She  shuddered  at  the  thought  that  while  risking
the  deadly  chances  of  a  battle,  he  might  leave
upon  the  plains  of  Lombardy  not  only  his  life
but  his   crown,  which  was  obtained  too  recently


154     THE    LIFE    OF   AN    EMPRESS

to  have  yet  acquired  such  stability  as  would
maintain  it  upon  the  head  of  a  woman  or  a
child  should  its  present  wearer  be  taken.  As
the  soldiers  marched  past  the  Tuileries  on  their
way  to  action,  the  crowd  had  seen  the  Empress
bathed  in  tears  upon  the  balcony.  In  tears  she
bade  good-bye  to  those  who  went  to  meet  their
fate,  not  knowing  why,  and  who  greeted  her  with
wild  enthusiasm.  At  that  moment  she  thought,
no  doubt,  that  in  their  serried  ranks  were  many
youths  who  would  be  snatched  from  life,  from
their  aspirations  of  joy,  happiness  and  love,  in
order  to  accomplish  the  designs  of  a  Piedmontese
Minister.  Such  influence  as  she  exerted  upon
the  events  of  the  war  of  Italy  tended  to  hasten
its  peaceful  solution.  We  know  how  the  sud-
denness of  its  conclusion  surprised  the  minds
of  the  keenest  political  auguries.  To  the
armaments  of  Prussia,  to  the  concentration  of
German  troops  beyond  the  Rhine,  to  such
reasons  as  the  humanitarian  sentiments  of  the
Emperor,  rudely  shocked  by  the  horrors  of  the
field  of  battle,  could  be  assigned  the  sudden
halt  upon  the  road  to  victory.  But  this  halt
was  not  brought  about  upon  the  banks  of  the
Adige,  nor  yet  upon  those  of  the  Rhine.  It  was
due  to  secret  influences  that  sprang  from  an
Imperial  source.  We  have  the  proof  of  this  in
the  unpublished  and  interesting  testimony  of  the


THE    LIFE    OF   AN    EMPRESS     155

late  chaplain  of  the  Empress,  Bernard  Bauer.
