With this aim in view the fifth French army corps,
commanded by Prince Jerome Napoleon, had debarked at Leghorn, under the
pretext of organizing the military forces of Central Italy and harassing
the Austrians on the extreme left. But the Tuscans soon divined the real
intention of the French, and the Provisional Government in Florence,
previously instituted under Bettino Ricasoli, suddenly avowed its
intention of uniting Tuscany to Sardinia, whereupon Prince Napoleon,
seeing the true attitude of the country, found it advisable to affect to
promote the annexation.
The duchies of Parma and Modena had also been deserted by their dukes,
and the papal legates had to quit Romagna, whose inhabitants now
suddenly announced their fusion with Sardinia. Indeed this impulse for
annexation now began to spread, and to the cry of "Victor Emmanuel" the
Marches and Umbria revolted against the Pontiff, but in these regions
the movement was sanguinarily suppressed by the Swiss troops.
Napoleon III was displeased to note how all Italian aspirations tended
to unity, and thus it was that he had signed the Treaty of Villafranca.
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