by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER IX.
HARD FIGHTING.
On the following morning Frank was riding with a message from thegeneral, when he heard a sudden outburst of firing at some distanceahead of him. He checked his horse to listen.
"That must be near the Porto Termini," he said, "and yet there are noneof the enemy anywhere near there. It must be either some fresh body oftroops that have arrived from the south of the island, or Bosco's columnreturned from their fool's errand in search of us. If so, we are in adesperate mess. Six thousand Neapolitan troops, under one of their bestgenerals, would turn the scale against us; they must be stopped, ifpossible, till the general can collect our scattered troops."
Frank's second supposition was the correct one. The two columns thathad, as they believed, been in pursuit of Garibaldi, had returned to thetown. So unanimous were the country people in their hatred of theNeapolitans, that it was only on the previous day that they had learnedthat the enemy, who they believed were fugitives, had entered Palermowith their whole force. Furious at having been so tricked, they made atremendous march, and arriving at the Termini gate early in the morning,made a determined attack on the guard there, who defended themselvesbravely, but were driven back, contesting every step.
Frank hesitated for a moment, and then shouted to a soldier near him:"Run with all speed to the palace; demand to see the general at once.Say that you have come from me, and that I sent you to say that thePorto Termini is attacked, I know not with what force, and that I amgoing on to try to arrest their progress until he arrives with help. Asyou run, tell every man you meet to hasten to oppose the enemy."
The man started to run, and Frank galloped on, shouting to every armedman he met to follow him. The roar of battle increased as he rode. Whenhe reached the long street leading to the gate, he saw that the enemyhad already forced their way in, and that a barricade was beingdesperately defended by the little force that had fallen back beforethem. His horse would be useless now, and he called to a boy who waslooking round the corner of a house.
"Look here, my lad: take this horse and lead him to the general'sheadquarters. Here is a five-franc piece. Don't get on his back, butlead him. Can I trust you?"
"I will do it, signor; you can depend upon me."
Frank ran forward. The tremendous roll of fire beyond the barricadeshowed how strong was the force there, and he felt sure that thedefenders must speedily be overpowered. Numbers of men were runningalong the street; he shouted to them: "The barricade cannot hold out;enter the houses and man every window; we must keep them back to thelast. Garibaldi will be here before long."
He himself kept on until within some two hundred yards of the barricade;then he stopped at the door of a house at the corner of a lane at rightangles to the street, and ran into it. He waited until a score of mencame up.
"Come in here," he said: "we will defend this house till the last."
The men closed the door behind them, and running into the lower rooms,fetched out furniture and piled it against it. They were assisted byfive or six women, who, with some children, were the sole occupants ofthe house.
"Bring all the mattresses and bedding that you have," Frank said tothem, "to the windows of the first floor. We will place them on thebalconies."
In three or four minutes every balcony was lined with mattresses, andFrank sheltered his men behind them. Looking out, he saw that thefighting had just ceased, and that a dense mass of the enemy werepouring over the barricade; while at the same moment a crackling firebroke out from the houses near, into which its defenders had run, whenthey saw that the barricade could be no longer defended. Along bothsides of the street, preparations similar to those he had ordered hadbeen hastily made; and the men who were still coming up were all turninginto the houses. Directly the Neapolitans crossed the barricade, theyopened fire down the street, which was speedily deserted; but Frank hadno doubt that, as the Garibaldian supports came up, they would maketheir way in at the back and strengthen the defenders. A hundred yardshigher up the street was another barricade; behind this the townspeoplewere already gathering. Frank ordered his men to keep back inside therooms until the enemy came along.
"Your powder is no good till they are close," he said, "but it is asgood as the best at close quarters."
"THE HINGES OF THE DOOR WERE BROKEN OFF"]
From time to time he looked out. The roar of musketry was continuous;from every window came puffs of smoke, while the enemy replied by astorm of musketry fire at the defenders. While the column was stillmoving forward, its officers were telling off parties of men to burstopen the doors and bayonet all found in the houses. He could mark theprogress made, as women threw themselves out of the windows, preferringdeath that way to being murdered by the infuriated soldiers. It was notlong before the head of the column approached the house; then Frank gavethe word, and from every window a discharge was poured into the crowdedmass. Stepping back from the balconies to load, the men ran out andfired again as soon as they were ready; while through the upper part ofthe open windows a shower of bullets flew into the room, bringing downportions of the ceiling, smashing looking-glasses, and striking thicklyagainst the back walls.
