son, whose wife, Maria Adelaide, was thedaughter of an Austrian grand-duke, might obtainmore favourable conditions from Austria forhis unhappy country. On the following day theyoung King and Field-Marshal Radetzky met, anda peace was signed, the conditions of which VictorEmmanuel found great difficulty in persuading hisparliament to ratify. But in the end Piedmontpaid Austria an indemnity of seventy-five millionfrancs.
Victor Emmanuel had not, however, abandonedthe idea of United Italy, and could say withMassimo D'Azeglio: We will begin over again,and do better! Count Camillo Benso di Cavour,one of the greatest statesmen of modern times,stood by the King from the first. They immediatelyturned their attention towards bettering [Pg v]the condition of their impoverished country, andsoon succeeded in rendering the little capital,Turin, one of the brightest and most prosperouscities of the Continent. The patriots, the bestmen in Italy, flocked to Turin from all thosestates where Austria or her tools held sway.The Piedmontese government granted subsidies tosome of these refugees, and found employment forothers, receiving all with open arms.
Meanwhile, Mazzini and Garibaldi we