express to you my determination, and either as your leader or as your equal, to point boldly out to you the only course left open-to strike earnestly for our brothers' and sisters' emancipation, or to weep in silence over our own degeneracy! Italians! from the centre of the old capital of the ancient world, Rome, a gleam of sunlight, for ages hidden from our view, has suddenly dawned upon our destinies, and it behoves us to greet bravely the ray, until not one, but a thousand, glitter in our path. Will you allow such a glorious light to pass unheeded from before your gaze? Will you quietly sit down and proclaim to Europe that the children of Dante, of Rienzi, are deaf to the sound of freedom? Will you see your parents, your sisters, your infants, sold to demoralisation, to vice, to the basest of all slavery? Men, if such is the future destiny you consign them to, I abandon my country; the very name of an Italian will be to me the impersonation of dishonour. But if you choose the cause of justice, of right, of country, of soul-inspiring liberty, then I bless my fortune for having you as brothers, and from this hour I dedicate my life and lands at the altar of Italy's wrongs!"

As Porro ended the curtains closed, and concealed him from sight. So deep and passionate in feeling had been his address, that for a few moments not a sound, not a whisper was heard. All were entranced, not so much with his language, as with the heartfelt emotion which breathed in every word, in every action of his body— the true soul of oratory. Then burst forth from every lip, "Viva l'Italia! Viva la libertà! Long live Italy! Long live liberty!" and was again and again echoed through the cavern, so intense was the feeling the address had excited.

"Vengatori," spoke the Baron Pinaldi, the instant silence had been obtained, "it now becomes your duty to say whether you accept of Alberico Porro as your leader and chief, to serve him with life and fortune, until the hour when the world shall proclaim your land a nation again."

"Yes, yes!" answered every voice, "we accept him as our chief."

"For form's sake, and for the necessary observance of our rules, which we have all sworn to obey, it becomes necessary for me to demand if any member of our order opposes the election?"

A moment's silence ensued, and no voice speaking, a burst of approbation resounded, with shouts of Viva il Signor Porro! Viva il nostro Capitano !"

The curtain was again withdrawn, and the Baron Pinaldi advanced a few steps towards Porro, who still stood before the altar.

"Signor Porro, by an unanimous vote of the order of the Vengatori, I have to inform you they have chosen you as their chief, and I now call upon you to subscribe to the oath. I request you, therefore, to give me answers_to the questions I shall address you. Do you solemnly believe in the justice of our cause, in the pledge we take to repel force by force, until the divine rights accorded to man by God be fully admitted?"

"I do."

"Repeat after me, then, the formula of our oath."

"I, Alberico Porro, firmly convinced that the rights and immunities of my country have been betrayed to foreign oppression, the laws of Christianity violated by robbery, pillage, murder, and sacrilege, do here solemnly vow, in presence of God and man, to dedicate my life in defence of my country. I swear to let no opportunity pass, where my judgment shall consider it as coming within the moral code of war, without seizing upon it to advance the liberty of Italy. I swear never, by either act or word,

to pay obedience to the Emperor of Austria, and that I will use whatever influence I may possess to induce others to pursue the same course. I swear to pursue with uncompromising hatred every friend of the house of Austria, even if found in the ranks of my nearest and dearest relatives. I swear to obey, without questioning, the orders of the chief of the Order of the Vengatori; and lastly, not to divulge to human being either the objects or the names of its members, without a special permission from the chief to do so. As God is my judge, and as I trust for salvation through the mercy of my Saviour hereafter, I declare I have in perfect purity of heart and purpose, been ordained a member of the Order of Vengatori."

"Signor Porro, having now become a member of the society, the adjutant will instruct you in the signs and passes requisite to distinguish a member of our holy cause. Companion, you will now oblige the members by informing them if you are willing to accept the post of chief which they have unanimously conferred upon you." "I am."

"Subscribe, then, to the oath."

