her uncle, abrogate the Salic law, and calmly await the desired
consummation of an Austrian prince, by right of his wife, occupying
the Sardinian throne?

The first step was soon taken; princesses came into the world to be
sacrificed. The plot ran on for some time, the Queen, who was in the
habit of calling Charles Albert 'that little vagrant,' giving it her
indefatigable support. Victor Emmanuel was weak, and stood in
considerable awe of his wife, who had obtained a great ascendancy over
him in the miserable days of their residence in the island of
Sardinia. His nephew, who was almost or wholly unknown to him, partook
of the nature of a disagreeable myth. Nevertheless he had a sense of
justice, as well as Savoy blood, in his veins--he resisted; but the
day came when his surrender seemed probable. Just at that moment,
however, the Duke of Modena prematurely revealed the project by asking
through his representative at the Congress of Vienna for the port of
Spezia, in order that he might conveniently connect his own state with
his prospective possession, the island of Sardinia. Prince Talleyrand
was alarmed by the vision of Austria supreme in the Mediterranean, and
through his opposition the conspiracy, for the time, was upset, and
the rights of Charles Albert were recognised.

Curiously enough, Prince Metternich had insisted on the young Prince,
then seventeen, visiting the headquarters of the Allies. Charles Felix
(who was unconnected with the Modena scheme) wrote a letter to the
King on this subject, in which he stated it as his belief that the
Austrian plan was to get Charles Albert accidentally killed, or to
plunge him in vice, or to make him contract a discreditable marriage.
This was why they had invited him to their camp. He adds the
characteristic remark that their nephew would be in no less danger at