BOOKS.
GENERAL PEPE'S SCENES AND EVENTS IN ITALY.* TAE volumes contain the patriotic view of the events in Italy during the last few years, from the time that Liberalism was rising hopefully until its downfall throughout the country. The earlier occurrences at Naples, the march of the Neapolitan army .to the assistance of Charles Albert under the command of Pepe, and its recall before A could reach the field of action, with the long and creditable defence of Venice, fell within the author's personal knowledge, and are related at full length ; to which the General adds criticisms on Charles Albert's campaigns, and some counter-projects of his own. The various outbreaks and revolu- tions that took place in Sicily, Lombardy, Naples, Tuscany, and Rome, are described in separate chapters, and generally by some friend of Pepe, familiar with the subject. The object of the pub- lication seems to be, to vindicate the courage if not the conduct of the Italians, to expose the injustice of the " barbarian" notions of the capacity of Italians for liberty and self-government, and, last though perhaps not least, to give an account of the services and opinions of the author. The long defence of Venice exhibits the constancy of the people, the bravery of the soldiers, and the military talents of General Pepe in a remarkable point of view ; in other respects the volumes will scarcely accomplish their national object. The character of Pepe is the most curious subject in the book; with his ardour for liberty, and his simplicity of mind in pursuit of his object, which nearly seventy years, repeated failure, imprisonment, and exile, have not changed or checked. " Timeo Dames et dans ferentes," and a Bourbon is more to be suspected than a Greek. Pepe was in such odour at the Neapolitan court, that when the constitution was first extorted, he was particularly excepted from the amnesty. When public opinion and courtly fear induced his recall, a steamer was sent to convey him home. On his arrival, the King was as eager to see him as Falstaff to present himself with Master Shallow travel-stained before Harry the Fifth. He had expressly charged Florestano, Pepe's brother, to bid the returned exile come to the palace directly on his arrival ; but his Majesty could not wait for the slow movements of the veteran Liberal, surrounded by con- gratulating friends. Mid-clay was not passed when the King sent Major Nunziante in one of the royal carriages to convey me to his palace. Thepatriots by whom I was surrounded, both young and old, urged my speedy departure, saying I was surely crime for the public good, and they attributed the King's eager- ness to see me to a determination to listen no longer to his courtiers : yet these same patriots besought me not to drive in the King's carriage with Nunziante by my aide, as he was especially obnoxious to all the Liberal party. I was obliged, therefore, to take another officer with me, and to request Nunziante to follow us in Florestano'a carriage. Yet, as we passed along the streets, there were those who cried, 'Yesterday condemned to decapita- tion, today invited and courted!' "Since I had quitted Naples, many improvements had been made in the royal habitation. On entering the room appropriated to the officers on duty, I was saluted as a person of high position, and immediately introduced to the King. He retained no trace of the boy of ten years old, whose beauty I had then admired ; with added years he had become colossal, and his counte- nance did not indicate tenderness of heart. Yet his manner to me was only- too gracious : he invited me to sit down on a magnificent sofa, while he took a light cane chair for himself. Sire,' I said, 'this is my place, the other belongs to your Majesty.' He began by inquiring after Floreatano's health, and this inquiry he never failed to repeat in all my subsequent visits. After asking whether my voyage had been prosperous, he talked of France. I told him, that when first the French Republic was proclaimed no one believed it ; but soon after I had convinced myself, and I remained convinced that a throne would not speedily be reestablished in France. We discoursed of the embarrassment in which the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and other German princes, found themselves placed. I said,: Sire, an example is offered to princes, as useful as it is agreeable to follow, in the person of the Xing of the Belgians ; who has conducted himself in such a manner that his people unanimously entreated him not to abandon them.'