"I, Alberico Porro, accept in entire unity of faith, and in the conviction of my sincerity, the post of Chief of the Order of the Vengatori, and declare before you, brothers in justice, in truth and in honesty, I will never use, or subvert, for personal ambition or private interest, the ends of our Society. I swear to keep inviolate this oath and the rules of theOrder."

A shout of applause greeted Porro the instant he had finished subscribing to the oath.

"Comrades and soldiers of the Army of Vengeance! I have accepted the noble post of your chief, in the full determination of proving myself worthy of your acceptance. The march of thought, the experience of past ages, long years of oppression and injustice, are rousing in the Cæsar race the spirit of Brutus. With joy do I greet its appearance with pleasure urge it

forward. Let it roll over the fair plains of Lombardy, and I will still say, Forward! Let it roll in Croatian blood, and my cry will still be the same; nor shall I cease to echo it until from the Sicilian Sea to the Alps is seen floating in the breeze of heaven the national flag of Italy. What, if in the attain

ment of this noble end, our lives become a sacrifice, is it not far better to die than to live in uncertainty and shame ?-to live in the memory of the good, the pure, the free, than as the bondsmen of those who respect no ties, who acknowledge no justice? Man with life acquired the inalienable right of freedom; and it cannot be torn from him without a violation of the law of God. For this crime perished iniserably Ezzelini and his family; for a similar one, the Borgia. And for this, too, must fall the supremacy of the Emperor on Italian soil. I would be the last to hurry on to the uncertainty of revolution the moral claims and rights appertaining to us. I would be the last to counsel you to secret, and afterwards to open resistance; but every other avenue for redress has long been closed to you→ every prayer and entreaty, however humble, unheeded; and patience, having its limits, calls loudly for the scabbard to be cast indignantly aside-the sword to flash bravely in the lightyour motto, Country and Liberty, or Slavery and Death!' To prepare this struggle. to use with prudence the large sums placed at my disposal - to take warning from previous failures, will be my earnest task; and to you, Vengatori, to whom God has entrusted our resurrection, to you be it the end to stir up the minds of your countrymen, to prepare for the battle and emancipation of Italy! Let no fear or doubt linger on your minds-remember boldness and decision are half the victory; and to appear weak is to throw a shadow on the justice of our cause. Farewell till our next meeting! I go to lay the mine of to-day— the triumph of to-morrow."

In the midst of loud applause from the band who had elected him as chief, Porro, accompanied by Pinaldi, left the cavern, and, by another entrance, known only to themselves, soon issued forth, as it were, from the bowels of the earth.

"I congratulate you, my dear young friend and noble leader," said Pinaldi, "on the success of this night's work. You exceeded my expectations, and have created for yourself a feeling amongst the Vengatori which, united with the oath by which I and they are all bound, will make them obey your slightest wish."

"Happy am I that you approve of

what I have done and said. The first step is taken, and I shrink not from the consequences. You will not fail me to-morrow night, for I will then inform you on what further means I have decided."

"No; in nothing will I fail you so long as our conferences tend to the downfall of imperial Austria," answered Pinaldi in a quick and vindictive tone of voice.

"Adieu, Pinaldi! May the smile of Heaven alight on our glorious enterprise !"

They had now arrived, by a different path from the one we have pursued in the first part of the chapter, where two roads, or rather narrow footpaths, crossed each other. A servant stood here with a horse, awaiting the arrival of his master, Porro, who immediately mounting and bidding farewell again to the baron, galloped on his way towards Milan, full of thoughts which were to conduce to the happiness or misery of thousands.

po

ALONE, in a small, handsomely-furnished room, before a table covered with numerous papers, was seated a person of rather an advanced age. His countenance was frank and open; his dress and appearance bore the stamp of a person of some consequence. It was the Baron Toresani Lanzenfeld, for many years the director of the lice at Milan. In his right hand he held a paper which he was intently scanning over, while his left supported his head, as his elbow rested on the table. The contents of the document he was perusing called every few moments a smile to his lips, and his rather stern features glistened with inward pleasure, created, no doubt, by the news he was gathering.

