erudite, simple enough to be readily comprehended by the ignorant, an episode separable from general history, a great deed done by obscure men, and so a fit subject for that poetic treatment which illumines history without falsifying it, the story of Ettore Fieramosca was a striking answer to the taunt of Italian cowardice; for, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the same scene which we have just witnessed in Venetia was taking place in Southern Italy, but with differ ent characters. Ferdinand of Spain and Louis XII. had agreed to divide the kingdom of Naples between them; but, presently quarrelling about their prey, they proceeded to fight each other for the exclusive possession of it. The Spanish forces, under the great captain Gonsalvo de Cordova, being inferior for the moment to the French, were shut up by the latter in the little town of Barletta, a fortified seaport on the confines of Apulia, on the Adriatic. In one of the skirmishes which were going on almost daily, the Spaniards happened to make a number of prisoners; and having invited the latter, after the chivalrous fashion of the day, to supper with themselves, some contemptuous remarks upon the valor of the Italians were made by the French, and at once resented by the Italians who were present serving with the Spaniards, among them, by Fieramosca. A challenge was delivered, and accepted by the French; and thirteen knights on each side undertook, under the auspices of the Spaniards, to test the comparative courage and skill of Italian and French cavaliers. The latter, it is hardly necessary to add, were totally defeated. Such was the Challenge of Barletta: a fair combat, in the presence, as it were, of a great nation; a noble deed, of which the Italians might justly be proud when they read the narrative of it, thus written by D' Azeglio with all the simplicity of history and all the grandeur of an epic. But, of course, tenderer sentiments were not omitted; and the unhappy love of Fieramosca and Ginevra, victim of the merciless lust of Borgia, adds a certain tragic interest to the story, while it deepens its moral by throwing upon it so dark a shadow.

"Niccoló de' Lapi," published eight years afterwards, was a more elaborate and not less successful effort. The subject of

it, indeed, the siege of Florence in the year 1529-30, when it held out so bravely against the forces of Pope Clement VII., united with those of the Emperor Charles V., for the purpose of carrying into effect the treaty made between them at Barcelona, with a view to restore the Medici to Florence, this subject, one of the most dramatic in the history of Italy, had already been treated by Guerrazzi in his "Assedio di Firenze," while the Florentine annals in general had been a good deal exploited. Rosini had written "Luisa Strozzi," and Tommaseo "Il Duce d' Atene," while Guerrazzi himself was already famous for his " Battaglia di Benevento." But D' Azeglio did not shrink from the competition: for, in the "Assedio," the subject is chiefly Florence; while, in his own work, he aimed to portray the domestic habits of its citizens.

Neither of D'Azeglio's works, however, can be considered as masterpieces, so far as the poetic illustration of historical events or the structure of the plot is concerned; and the French critic who complained that there were too many historical details, may perhaps be right; for they may all be read in Varchi, though the reading of that estimable writer will perhaps remind one of the anecdote related by Guerrazzi of the poet who had made a mistake in quantity being condemned by Apollo to read the taking of Pisa, in Guicciardini; a punishment considered in Parnassus as equivalent to the galleys. The characters, moreover, are for the most part of the common type. The faithful Lamberto and the guileless Laudomia, the capricious Liza and the traitorous Troilo, - you may find them in many a novel of the day. Even Silvaggia and the erratic Fanfulla are not original creations, though the latter is perhaps the best D' Azeglio has drawn, next to the old patriot Niccoló himself, the central figure in the work, worthy to go down as the embodiment, for all time, of Italian virtue and courage.

The chief charm of the work lies in the local coloring, which amply makes up for the length and occasional tedium of the narrative: the mountains of Pistoja, with their magnificent chestnut groves and beech woods; Gavinana, where fell the two leaders, the Prince of Orange, who came to subdue

Florence, and Francesco Ferrucci, who could not save it with his heart's blood; Montemarlo, the castellated villa, so well preserved on the edges of the grand old hills; and in Florence itself the old palaces and squares and towers, and San Marco, with the frescoes of Angelico and the arms of the Medici still on its walls, where Savonarola uttered the prophecy, now at last, it may be, approaching its fulfilment, "Florentia, post flagellam, renovabitur." And it is in the truthfulness of this historical coloring that one recognizes the influence of Manzoni; though none of the characters, as an historical portrait, can equal that of the Cardinal Borromeo, and no description compare with that of Milan in the time of the plague, in the "Promessi Sposi."