"Havingconversed some time on the political condition of other states, without saying a word of his own, he pressed me to return again the follow- ing day. "On leaving him, I turned my eyes towards that chamber, temporarily converted into a chapel, where Ferdinand's worthy ancestor in 1820, in pre- sence of his Ministers, myself, and other notabilities, swore on the Evangel- ists, and said to me weeping, This time General, I assure you I swore from my heart,' on whiethe placed his hand; and I, admiring in this gesture a greyheaded old man seeming to repent his perjury, wept at his tears, and incurred the reproaches of not a few of my contemporaries, who were not present at the scene which excited and excused my emotion. "In that palace too, I called to mind the feigned reasonings of the Re- gent, afterwards Francis I., and the father of Ferdinand H. This prince, the most dissembling of men, pretended to be a warm partisan of constitu- tional government ; and in order to make himself believed, he studiously ad- vanced arguments in favour of that system."
The Xing did not confine his favour to compliments : he carried Pepe about to reviews and inspections of the troops, in which he displayed a truly royal taste, that seldom reaches beyond externals.
"The King was desirous that I should admire the qualifications of his soldiers, as well as his own ability in commanding them. I was scarcely ar- . rived in Naples, and not yet in. possession of a military uniform, when he re- quested. me to accompany him in my civilian dress. Accordingly, I repaired to the palace in my morning costume, and was conducted by the King to a very small cabinet, where I was seated opposite him, without knowing the motive. I felt we were descending ; and I then perceived that we were in a machine constructed to descend and ascend, in order to avoid the fatigue of mounting the lofty stairs. "When we amved beyond the Maddelena Bridge we mounted our horses, and the King made two regiments of dragoons and lancers manoeuvre. He commanded remarkably well, and his commands were executed with the - greatest exactitude. 'I paid him most well-merited compliments; but I per- * Narrative of Scents and Events in Italy, from 1847 to 1849; including the Siege of 'Venice. By Lieutenant-General Pepe, &c. Translated from the Unpublished
Italian Manuscript. In two volumes. Published by Colburn. •
ceived that he considered this elementary part of the science of war as its most sublime point. In the moments of repose there was but little dignity in the conduct of the King towards the soldiers, who dunned him with petitions. Hence there was a want of discipline, and of that noble dignity which rules the multitude on all great occasions.
"On reentering the sarriage, we drove through a new and beautiful street, which leads to the Studj. On the way, I observed to the ring the multitude of mendicants, who, naked even to indecencv, persistingly demanded alms. He replied to my observation, that it was the fault of the Minister of the Interior. In the same carriage were the Conte de Trapani, the King's brother, and the Prince d'Ischitella, the aide-de-cam on duty. A conversation took place regarding Sicily. Both the King, his brother, and Ischitella, affirmed that the Englieh Government had awaited the Ski- lien rebels, and, among other acts, had sent them arms. I replied, that this might have been done by private merchants, but not by the English Go- vernment. Finding them obstinate in their opinion, I said, with a frank- ness which astonished myself, that before the King had promised the consti- tution, I had written to London to three of my Mmds there, who were Members of Parliament, to obtain information from the Government as to what assistance I could hope to receive from them if I landed in Sicily, in order to assist the revolution there. The answer was, that I might expect much sympathy, but not the smallest aid in arms, men, or money. " We soon arrived at the quarters of the Twelfth of the Line in the Santo Petite ; the greater number of whom were Sicilians. Scarcely had the drums beat, when, in an instant, the soldiers, while running, took their knapsacks and placed themselves in order of battle. The King commanded the man- Tuvre, and everything was performed to perfection. There was no flattery in my warm congratulations, nor in telling him that I had never seep troops move better on the drilling-ground, and that, though the English might ex- cel them in precision, they were certainly inferior in agility. This exercise was scarcely terminated, when a crowd of 'oldie's:, subaltern officers, and women, presented themselves to the King, each loudly supplicating for some favour ; and he appeared pleased with this. That my readers may under- stand the nature of these petitions, I will repeat one of them. A woman presented herself, saying, 'Majesty, I am the wife of Sergeant —. We have two children, maidens, but nu/ maidens; you have promised to give them husbands ; I beseech you not to forget the promise, to avoid the sin to which they are exposed, the virtuous young girls !' The King replied, will