"So, so," muttered the Baron; "the web is commencing to be unravelled. The Count Bolza informs me here he has at length discovered a track to the perpetrators of the robbery committed on the person of the Government's courier. The Baron Pinaldi was seen near the place about the same time the outrage was committed, and in his company this young lord, who has but lately returned to his country, and who annoyed the Imperial Court so much with some tale about his nurse's imprisonment. The Count Bolza informs me here a trusty agent he is there was also observed about the same neighbourhood a number of strangers during the evening previous, and the morning following, and he has collected a number of their names, all known

to be more or less disaffected towards the Government. He therefore comes to the conclusion, and a just one too, a political meeting must have been held in the neighbourhood. The whole of the persons the Count Bolza has discovered are strangers to the neighbourhood, and being there on the same evening that the courier was robbed, can easily be questioned, and if not able to assign good and valid reasons for travelling in that direction, can be detained in prison; but this young Signor Porro, I know not whether we could venture on such a step towards him. Allied as he is to many of the most influential families in Lombardy, and to the royal house of Sardinia, his arrest would not be allowed to pass by without strong remonstrances from quarters we had better conciliate than excite further. Caution must be the plan, and before we think of curtailing his liberty we must have sure proof to go on. I must pause a few moments and reflect well on the matter. Ah! a good idea, we must set some trusty spy on his footsteps, who will gain his confidence, which must be an easy task, for he is so young, and then the rest can be soon settled. These treacherous times require treacherous means."

His further reflections were interrupted by a servant entering and announcing the minister Figuelmont was waiting without.

"Show his excellency in immediately.__ Ah, my lord," continued the Baron Toresani Lanzenfeld, as the

Austrian minister entered, "you have just arrived in time to aid me with your good advice. But pray be seated."

"What is it you would ask of me? Of importance it must be, if your own sagacity cannot discover the course to pursue under your difficulty. It is thought, and in high quarters too, the chief of the police here is not often at fault," answered the Count Figuelmont-a man possessing good talents, but with an inordinate vanity in his own powers of discernment.

"I am glad to find, my good lord, my efforts to fulfil my duties have met with, for these several years past, the approbation of our gracious Emperor; yet there are times, and I fear it is so with most men, when I know not well how to deal with men, who, high in rank and influence, lend themselves to increase the agitation we see daily rising around us on every side. It was when you but entered now I was perusing a letter from one of our most trusty agents, and one who is well known to your lordship-the Count Bolza-who informs me he has discovered a clue to the perpetrators of the outrage, who stopped and robbed the Government's courier the other evening of his dispatches. It must have appeared clear, at feast to you, that these were no ordinary thieves, for not an article on the courier's person was touched with the exception of the Government's bag; and I have from the courier's own lips his version of the story, and he stated positivelyfor I was most particular on that headthat the robbers had plenty of time before any help reached to have taken from him every article he had about him. Now, from what Bolza informs me, from the information he has gathered in the neighbourhood, some meeting of a clandestine kind, unknown to the police, must have been held the very night the robbery took place, in that part of the country. Further he gives me to know, a number of persons, all amongst the list of the suspected, and living far from the immediate neighbourhood, must have been gathered there for some unlawful purpose. Out of this list I must except one; and here lies my great difficulty.”

"In what way, Baron?-for to the authority of the police must bow every one but its superiors."

"This exception of whom I speak is the heir of the Porro family. -one

whom your lordship must see, from the influence of his powerful connexions, his rank, his riches, I cannot deal with as I would with one of the common herd of this vain, proud, and besotted Italian nobility."

"Ha, ha! you must be more charitable in speaking of our kind neighbours, who, with all their fine airs, remind me of so many Gascons, with plenty of boasting, but lacking the courage to make their empty vaunts good."

"Yet to deal with them, we must keep a sharp eye over their proceedings."