Several of the party had fallen in the first two or three minutes, andFrank, taking one of their muskets and ammunition, was working with therest, when a woman whom he had posted below ran up to say that they wereattacking the door, and that it was already yielding. Two or three shotsfired through the keyhole had indeed broken the lock, and it was onlythe furniture piled against it that kept it in its place. Already, byhis instructions, the women had brought out on to the landing sofas,chests of drawers, and other articles, to form a barricade there. Frankran down the stone stairs with six of the men, directing the others toform the barricade on the first floor, and to be prepared to help themover as they returned. It was two or three minutes before the hinges ofthe door were broken off, by shots from the assailants, and as it fellit was dragged out, and a number of men rushed in and began to pull downthe furniture behind.
Now Frank and his party opened fire, aiming coolly and steadily. Butthe soldiers rushed in in such numbers that he soon gave the word, andhis party ran upstairs, and, covered by the fire of their comrades,climbed up over the barricade on to the landing. Here they defendedthemselves desperately. The enemy thronged the staircase, those who werein front using their bayonets, while the men in the passage below firedover their heads at the defenders. Momentarily the little band decreasedin number, until but two remained on their feet by the side of Frank.The women, knowing that no mercy would be shown, picked up the musketsof the fallen, and fired them into the faces of the men trying to pulldown or scale the barricades. But the end was close at hand, when therecame a tremendous crash, a blinding smoke and dust. The house shook toits foundations, and for a moment a dead silence took the place of thedin that had before prevailed.
Frank and his two companions had been thrown down by the shock. Halfstunned, and ignorant of what had happened, he struggled to his feet.His left hand hung helpless by his side. He took his pistol, which hehad reserved for the last extremity, from his belt, and looked over thebarricade. At first he could see nothing, so dense was the smoke anddust. As it cleared away a little, he gave an exclamation of surpriseand thankfulness: the stairs were gone.
"Thank God!" he said, turning round to the women behind him, who werestanding paralysed by the explosion and shock. "We are safe: the stairshave gone."
Still he could scarce understand what had happened, until he saw ayawning hole in the wall near the stairs, and then understood what hadtaken place. The ships-of-war were again at work bombarding the town.One of their shells had passed through the house and exploded under thestairs, carrying them away, with all upon them. Below was a chaos ofblocks of stone, mingled with the bodies of their late assailants; butwhile he looked, a fierce jet of flame burst up.
"What was there under the stairs?" he asked the women.
"The store of firewood, signor, was there."
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sp; "The shell which blew up the stairs has set it alight," he said. "We aresafe from the enemy; but we are not safe from the fire. I suppose thereis a way out on to the roof?"
"Yes, signor."
"Then do one of you see that all the children upstairs are taken outthere; let the rest examine all the bodies of the men who have fallen;if any are alive they must be carried up."
He looked down at the two men who had stood by him till the last: onehad been almost decapitated by a fragment of stone, the other was stillbreathing; only three of the others were found to be alive, for almostall, either at the windows or the barricade, had been shot through thehead or upper part of the body.
Frank assisted the women, as well as he was able, to carry the four menstill alive up to the roof. The houses were divided by party walls someseven or eight feet high. Frank told the women to fetch a chair, a chestof drawers, and a large blanket, from below. The chest of drawers wasplaced against the wall separating the terrace from that of the nexthouse down the lane, and the chair by the side of it. With the aid ofthis, Frank directed one of the women to mount on to the chest ofdrawers, and then took his place beside her.
"You had better get up first," he said, "and then help me a little, forwith this disabled arm I should not be able to manage it without hurtingmyself badly." With her aid, however, he had no difficulty in gettingup. There were several women on the next roof, but they had not heardhim, so intent were they in watching the fray; and it was not until hehad shouted several times that they caught the sound of his voice abovethe din of fighting.
"I am going to hand some children and four wounded men down to you," hesaid, as they ran up.
The children were first passed down; the women placed the wounded menone by one on a blanket, and standing on two chairs raised it untilFrank and the woman beside him could get hold. Then they lowered it downon the other side until the women there could reach it. Only three hadto be lifted over, for when it came to the turn of the fourth he wasfound to be dead.
