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" He had rehabilitated the nation in its own eyes.

UNION OF ITALY
Ambition grows by what it feeds on. Napoleon determined to assert
himself again. The bitterness of Italy against its Austrian masters
offered an excellent opportunity, and in 1859 he encouraged the King of
Sardinia to try once more the contest which had proved so disastrous
eleven years before. The King, Victor Emmanuel II, prepared for war
against Austria. The French joined him, so did the little North Italian
States, and their combined forces were victorious at Magenta and
Solferino. [Footnote: See _Battles of Magenta and Solferino_.]
Napoleon had declared that the combat should not cease until the
Austrians were driven entirely out of Italy. As the price of his
alliance he secured Nice and Savoy from Sardinia; and then, immediately
after the bloody Battle of Solferino he suddenly changed front and
declared that the war must cease. Austria yielded Lombardy, but kept
Venice, the last of the possessions for which during more than three
hundred years she had been battling in Italy.


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