his course by the violence of the waves, he was thrown on the coast of
Calabria with only twenty-six men, and was shot by order of Ferdinand
of Naples, who especially directed that he should be only allowed
half-an-hour for his religious duties after sentence had been
delivered by the mock court-martial. His dauntless courage did not
desert him: he died like a soldier. It was a better end for an Italian
prince than escaping with money-bags to Germany. Great as were Murat's
faults, an Italian should remember that it was he who first took up
arms to the cry which was later to redeem Italy: independence from
Alps to sea; and if he stand on the ill-omened shore of Pizzo, he
need not refuse to uncover his head in silence.

When Mantua surrendered, the Milanese sent a deputation to Paris with
a view of securing for Lombardy the position of an independent kingdom
under an Austrian prince. They hoped to obtain the first by
acquiescing in the second. They were aroused from their unheroic
illusions with startling rapidity. Lord Castlereagh, to whom they went
first (for they fancied that the English were interested in liberty),
referred them 'to their master, the Austrian Emperor.' The Emperor
Francis replied to their memorial that Lombardy was his by right of
conquest; they would hear soon enough at Milan what orders he had to
give them. Even after that, the distracted Lombards hoped that the
English at Genoa would befriend them. All uncertainty ceased on the
23rd of May 1814, when Field-Marshal Bellegarde formally took
possession of Lombardy on behalf of his Sovereign, dissolved the
Electoral Colleges, and proclaimed himself Regent. There was no
question of reviving the conditions under which Austria ruled Lombardy
while there was still a German Empire: conditions which, though
despotic in theory, were comparatively easy-going in practice, and did
not exclude the native element from the administration. Henceforth the