"You will all have to move on," Frank said, as he dropped on to theterrace; "the next house is on fire: whether it will spread or not Icannot say, but at any rate you had better bring up your valuables, andmove along two or three houses farther. You cannot go out into thestreet; you would only be shot down as soon as you issued out. I thinkthat if you go two houses farther you will be safe; the fire will takesome time to reach there, and the enemy's column may have passed acrossthe end of the street before you are driven out."
The women heard what he said with composure; the terrors of the pastthree days had excited the nerves of the whole population to such apoint of tension, that the news of this fresh danger was received almostwith apathy. They went down quietly to bring up their children andvaluables, and with them one woman brought a pair of steps, whichgreatly facilitated the passage of the remaining walls. One of thewounded men had by this time so far recovered himself that he was able,with assistance, to cross without being lifted over in a blanket. Afresh contingent of fugitives here joined them, and another wall wascrossed.
"I think that you are now far enough," Frank said: "will you promise methat if the flames work this way"--and by this time the house where thefight had taken place was on fire from top to bottom--"you will carrythese wounded men along as you go from roof to roof? I have my duties toperform and cannot stay here longer. Of course, if the fire spreads allthe way down the lane, you must finally go down and run out from thedoor of the last house; but there will be comparatively small danger inthis, as it will be but two or three steps round the next corner, andyou will there be in shelter."
"We promise we will carry them with us," one of the women saidearnestly: "you do not think that we could leave the men who have foughtso bravely for us to be burnt?"
Frank now proceeded along the roofs. Two of the women accompanied him,to place the steps to enable him to mount and dismount the walls. Therewas no occasion to warn those below as to the fire, for all had by thistime noticed it. He went down through the last house, opened the door,and ran round the corner, and then made his way along the streets untilhe reached the spot where the combat was raging. Garibaldi had, onreceiving his message, hurried with what force he could collect to thescene of conflict; but, as he went, he received a letter from GeneralLanza, saying that he had sent negotiators on board the flag-ship ofthe British fleet anchored in the roadstead, Admiral Mundy havingconsented to allow the representatives of both parties to meet there.
The tone of the letter showed how the Sicilian viceroy's pride washumbled. He had, in his proclamation issued four days before, denouncedGaribaldi as a brigand and filibuster; he now addressed him as HisExcellency General Garibaldi. Garibaldi at once went on board theEnglish admiral's ship, but the fire of the Neapolitan ships and theirguns on shore continued unabated. General Letizia was already on board,with the conditions of the proposed convention. To the first fourarticles Garibaldi agreed: that there should be a suspension of arms fora period to be arranged; that during that time each party should keepits position; that convoys of wounded, and the families of officials,should be allowed to pass through the town and embark on board theNeapolitan war-ships; and that the troops in the palace should beallowed to provide themselves with daily provisions. The fifth articleproposed that the municipality should address a humble petition to hismajesty the king, laying before him the real wishes of the town, andthat this petition should be submitted to his majesty.
This article was indignantly rejected by Garibaldi. Letizia then foldedup the paper and said, "Then all communications between us must cease."
Garibaldi then protested to Admiral Mundy against the infamy of theroyal authorities in allowing the ships and forts to continue to fireupon his troops while a flag of truce was flying. Letizia, who couldhardly have expected that the article would be accepted, now agreed toits being struck out, and an armistice was arranged to last fortwenty-four hours. Garibaldi returned on shore, and at a great meetingof the citizens explained the terms to them, and stated the conditionthat he had rejected. It was greeted with a roar of approval, and thecitizens at once scattered with orders to increase the strength of thebarricades to the utmost. The work was carried on with enthusiasm; thebalconies were all lined with mattresses, and heaped with stones andmissiles of all kinds to cast down upon the enemy, and the work ofmanufacturing powder and cartridges went on with feverish haste. Nowthat the firing had ceased, officers from the British and Americanvessels off the town came ashore, and many of them made presents ofrevolvers and fowling-pieces to the volunteers. The sailors on aSardinian frigate almost mutinied, because they were not permitted to goashore and aid in the defence.
Before the twenty-four hours had passed, General Letizia called uponGaribaldi and asked for a further three days' truce, as twenty-fourhours was not a sufficient time to get the wounded on board. ThisGaribaldi readily granted, as it would give time for the barricades tobe made almost impregnable, and for him to receive reinforcements, whileit could not benefit the enemy. Volunteers arrived in companies from thecountry round, and Orsini landed with the cannon and with a considerablenumber of men who had joined him.
