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On the 13th, Victor Emmanuel I., King of Sardinia, abdicated, appointing as regent his distant cousin Prince Charles Albert of Carignano, who had been in communication with the revolutionary party. The regent immediately accepted the Spanish constitution on condition of the maintenance of the line of succession and of the Roman catholic religion.
When the morning came he sent a trumpeter round to all the towns of the neighbourhood where there were garrisons, to make known to the gentlemen that if they would make their way within four days, on the next Sunday, to the town of Carignano, in the costume of men-at-arms, he would give a prize, which was the cuff of his lady, from whence hung a ruby of the value of a hundred ducats, to him who should be victorious in three encounters with the lance, without a barrier, and twelve turns with the sword.
The position of the Swiss and Italians at Suza was even less wise than the cordon-system, because it inclosed them in a contracted valley without protecting the lateral issues. Their strategic plan ought to have been to throw troops into these valleys to defend the defiles, and to post the bulk of the army toward Turin or Carignano.
Chopin was probably not strong enough to join his friends in all their sight-seeing, but if he saw Genoa as it presents itself on being approached from the sea, passed along the Via Nuova between the double row of magnificent palaces, and viewed from the cupola of S. Maria in Carignano the city, its port, the sea beyond, and the stretches of the Riviera di Levante and Riviera di Ponente, he did not travel to Italy in vain.
Victor Emmanuel I, though a lover of his people, was not a lover of their liberties, and the hopes of the Reformers lay in the Prince of Carignano, a nephew of Victor Emmanuel, who afterwards ascended the throne as King Charles Albert. This prince, though in sympathy with reform, refused to go against the wishes of the King, who abdicated, appointing the Prince of Carignano Regent.
The position of affairs in Savoy was dark indeed, for the whole of Piedmont had risen against the duchess. Many considerable towns had been captured by the Spanish, others, including the city of Turin, had opened their gates to them, and with the exception of Susa, Carignano, Chivasso, Casale, and the citadel of Turin, the whole country was lost to her.
Charles Albert, Metternich went on to say, had to choose between two systems, the system now in force, or 'the crassest revolution. He wrote again: 'The King is sliding back upon the path which he enters for the second time in his life, and which he will never really quit. Words of a bitter enemy, but juster than the 'Esecrato o Carignano, hurled for a quarter of a century at Charles Albert by those who only saw in him a traitor.
At the same hour the force at Carignano, six thousand strong, leaving only a small body to garrison the city, started for Turin along the farther bank of the Po, and just as day broke a heavy cannonade was opened by them against one of the city gates. Astonished and alarmed, the troops in the city flew to arms, and hurried to repulse the attack.
The pages were all inmates of the Military Academy, where the expense of their education was borne by the king after they received the appointment. The Count d'Auzers, a strong Legitimist, was one of the oldest friends of the Prince of Carignano, who was regarded at the Palazzo Cavour as the victim of false accusations of liberalism.
Susa, her headquarters, lying at the mouth of the valley up which the road over Mount Cenis finds its way, at once guards the pass and keeps open communication with France. "It is, as it were, the handle of a fan, and can be approached by three main roads only, those to Turin, Carignano, and Chivasso.
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