But the great service these novels did, and the justification of their success, lies in the sentiment of nationality which pervades them, elevated and luminous, without any of that confusion of light and shade which injures the novels of Guerrazzi; for D'Azeglio's nature was healthy and well balanced. Guerrazzi was morose and gloomy. God was to him a destroyer, and Christ the model of a democrat; and life was a wail of despair, for the soul of woman was perfidious, and man, when not a persecutor, was a victim. But nevertheless his genuine rhetorical talent, combined with the purity of his Tuscan dialect, free from the provincialisms which Manzoni and D'Azeglio could never escape, made him everywhere popular; for he had touched the revolutionary heart of Italy. "Break to pieces all your divinities," he exclaimed; "adore none other God than him of sabaoth, the spirit of battles: " and the fiery patriotism of the Italian youth answered to his call.

It is therefore not so much as works of art that the novels either of Guerrazzi or of D'Azeglio are to be regarded; for in Italy, it must be remembered, politics are a matter of life and death, and religious liberty a thing so dominant in the Italian mind, that one cannot portray modern life without taking it into account. An author must speak of Italy to the Italians, or speak of nothing; and, if he escape the fate of Guerrazzi and Amari and Tommaseó and the rest, it is because

he has not trespassed upon the only subject upon which the Italians will hear him. D'Azeglio, with other writers, therefore, has had recourse chiefly to historical topics, in the treatment of which more latitude has been allowed; and the marvellous success with which he uses the opportunity to purify the sentiment of Italian nationality, is more honorable to him than any merely artistic excellence.

Up to 1846, D'Azeglio led the life of an artist and writer, independent in fortune, in the free enjoyment of the world, which, to one of his culture and position, holds out so many charms. Yet though society did what it could to spoil him, and he was not a man to resist its allurements, neither flattery nor pleasure ever turned him aside from the pursuit of his noble aims for the regeneration of Italy, socially as well as politically; and as the time approached when the complication of parties became more hopeless, and the imminence of revolution more apparent, he brought to his task a clearness of vision and a sagacity of judgment rare in one in whom the imaginative element seemed so preponderant.

For several years, a certain practical tendency towards material reforms had been observable in Italy; but the priestly government in the States of the Church remained unaltered, and so hostile was it to the vigorous population of the Romagna, which had been encouraged by the example of Piedmont to aspire to social progress, that a revolution to a greater or less extent was inevitable. It was suppressed, however, and the insurgents either went to the dungeons, or escaped to wander abroad in exile. D'Azeglio, who was then in Florence, came forward with generous zeal to the defence of this unfortunate population, and proclaimed its wrongs in the ears of Europe. His pamphlet, "Degli ultimi casi di Romagna," of which twelve thousand copies were circulated,an immense number, when one considers the precautions taken at that period, in every government and province in Italy, against the spread of dangerous publications, may be said to have created public opinion in the Romagna, where it has even served since as a sort of political catechism; for while on the one hand it exposed its revolting misgovernment, it attacked

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on the other, with sublime invective, that ceaseless machination of conspiracy, which was but another term for baseness and treachery and murder. He declared to the insurgents that they were a minority who prematurely, without being called thereto, had fired the mine which extended under all Italy, in the interest not of the whole country but of their own small state; that nothing was justifiable but a well matured revolution, which had the unity of Italy for its object and the means for accomplishing it at hand, for only such a revolution could meet the responsibility of the inevitable misery which all revolutions bring upon the people; that the Italians were behind other nations, solely through their own fault in not embracing that idea of unity which gave to other races all their strength; and, finally, that while Italy, unlike other nations, is not driven to revolution by stress of physical want, it becomes it all the more to lay the foundations for it in the general enlightenment of the people.

It was this pamphlet of D'Azeglio's, doubtless, which, together with Gioberti's somewhat optimistic announcement of the approaching reconciliation of the national party and the Court of Rome, contributed to that alteration in the sentiments of the higher ecclesiastics, which resulted in the election of Pope Pius IX. in 1846. Affected by the misery that surrounded him, the Pope was ready to do his utmost to alleviate it; and when bearing him, as it were, at its front, that new movement began in Italy which has been advancing so rapidly, since all classes, from priest to actor, from Gioberti the philosopher-politician of Piedmont, to Giusti the delicate satirist of Tuscany, joined in announcing the avatar of Pius IX. the deliverer of Italy. The writings of Mazzini, who maintained that the only possible deliverance of Italy was to be expected from the Italian people, were burnt in his native town; for, in the frenzy of the popular excitement, it was declared that there was no Saviour but the Pope, and that Gioberti was his prophet.

Driven from Florence by the Tuscan government, D' Azeglio had already been active in Lombardy and Central Italy, in diffusing his conviction, that, in the upheaval of Italy which