not forget my promise.' " In addition to these flattering marks of personal regard, Pepe was offered the Presidentship of the Ministry, with the departments of War and Marine. He was also appointed to the command of the army that was to be sent to the assistance of Charles Albert against the Austrians ; a master-stroke of humbug, but showing the strength of public opinion in Italy, and how well the Nea- politan Bourbons have studied the art to " win their way by yield- ing to the tide." Pepe seems to think that the King was really convinced by his reasons, but over-persuaded by the courtiers into his subsequent course. The patriot General, however, was not absolutely hoodwinked; indeed, that was impossible with his orders in his pocket. He deceived himself with the notion that he was a match for a Bourbon in statecraft. Delays took place in pre- paring the army. Before he started, he received directions not to cross when he reached the Po, till further orders. Had he at once resigned, the Court might have been placed in a dilemma. But the habits of the Italian conspirator were strong in Pepe ; he thought he could outwit the Court, and when he sot to the Po, precipitate the army on to the field of action, against his orders. The Court, however, was not so easily foiled : the troops and subordinate officers had been as far as it was practicable selected • Pepe was surrounded by reactionary generals; when the time for his independent action came, he received an order to lead back the army to Naples (on account of the outbreak in the city on the 15th of May) ; but if he did " not think proper to take the command of the troops in their retreat, it should be assumed by Lieutenant-General Statella." An attempt after the General's old fashion (which is rather national than personal to him) to tamper with the army, had a momentary success ; but the Royal influence with the troops was too strong, and the wires of personal interest were too widely ramified and too well worked, to allow Pepe fully to carry out what he no doubt considered a patriotic course of action.
" While these hopes were throwing a ray of pleasure on my existence, dis- astrous intelligence reached me from Ferrara : was reported that the First Division, quartered there, composed of ten battalions, an excellent campaign battery, and a company of sappers, had revolted, to obey, as these rebels ex- pressed themselves, the orders of their beloved and beneficent King. Among the regiments composing this division was the Twelfth of the Live, which was chiefly formed of Sicilians taken from the gullies, and of pardoned highway- men, who, knowing themselves to be invidious to their contemporaries, had placed all their hopes on the King's kindness. The other corps had fol- lowed the example of the Twelfth of the Line. A committee was formed, com- posed of non-commissioned and a few of the subaltern officers, which directed the whole mass of the division. They closely guarded the artillery and superior officers ; but these they called their chiefs, to impose on the multi- tude. This revolt was excited, underhand, by officers, who had received letters from their wives imploring them to please the Government, and not to expose themselves to perpetual exile. The Cardinal Legate of Ferrara and his dependents aided the rebels to consummate their crime, even by giving them the means of transport and large quantities of provisions, en pretext that they might have joined the Austrian garrison of the eitade and, being irritated, might have made use of the field battery they p against the towns on the road between Ferrara and the Isonzo. * * * If, even before this calamitous desertion, discipline was unsteady, and the wills of many wavered between obedience to the Royal orders or to their Commander-m-chief, the effect of such fatal example, which moreover re- mained unpunished, increased the vacillation to such a degree that it became necessary to hope against all hope ; and I did still hope."
The upshot was, that Pepe could only induce about two thousand soldiers to remain with him. With these he threw himself into Venice ' • to the chief command of which city he was at once ap- pointed, after declining a dictatorship that popular acclamation wished to bestow upon -him. The remainder of the work gives a full account of the siege, with the criticisms on Charles Albert, and the narratives of revolt in other places already alluded to.
The siege is interesting; less as a narrative of attack and defame than for the remarks of the author, and his incidental pictures of revolutionary government at the best ; for his military story is not complete, and is too formal—done too much by extracts from the order-book. The accounts of the numerous revolutions are too general to be very informing or specific, and perhaps are too much prompted by partisan feeling to be altogether reliable. But on the whole, these volumes contain a curious study of General Pepe, and they will form a useful though onesided collection of memoirs to serve as materials for the history of the abortive Italian revolu- tions of 1848-9.
Previous page
