Faith, Justice, and Valour, passed almost unnoticed before the assembled monarchs; even the Emperor Francis scarcely noticed, unless by a nod, the marks of favour bestowed upon the Genius of his House, nor moved his eyes from the printed Cantata containing his own praises. It will be seen, from the dedication of the Canto to the Emperor Francis, that the Veronese, to use an expression of Swift, "gave their monarch better weight."

"SACRA MAESTÀ.

"Se dalla eminente maestà del Trono commisurar si dovesse l'offerte di un ceto di devotissimi sudditi, il commercio di Verona serberebbe un profondo e rispettoso silenzio; ma non isdegna un Padre amoroso di raccogliere i teneri sensi de' proprj figli, e questa idea non meno vera che dolce rinfranca, fra tutti, quei Veronesi che sono addetti al commercio.

"Pochi carmi pronunciati dalla pastorale innocenza possano meritare uno solo sguardo benigno della paterna maestà vostra, e saranno così adempiati que' voti del cuore che lingua alcuna, nè penna, esprimer potrebbe adeguatamente."

Whilst looking at the cluster of crowned heads it was impossible not to remark that the absolute lords of so many millions of men had not only nothing to distinguish them from the common race of mankind, but were, in appearance, inferior to what might be expected from the same number of gentlemen taken at hazard from any society in Europe. Nor was there to be seen a trait expressive of any great or attractive quality in all those who were to be the sources of so much happiness or misery to so large a portion of the civilised world. Yet some of those were notoriously good men in their

private capacity, and scarcely one of them has been distinguished for vices eminently pernicious to society, or any other than the venial failings of humanity; or, as a writer of no democratic tendency says of them, "all excellent persons in private life, all scourges of the countries submitted to their sway."

Of the sovereigns at Verona the Emperor Alexander took the most pains to ingratiate himself with the Veronese, by rambling about in pretended incognito, and seizing the hands of the ladies whom he happened to encounter in the streets, or giving sequins to the boys at play. He one day amused himself with carrying up the coffee to his brother of Austria, and it was some time before Francis discovered that he was waited upon by an emperor in disguise. A strange but innocent frolic, but "utinam his potius nugis."

To prepare for the Congress two hundred policemen were despatched from Venice to Verona, and two hundred from Milan. The number of troops in the city and round it amounted to 10,000. The principal employment of the police was to watch the proceedings of those to whom it was not desirable the Italians should have promiscuous access. The Emperor Alexander and the Duke of Wellington were the especial objects of their care. The latter peculiarly so; for he had been much cheered in St. Mark's Square at Venice, and had become, unwittingly no doubt, very popular by appearing in the

* Mr. Stewart Rose, in his Letters from the North of Italy. VOL. I.

E

pit at the opera-house there in plain clothes. Every movement of the Emperor Alexander was vigilantly observed and noted. A legion of spies hovered round him wherever he went. At this time (1822) these most odious of all the satellites of despotism were in full activity. The commotions of 1820 and 1821 had roused the suspicions of all the petty monarchs of the Peninsula, as well as of their master at Vienna. The persons employed were chiefly natives of the Italian Tyrol, who corresponded directly with Vienna or Milan, without reference to the local authorities. One of these spies did, however, hand in a report to the delegate at Verona implicating several respectable Veronese families, and, upon receiving a reproof for his officiousness, actually went to Milan and saw the Archduke Viceroy himself, who made him a present of a hundred louis d'or. Thus encouraged he returned to Verona, and very soon sent in a list of Carbonari to Milan, including amongst them the delegate himself. It was not without some difficulty that the magistrate was saved and the denunciator exposed.

Philip de Comines had sagacity enough to see that the interviews of sovereigns seldom are advantageous to themselves, and it is equally or more certain that their respective subjects derive no benefit from them, often the contrary. The ambition of Napoleon was not cured by meeting Frederick and Alexander on the raft, nor was the future intimacy between the sovereigns more