and a golden theatre-at least all covered over with a yellow material, shining like gold. She lavished large sums upon it, under the title of royal endowment; she was proud of possessing an unrivalled orchestra, and since music is to the Italians the mess of potage for which they are ready to give up their birth-right, she afforded to her subjects music,-music to their hearts' content.

She took an active part in all gorgeous processions; she was the soul of the Carnival; and stepped down, incognita, into the crush of the pit at the Veglione.

Her bridges, however, her theatres, her menageries and aviaries, her superb villas, and magnificent train; her regiment of grenadiers; her profuse liberalities to mimes and charlatans, -before long exhausted her revenue. Commerce and industry once more cramped within narrow boundaries, the taxes pressing undiscerningly on the labouring classes, engendered general distress, and the state ran merrily in debt.

Already, at her arrival, the new duchess had been preceded by a decree, raising a sum of three millions of francs, by which her subjects were to pay for the honour of receiving an Austrian arch-duchess for their liege lady. Ever since, money went over to Austria, under a thousand pretexts, and without pretexts. It was now a tribute of vassalage, now a bargain of allegiance.

Parmesan manufactories were closed, as injurious to Austrian industry. Parmesan steamboats on the Po were stopped, as encroaching on Austrian commerce. Maria Louisa paid for board and lodging, when a guest at her parent's court. She paid her son's expense, whom they held as a prisoner.

Ignorance and filial submissiveness might account for this mismanagement of her subjects' funds. She knew she could do no better. But the amount of her civil list, her foolish prodigalities, and, above all, her endless peregrinations, were not less fatal to the state than the never sated cupidity of Austria.

No sooner had the larks of early spring made their re-appearance, than she felt a mad necessity to go a-larking abroad. Now she had her son to embrace at Munich; now a new gown to try on at Milan; then a wedding to attend, a christening, a funeral; and wherever she went, there followed a long caravan of dames, pages, and grooms, lap-dogs, parrots, and monkeys.

Alexander of Russia drove his barouche and four, incognito, all over Europe, under the title of Count of Moscow. The King of Naples, abroad, was equally modest and saving. The little Duchess of Parma alone kept up all the splendour of royalty. She styled herself Her Majesty; and, as titles cost nothing, her allies readily acknowledged the appellation. It cost her poor subjects a trifle, nevertheless. She went through the world as an empress and queen. Newspapers expatiated on her splendid attire and unbounded liberalities. "Room for the Duchess of Parma !" vociferated the wondering crowd abroad; no one knew what terrible grinding all this stir and bustle inflicted on her people at home.

Yet, she was pitied and beloved. Her conduct was looked upon as the result of Austrian policy. The people of Parma, good-natured even to stupidity, believed her unacquainted with their distress. They called her "La povera tradita," and, on her return, they had still a cheer for

her. In the secret of her heart, they thought her still attached to the memory of her husband. French papers circulated in the cafés at Parma; and, unheard-of toleration! a few daring Jacobins still sported the miniature of Napoleon on the lid of their snuff-boxes!

It was not rare, however, that some kind friend took pains to inform the wayward duchess of the true state of things. Because there was no press in Italy, we must not suppose that truth might not, from time to time, make its way to the throne.

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One year the duchess was about setting out on one of her genial excursions to Naples. She had hired a frigate of the King of Sardinia, and decked it out with all the luxuries of Cleopatra's barge. The harvest had been scanty, the winter severe. Her people murmured and groaned. On the eve of her departure, at supper, under her napkin, a sealed note was discovered; it contained, in fourteen lines, the outery of her plundered people. It ran as follows:

Go, then, Louisa, and God be with thee!
Sail on for Naples, and its sunny sky;
Let not thy sons with their importune cry
To thy maternal wish a hindrance be.
Go: from thy cares, from all thy duties free,
Go far beyond where Venus' temples lie;
Pirates or storms fear not; the watchful eye
Of Providence guides kings across the sea.
Go: let thy pleasures by no tears be stayed,
"Tis the king's pride to raise on tears his throne,
The pride of slaves to die without a groan.

Sail on: throughout the world thy worth be spread;

And earth be granted to thy sons oppressed,

To lay their sorrows with their bones at rest."*

Maria Louisa read, and turned pale; she bit her Austrian lip, and shed tears of rage. The police were set on the track of the insolent poet; nevertheless, three days afterwards the "Povera Tradita" was away on the billows.