Such was the report given by Letizia, on his return to the royal palace,of the determined attitude of the population and of the formidableobstacles that would be encountered by the troops directly they were putin motion, that General Lanza must have felt his position to bedesperate. He accordingly sent Letizia back again to arrange that thetroops at the royal palace, the finance office, and the Termini gateshould be allowed to move down towards the sea and there join hands. Tothis Garibaldi willingly assented, as, should hostilities be renewed, hewould be able to concentrate his whole efforts at one point, instead ofbeing obliged to scatter his troops widely to meet an advance from fourdirections.
All idea of further fighting, however, had been abandoned by Lanza, andbefore the end of the armistice arrived, it was arranged that all shouldbe taken on to their ships, and the forts, as well as the town,evacuated. The general also bo
und himself to leave behind him all thepolitical prisoners who had been detained in the Castello Mare.
The enthusiasm in the city was indescribable, as the Neapolitansembarked on board their ships. The released prisoners were carried intriumph to Garibaldi's headquarters. Every house was decorated andilluminated, and the citizens, proud of the share they had taken inwinning their freedom, speedily forgot their toils and their losses. Themen who had marched with Garibaldi from Marsala were glad indeed of theprospect of a short time of rest. For nearly three weeks they had beenalmost incessantly marching or fighting, exposed for some days to aterrible downfall of rain, without shelter and almost without food.Since they had entered Palermo, they had only been able to snatch two orthree hours' sleep occasionally. They had lost a large number of men,and few of them had escaped unwounded; but these, unless absolutelydisabled, had still taken their share in the fighting, and even in thework of building the barricades.
For Garibaldi's staff there was little relaxation from their labours. Inaddition to his military duties, Garibaldi undertook with his usualvigour the reorganisation of the municipal affairs of the town. Thecondition of the charitable establishments was ameliorated; schools forgirls established throughout the island; a national militia organised;the poorer part of the population were fed and employed in useful work;the street arabs, with whom Palermo swarmed, were gathered and placed inthe Jesuit College, of which Garibaldi took possession, to be trained assoldiers. The organisation of the general government of the island wasalso attended to, and recruiting officers sent off to every districtevacuated by the enemy.
This Garibaldi was able to do, as over L1,000,000 sterling had been, bythe terms of the convention, left in the royal treasury when it wasevacuated by the enemy. Contracts for arms were made abroad; a foundryfor cannon established in the city, and the powder mills perfected andkept at work. Increasing reinforcements flocked in from the mainland;Medici with three steamers and two thousand men arrived the eveningbefore the Neapolitan troops had finished their embarkation; Cosenzshortly afterwards landed with an equal number; other contingentsfollowed from all the Italian provinces. Great Britain was representedby a number of enthusiastic men, who were formed into a company. Amongthese was a Cornish gentleman of the name of Peard, who had long beenresident in Italy, and had imbibed a deep hatred of the tyrannicalgovernment that ground down the people, and persecuted, imprisoned, anddrove into exile all who ventured to criticise their proceedings. He wasa splendid shot, and the coolness he showed, and his success in pickingoff the enemy's officers, rendered him a noted figure among Garibaldi'sfollowers.
The army was now organised in three divisions: one under General Turrmarched for the centre of the island; the right wing, commanded byBixio, started for the south-east; and the left, under Medici, was tomove along the north coast; all were finally to concentrate at theStraits of Messina.
It was now the middle of July. Wonders had been accomplished in the sixweeks that had passed since the occupation of Palermo. Garibaldi, whohad been regarded as almost a madman, was now recognised as a power. Hehad a veritable army, well supplied with funds--for in addition to themillion he had found in the treasury, subscriptions had been collectedfrom lovers of freedom all over Europe, and specially from England--andalthough there still remained a formidable force at Messina, it wasregarded as certain that the whole of Sicily would soon become his.
One of the Neapolitan war-ships had been brought by her captain and crewinto Palermo and placed at the disposal of Garibaldi; two others hadbeen captured. Cavour himself had changed his attitude of coldness, andwas prepared to take advantage of the success of the expedition, that hehad done his best to hinder. He desired, however, that Garibaldi shouldresign his dictatorship and hand over the island to the King ofSardinia. The general, however, refused to do this. He had all alongdeclared in his proclamations that his object was to form a free Italyunder Victor Emmanuel, and now declared that he would, when he hadcaptured Naples, hand that kingdom and Sicily together to the king, butthat until he could do so he would remain dictator of Sicily.
