From the 2nd to the 16th of April, 1815, the Austrians having retired before the invasion of Murat, Bologna once more came into his possession. There Murat fixed his head-quarters; and the independence of Italy being his avowed object, some commencement was made towards a change of government*.

*On the retreat of the Austrians, the youth of Bologna, to the number of 300 or 400, offered their services to Murat. All the poetical genius of the town was put into requisition; hymns to liberty, and odes to independence, were, with incredible rapidity, written, composed, and learned by the performers, to sing after the opera. The whole orchestra came on the stage, the actors sang, and the audience repeated the choruses. The old nobility in the mean time kept quiet; the priests trembled.