of the army. Meanwhile, the king, who had no intention of respecting the constitution, went to the Congress of Laibach to confer with the sovereigns of the holy alliance assembled there, leaving his son as regent. The king obtained the loan of an Austrian army with which to restore absolute power, while the regent dallied with the Liberals. Pepe, who in parliament had spoken in favour of deposing the king, now took command of the army and marched against the Austrians. He attacked them at Rieti (March, 1821), but his raw levies were repulsed. The army was gradually disbanded. Pepe then spent several years in England, France and other countries, publishing a number of books and pamphlets of a political character and keeping up his connection with the Carbonari. When the 1848 revolution and war broke out all over Italy, Pepe returned to Naples, where a constitution had again been proclaimed. He was given command of the Neapolitan army, which was to co-operate with Piedmont against the Austrians. However, when he reached Bologna, the king, who had already changed his mind, recalled him and his troops. Pepe, after hesitating between his desire to fight for Italy and his oath to the king, resigned his commission in the Neapolitan service and crossed the Po with 2,000 volunteers to take part in the campaign. After a good deal of fighting in Venetia, he joined Manin in the siege of Venice and took command of the defending army. When the city was forced by hunger to surrender to the Austrians, Pepe and Manin were among those excluded from the amnesty. He again went into exile and died in Turin in 1855. Works Relazione delle circostanze relative agli avvenimenti politici e militari in Napoli nel 1820 e 1821 [...] (1822) Memorie (1847) L'Italie politique et ses rapports avec la France et l'Angleterre (1848) Casi d'Italia negli anni 1847, 48 e 49 : continuazione delle memorie del generale Guglielmo Pepe (1851) References 1783 births 1855 deaths Italian commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Italian military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars 18th-century Italian people People from Squillace Italian generals Italian soldiers French soldiers Italian people of the Italian unification People of the First Italian War of Independence Italian exiles People of the Kingdom of Naples (Napoleonic)