Right, right; nothing like the strong sword of authority to keep them at their proper distance. With this young noble, this Signor Porro, of whom you speak, we must deal gently; not on account of any feelings of leniency we might entertain, but for other reasons, of which I shall speak anon. Nothing so easy as to lull him into security, to profess to be his most devoted servants, and then, when the proper hour arrives, to suddenly fall upon him, with full proof of his criminality, and give him either a quick and easy death, or consign him to the tender keeping of one of the many gaolers of our prisons."

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My own thought. Yet where to find one to whom we could entrust the delicate handling of this stripling. My own agents are commencing to be all so well known, or smell so strongly of the police, I fear none of them would be able to effect the work; and a failure would only place him on his guard."

"Oh, I can supply your want. I have on my hands a young Neapolitan nobleman, whom I have been acquainted with for some time past, and who would just suit the purpose. He must be well paid, however; for, in the first case, his task will be an expensive one; and, secondly, his whole fortune, although a large one when I knew him first, has entirely disappeared during a long career of extravagance and dissipation. Apart from these reasons, however, I would wish to serve him; and how better than binding him to the Gordian knot, where retreat is impossible?"

"Always sagacious, my lord-always ready with your good advice, to remedy any evil we may wish to overWhen will you send him to

come.

I

me, this new protegé of yours? need not ask your lordship also, whether you are well assured of his fidelity ?"

"As to your latter question, I invariably abide by the rules laid down by our Government - never to employ any person, whatever the interest I may feel in him, without having such a power over his future life as to be able, at any hour, if I find the slightest cause to doubt his fidelity, to turn him adrift on the world, a living curse to himself, and shunned by the whole of society. An excellent rule, too; for I have never, except in a single case which came to my knowledge, known any employé of ours become unruly in our service."

"And what is the case your lordship alludes to, if I may venture to inquire ?"

"Oh, to you I can have no objection to communicate the fact; but we must be careful the world become not acquainted with a system we derive so much benefit from; for what an outcry would be raised if it was but known what means we adopt to turn our regular police body, our true agents, to a proper account! The secret stratagems, the bold crimes, the means to subdue both body and soulthe poisoning, the strangling, the continual torture of conscience; and yet these means, however fearful, are necessary to carry out an authority such as ours. The fact of which I spoke is but an illustration of our system, and which would have turned out as successful as all other cases, were it not for an unfortunate discovery; and thus, instead of our employé living a few years longer in horror of our secret servitude, we were forced to consign him quietly to the arms of death. The case was simply this. A respectable merchant, residing in the town of Padua, was thought to be a member of the Carbonari, and we had reason to think several members of it were scattered over the town. To find out who they were be

came an absolute necessity, to prevent an increase of their number. The merchant was a widower, with an only child, a son, of about three or four years of age. One of our agents, a hardy ruffian, inured to every service, was a lover of the child's nurse, and he induced her one evening to give the child what he pretended was but a dose of physic, but in reality poison. In the morning the child was discovered a corpse, and the bottle which had contained the poison secreted in the coat of the father, placed there by the hands of our trusty agent. The police, who took care to be immediately on the spot the moment the child was discovered dead, arrested the merchant and the nurse, and carried them before the commissary, who was acquainted with the real facts of the case. The nurse, for fear of losing her lover, and by threats, was kept silent; while the father, against whom the evidence appeared so strong, was, by the offer of his safety and liberty, with a promise of strict silence on the whole matter, in an agony of terror at being thought by his friends and fellow-townsmen the murderer of his own child, induced to confess all he knew about the Carbonari. So far, everything had succeeded well; but, unfortunately, the nurse, a short time after, suddenly seized with illness, confessed the whole transaction - at least as much as she was acquainted withto her master; and he, good soul, instead of seeking safety in flight, with the dangerous knowledge he possessed of our means of gaining information, must present himself at the commissary's office, with threats of vengeance. This, as I informed you before, was only put a stop to by the death of the merchant; there was no other alternative. Such is the history of a matter, which, to this day, is still a mystery to the wise world."*

"Ah, I remember well, my lord, my feelings of compunction when first appointed to my oflice, and I learned the many terrible secrets of our duty.

VOL. XLVI.NO. CCLXXII.