Ladies’ Edinburgh Magazine > Volume 5

A t Home mid A broad. 5 3
tier Semnoz-Alpe vie with the best pastures of Switzerland.
On the other hand, her midsummer days recall Italy to our
minds; their temperature is very high, and the blue black¬
ness of her midnight skies has a magic of its own.
Her people are able and courageous, and Savoy, unlike
Wales and Switzerland, can boast of many brave and dis¬
tinguished sons. In the Gallo-Celtic race of the Allobroges,
as among the sub-Alpine populations of Piedmont, many fine
qualities are to be recognised. There is perhaps less personal
beauty to be seen here than in Turin, but some of the women
are very handsome, and the men have the same energy and
tenacity of purpose. With all this, they have shown respect
for discipline, and a strong religious sentiment.
Thus it happens that the poor little kingdom which used
to send off its yearly swarm of chimney-sweeps to Paris, has
given princes to the church, saints to the calendar, ambas¬
sadors to distant courts, generals to foreign armies, models
of style to literary France, and a king to united Italy.
The history of the princes of Savoy and Savoy-Carignan
reads like a romance. Every chapter of it is interesting,—
from the origin of the family at Aiquebelles to its ascension
to the Capitol,—from the reign of Humbert the Whitehanded
to that of Humbert the Second, King of Italy, crowned in
Rome. They belong to a hardy, stout-hearted race, whose
battle-cry was ' Savoie en avant!' and who knew how to dare
as well as to endure.
In Savoy the religious element has always been strong,
and society here was built up by the churchmen, as the
cells in a hive are built up by its bees.
This was a highly favoured land where St. Bernard and St.
Francis lived. Savoy was also ambitious for her clergy, and
she sent to the Holy See the Popes Nicholas II.i and Inno¬
cent v., as well as the anti-Popes Clement VII.^ and Felix
V.^ The Cardinals Brogny, Tournon, and Gerdil, were men
of eminence in politics and literature; and so was their
modern representative, Felix Dupanloup, the venerable
Archbishop of Orleans, who might often be found taking a
holiday in his native Savoy. So much for the purple and
the mitres and the cardinals' hats to be discovered among the
families of Savoy.
Nor did its calendar lack saints and martyrs. There was
a St. Anthelme, and a St. Pierre II. du Tarentaise, a Bien-
1 Nicholas II. Gerald de Chevron-Vilette. Elected 1058.
^ Clement VII. Robert de Geneve. Born at Annecy; elected 1378.
' King Amadeus VIII. Abdicated 1434; elected by the Counoil of
Basle, 1439.