Nor were these the most grievous causes of discontent. Austria had left nothing undone to undermine her popularity. It was still remembered, with a shudder, how daringly the regiment which had been enlisted and equipped in her name, surrounded as it was by Austrian forces, had, in 1815, on the first report of Napoleon's landing from Elba, set up the cry "Vive l'Empereur!”-a movement which led to its immediate dissolution. The Bonaparte family, the Luciens and Louisas, were bribed

"Va pur, Luisa, a t' accompagni Iddio!
Di Partenope bella all noto lido;

Te al piacer sacra invan de figli il grido
Distorria dal maternot alto desio.
Va; di te di tue cure in lieto obblio,
Liete veleggia infino in grembo a Guido;
Nè temer l' onda o il barbaresco infido
Chè ai Re propizio è il fato, altrui si vio.
Va; nè t' avresti no miseria o pianto,
Stadditi straziar del sive è l' opra

Spirar tacendo è degli schiari il vanto.
Va pur; qual sei, qual vali il monde scora;
Terra i sudditi suoi cerchino intento

Che lor ossa spolpate un dì ricopra."

† It was thought that the duchess went to Naples for her confinement.

into silence and inactivity. Murat was dead, and buried; all hopes and wishes of the still redoubted party were, therefore, centered on Maria Louisa, and that sickly Duke of Reichstadt, who was dying by inches in his imperial prison. Placed in the centre of the late Italian kingdom, Maria Louisa, a virtuous woman, was still formidable; she soon ceased to be a virtuous woman!

The journey to Aix was one of Metternich's coups d'état. She was now urged on in her profligate career, till she became a by-word to her partisans. Her father had sacrificed her heart as a bride; he was now willing to immolate her fame as a wife.

The unnatural parent had his intent. In Milan, at Venice, she was greeted with loud shouts, "Long live the Countess of Neipperg!" would it had been so! but Napoleon was forgotten years before he had written his fond uxorious testament. The 5th of May, 1824, came at last, but too late; then only was she married! "Connubium vocat: hoc prætexit nomine culpam!" The epoch of Maria Louisa's connexion with General Neipperg was happy enough for her subjects. The general was humane and righteous; stubborn and obstinate like any German, indeed, but abhorrent of violent measures; conscientious at any rate, if ever you succeeded in hammering reason into his dull head. He was no friend to the priests; and countenanced the university in its differences with the neighbouring Jesuits of Modena. He affected popular manners; could be very droll, when he chose, addressing the people in the patois of the country.

He died on the 22nd of December, 1828. His Hungarian regiment attended his funeral, his war-steed bled on his grave. Maria Louisa sought consolation in change of air.

From this union with Neipperg the duchess had three children. She built a palace for their habitation, on the hills near Tula; she put herself into communication with Fellemberg, for their education. The eldest, a daughter, was married to LUIGI CANVITATE, one of the broken-down native noblemen; the second, the Count of Montenovo (the Italian for Neipperg), is now an officer in an Austrian regiment; the third, a girl, died in childhood.

If we were to believe all the scandals current at Parma, Neipperg had no easy time. with his imperial mistress. Her confessor, Neurhel, a strapping German youth, stout and rosy, was made Bishop of Evestalla, then of Parma, to remove him from his too fond penitent. Captain Crotti, the handsomest Italian ever born, was not allowed to do duty at the palace; and an Irishman, MacAulay, or Magavoli, was also suspected of being too intimate a secretary to this most susceptible lady. Another of her secretaries, Richter, was looked upon as Neipperg's successor in the duchess's good graces; and more lately she was, it appears, privately married to Count Bombelles, a French emigrant, whom she raised to the dignity of her prime-minister.

It was most to be deplored that this singular woman, too similar in this to the profligate Joanna II. of Naples, should deem it necessary to alter her policy, and upset church and state on every assumption of a new favourite. Had it been otherwise, people would have less troubled themselves about her private concerns. Parma was long accustomed to dissolute sovereigns. But Maria Louisa gave up her states where she bestowed her heart. Her confidants were also rulers and governors.

Her offence against public morals invariably led to the conculcation of public rights. No wonder if her good people were scandalised.

"Daughter of the North," they exclaimed, "are these the lessons of continence you give to the glowing bosoms of the children of Italy? Is it to set such an example that Heaven bestowed upon you a crown, a long line of illustrious ancestors, the glory of a beautiful name? Is it for such an occupant that we bow before the throne, bring the fruits of our toil at its feet, and offer up our prayers for its preservation?"

In such a state of things, the tidings of the French Revolution of July, 1830, reached Parma. Men's minds had never been at rest in Italy since 1814. Conspiracies had been found out at Parma in 1820, and the state prisons had been crowded with distinguished inmates. But those were the days of General Neipperg, who refused his countenance to any effusion of blood. A few luckless Carbonari were sent to a little mock Speilberg, the fortress of Compiano, on the Apennines, but before the end of two years the day of clemency dawned, and they were all allowed to eat their Christmas turkey in the bosom of their families.

