(Milan, 1862.)
Who knows what hidden devil it may be
Under yon mute, grim bird that looks our way?--
Yon silent bird of evil omen,--he
That, wanting peace, breathes discord and dismay.
Quick, quick, and change his egg, my Italy,
Before there hatch from it some bird of prey,--
Before some beak of rapine be set free,
That, after the mountains, shall infest the sea;
Before some ravenous eaglet shall be sent
After our isles to gorge the continent.
I'd rather a goose even from yon egg should come,--
If only of the breed that once saved Rome!
The flight of the Grand Duke from Florence in 1859, and his
conciliatory address to his late subjects after Villafranca, in which
by fair promises he hoped to win them back to their allegiance;
the union of Tuscany with the kingdom of Italy; the removal of the
Austrian flags from Milan; Garibaldi's crusade in Sicily; the movement
upon Rome in 1862; Aspromonte,--all these events, with the shifting
phases of public feeling throughout that time, the alternate hopes and
fears of the Italian nation, are celebrated in the later Stornelli
of Dall' Ongaro. Venice has long since fallen to Italy; and Rome has
become the capital of the nation. But the unification was not
accomplished till Garibaldi, who had done so much for Italy, had been
wounded by her king's troops in his impatient attempt to expel the
French at Aspromonte.