"Since a reckless adventurer, possessing all the force of which revolutionary Europe can dispose, has attacked our dominions, under the name of an Italian sovereign who is both a relation and a friend, we have striven for five months long, with all the means in our power, on behalf of the sacred independence of our states. "The fortune of war has proved contrary to us. The reckless enterprise of which the above sovereign protested his ignorance in the most formal manner, and which, nevertheless, at the moment when negotiations were going on for an intimate alliance between us, received in his own states its principal support and assistance, that enterprise at which the whole of Europe assisted with indifference, after having proclaimed the principle of non-intervention, leaving us alone to fight against the common enemy, is now upon the point of extending its disastrous effects to our own capital. The forces of the enemy are now approaching this neighborhood. "On the other hand, both Sicily and the provinces of the continent, which for a long time have been agitated in every manner by a revolution, rising in insurrection under so great an excitement, have formed provisional governments under the title and nominal protection of the above sovereign, and have confided to a pretended dictator full authority and the decision of their destiny. "Strong in our rights, founded upon history, in international treaty, and in the public law of Europe, we intend to prolong our defence, while it is possible; yet we are no less determined upon every sacrifice in order to save this vast metropolis, the glorious home of the most ancient memories, the birthplace of national art and civilization, from the horrors of anarchy and civil war. "In consequence, we shall retire beyond the walls with our army, confiding in the loyalty and the love of our subjects for the preservation of order and for respect being shown to authority. "In taking this determination we are conscious of a duty which our ancient and uncontested rights, our honor, the interest of our heirs and successors, and more than all, the welfare of our most beloved subjects, have imposed upon us, and therefore we protest loudly against all acts which have been accomplished up to this time, and against the events which are on the point of completion, or which may be accomplished in future. We reserve, then, all our rights and privileges, arising from the most sacred and incontestable laws of succession as well as from the force of treaties, and we declare solemnly that all the aforesaid acts and events are null, void, and of no effect. For what concerns us we leave our cause, and the cause of our people, in the hands of Almighty God, under the firm conviction that during the short space of our reign we have not entertained a single thought that was not devoted to the happiness and the good of our subjects. The institutions which we have irrevocably guaranteed are the proof of this.