The government of Parma gained credit for comparative mildness and liberality. People were allowed to read and talk. They read and talked themselves into a downright frensy when the French proclaimed that they would secure all independent states from foreign interference. This principle of non-intervention was a signal for a general outbreak. smaller Italian governments could live by Austria alone; and Austria, it was understood, would now be compelled to look on unconcerned.

The

From Bologna to Modena, from Faenza to Rimini, all over central Italy, up flew the tri-colour standard. Prelates and sbirri, Jesuits and thief-takers, gave way before the storm. Without one drop of bloodshed two millions of Italians were their own masters. The insurrection soon reached the boundaries of Maria Louisa's dominions.

The animosity between this illustrious lady and her humble subjects was now at its highest pitch. The exchequer was utterly exhausted. The successor of General Neipperg, for the time being, one Baron Verclein, had recourse to the desperate expedient of a paper currency. A tremendous riot was the consequence. The government had to give up their measure, and Maria Louisa curled her auburn ringlets with her florin notes. Tumults and mutinies broke out among the students at the university; young men of the best families were thrown into prison; Parma was daily the scene of tumult and violence, when lo! one fine morning, the tri-colour flag waves on the bridge of the Euza, five miles out of town, on the borders!

It was then Carnival: a lovely spring weather. Early in February people gathered violets in the fields. There was walking, and riding, and driving of myriads of people, anxious to hail the "rainbow of liberty." The young women cut up green, red, and white ribbons; the young men loaded their fowling-pieces; Maria Louisa armed her twelve hundred grenadiers; she levelled her six-pounders; harangued her troops on the square of her palace; the drawbridges of the citadel were raised up; the city gates beleagured and closed. Parma, astonishing to relate, was declared in a state of siege! Day and night squadrons of heavy dragoons with drawn swords and lighted torches, cleared the streets with ominous tramp. There was a dead silence.

Horses, however, it was soon found out cannot run, nor soldiers watch

and stand for ever. After three days of patrolling, men and beasts were exhausted and sleepy. Maria Louisa asked for a reinforcement from the Austrian garrison at Piacenza. The Austrian commander, "with best respects," replied, "he had no orders."

The people peeped out of windows. A muzzle of a fowling-piece was also seen insidiously looking out here and there. The dragoons paused in their course. The fowling-pieces took courage and came out into the streets. They joined in little clusters, they swelled into little mobs; they swept away in one vast mass. Square after square, row after row, the ducal troops lost ground till the scene of skirmishing was transferred to the doors of the palace. There the two factions stood confronting each other: every man in his rank, under his leader, measuring with wistful eyes the chances of the day.

It was like a rehearsal of a Greek tragedy. In that dreadful suspense, the duchess, terrified, all bathed in tears, appeared on her balcony, resting on the arm of Baron Cornacchia, a popular minister. She waved her arms on high, appealing to the generous feelings of the storming multitude. The sight of her produced an indefinable sensation. The people rushed forward as if to hear her words. It pressed forward as one body against the palace walls. It wound itself round the ducal troops, like a huge serpent, and serried them in its coils. In the twinkling of an eye, muskets changed masters, cannons were spiked, under Maria Louisa's eyes. Not a gun was fired, not a bayonet levelled. What was it? Why merely this! Maria Louisa was at the mercy of her subjects!

National guards organised: the fortress, the gaol, the gates of the city taken by storm. Baron Verclein and a few others sought their safety in flight; and before sunset order and silence were restored. It was on a Sunday, February 13, 1831.

On the following morning the heads of the people proceeded to business. They appointed a generalissimo, colonels, and other officers of the national guard, a new ministry, &c. All these acts Maria Louisa was fain to sanction with her name.

During three days the poor duchess slept little and ate nothing. Her palace had become the house of call for all the idlers in town-shabby fellows with huge whiskers and dangling rapiers, stalked up scornfully to her, and half sneering, half threatening, gave her the benefit of their advice.

She might have died with fright, had her captivity been prolonged. But some of the hearts of the softer youths about her were not proof against her feminine sorrow. A squadron of national guards was drawn up: one of the ducal carriages was ordered round. Under the escort of her humane champions, ere the people were well aware of what was going on, she was driven to the Po at Lucca, and there ferried over to her father's dominions. Hence she was directed to betake herself to her good town of Piacenza, under protection of the Austrian garrison.

It was thus that the people of Parma, for a short respite, rid themselves of her presence. After that, there was crowing and blustering for four weeks with " no king over Israel." The national guards and the patriots had it all their own way. It was a blessed time, God knows, and the Parmesans can hardly recall it without tears. Order was never broken, no law violated. No one can believe what good boys Italians can be when left to themselves.