Rassegna storica del Risorgimento

174
Ronald E. Coons
Sicilians and Neapolitans, in having exacted of their king the promise of a constitution. Milan is the centro of ali the revolutionary movements in Austrian Italy, that city is the largest and wealthiest in Lombardy, and from thence issue, ali the insnrrectionary orders as well as the means for their support, throughout the province; whilst ics position so near to the frontiers of Sardinia on the one side, and Switzerland on the other, make it a source of very great uneasiness to the Imperiai government. The saune spirit of insiibordinalion, has manifested itself in the other important cities of Lombardy. In Vernice, largo subscriptions have been raised, for the support of the families of those citizens, who were killed by the Austrian troops in Milan. A few days since in that city, an affair took place at the theatre which liked to have jproved serious. Cerato the famous danseuse,45) appeared upon the stage decorated with white, red and green ribands, the colore adopted every where, by universa! consent, as the future ensign of independant Italy, and the enthusiasm which that simple ciroumstance awakened was so intense, that the police were obliged to enter the theatre, disperse the audience and dose the doors. Violence and bloodshed would prob-ably have occurred upon the occasi on had not the police taken the precauti on to surround the theatre with so large a military force, as to render any attempi on the part of the people useless and absurd. In Padua, also, agreably to a report which has just reached this city, a much more serious occurrence transpired there on the 8th Inst. The students of the University, twelve hundred in number, having closed the doors of their institution, they marched forth armed into the city, and shouting for the dndependance of Italy; the troops soon surrounded and ordered them to lay 'down their arms, and upon their refusai to do so, a conflict ensued, in which it is salci, about sixty students were killed.46) Order was however after some time restored. The sanie spirit of insubordónation seems to prevail in a greater or less degree through-out ali the cities of the Lombardian province. Whilst these things are transpiring in Austrian Italy, the king of Sardinia has stationed a force of 35,000 men immediately on the frontiere of Lombardy.47) The explanati on given by the Minister of that Power, at this court, for the extraordinary military display at that point, at present, is that bis government desires to be prepared against the insurrectionary movements now going on in Austria, but it is more generally believed, that the object of the Sardinian government is to be prepared for those movements, and to take advantage of them, whenever the insurrection in Lombardy shall have become so general and so systematiaed, as to enable bini to cross the border and to interfere with efEect.
45) Si trattava qui della celebre ballerina napoletana Fanny Cerrito che il 6 febbraio apparve sulla scena del Teatro la Fenice vestita nei colori nazionali. La Cerrito era nata 1*11 marzo 1821; la data della sua morte è ignota.
*9 KARL FREIHERR VON SCHOKHOLS, Erinnerungen eines osterreichìscheii Veteranen aus dem ìtaHenUchen Kriege der Jahre 1848 und 1849, Stuttgart-TUbingen, 18524, voi. I, p. 78, dà le cifre di quaranta-cinquanta feriti e cinque-sei morti a Padova; mentre C. SPEL­LA NZON ipp. cil.i voi. II, p. 618) dichiara che non vi furono ohe tre morti.
47) Ai primi di febbraio del 1848, i Piemontesi cominciavano a trasferire truppe dalla frontiera francese a nuove posizioni nella regione di Alessandria e verso il Ticino; vedi PIRRO PIERI, Storia militare del Risorgimento, Torino, 1961, p. 198. Stìles sopravva­lutò gli effettivi delTesercito piemontese, i quali nel tempo in cui scrìveva, non erano che 35,000; vedi GIROLAMO CALA ULLOA, Guerre de Vindépendance italienne en 1848 et en 1849, Paris, 1859, voi. I, p. 92.