There can be no doubt that his determination was a wise one, for, asafterwards happened at Naples, he would have been altogether put asideby the royalist commissioners and generals, his plans would have beenthwarted in every way, and hindrances offered to his invasion of themainland, just as they had been to his expedition to Sicily.
Cavour sent over Farina to act in the name of the king. Admiral Persano,who, with a portion of the Italian navy, was now at Palermo, persuadedGaribaldi to allow Farina to assume the position of governor; but, whileallowing this, Garibaldi gave him to understand that he was to attendsolely to financial and civil affairs. Farina's first move, however, wasto have an enormous number of placards that he had brought with himstuck all over the city, and sent to all the towns of the island, withthe words, "Vote for immediate annexation under the rule of VictorEmmanuel." The Sicilians neither knew nor cared anything for VictorEmmanuel, whose very name was almost unknown to the peasants. It wasGaribaldi who had delivered them, and they were perfectly ready toaccept any form of government that he recommended. Garibaldi at oncetold Farina that he would not allow such proceedings. The lattermaintained that he was there under the authority of the king, and shouldtake any steps he chose; whereupon the general sent at once for a partyof troops, who seized him and carried him on board Persano's ships, withthe advice that he should quit the island at once. This put an effectualstop to several intrigues to reap the entire fruits of Garibaldi'sefforts.
Frank had passed a weary time. His wound had been a serious one, and atfirst the surgeons had thought that it would be necessary to amputatethe limb. Garibaldi, however, who, in spite of his many occupations,found time to come in twice a day for a few minutes' talk with him,urged them, before operating, to try every means to save the arm; andtwo weeks after Frank received the wound, the care that had beenbestowed upon him and his own excellent constitution enabled them tostate confidently that he need no longer have any anxiety upon thataccount, as his recovery was now but a question of time. The generalthanked Frank for the early information sent by him of Bosco's arrival,and for his defence of the house, and as a reward for these and hisother services promoted him to the rank of captain. A fortnight later,he was so far convalescent that he could move about with his arm in asling. He had already regained most of his bodily strength, and by theend of the second week in July he was again on horseback.
He was, then, delighted when, on July 17th, he heard that Garibaldi wasgoing to start at once to assist Medici, who, with Cosenz, had advancedto within some twenty miles of Messina, and had had some skirmishes witha force of six thousand five hundred picked troops with a powerfulartillery. The Neapolitans, who were commanded by General Bosco, had nowtaken up a very strong position near the town and fortress of Milazzo.
Colonel Corti arrived at Palermo on that day with nine hundred men in anAmerican ship. He had left Genoa at the same time as Medici, but thevessel was captured by Neapolitan men-of-war, and towed into Naples,where she was anchored under the guns of the fort. She lay there fortwenty-two days, when the strong remonstrances of the American ministerforced the government of Naples to allow her to leave. She now arrivedjust in time for those on board to take part in the operations.Garibaldi embarked a portion of them on a British merchantman he hadchartered, and proceeded on board with his staff. The next day he landedat the port of Patti, some twenty miles from Milazzo, and on the 19thjoined Medici's force.
A strong brigade that had been sent by land had not yet arrived, butGaribaldi determined to attack at once. The position of the Neapolitanforce was a very strong one. Their right extended across the front ofthe fortress of Milazzo, and was protected by its artillery; itsapproaches were hidden by cactus hedges, which screened the defendersfrom view, and could not be penetrated by an attacking force, exceptafter cutting them down with swords or axes. The centre was postedacross the road leading along the shore. Its face was defended by astrong wall, which had
been loopholed. In front of this the ground wascovered with a thick growth of canes, through which it was scarcelypossible for men to force their way. The Neapolitan left were stationedin a line of houses lying at right-angles to the centre, and thereforecapable of maintaining a flanking fire on any force advancing to theattack.
The Garibaldians suffered from the very great disadvantage of beingignorant of the nature of the ground and of the enemy's position, theNeapolitans being completely hidden from view by the cactus hedges andcane brakes. Garibaldi had intended to attack before daylight, but thevarious corps were so widely scattered that it was broad day before thefight began. As soon as the force had assembled they advanced across theplain, which was covered with trees and vineyards, and as theyapproached the enemy's position they were received with a heavy fire bythe unseen foe. For hours the fight went on. In vain the Garibaldiansattempted to reach their hidden enemies, for each time they gathered andrushed forward, they were met by so heavy a fire that they were forcedto retire. The left wing, indeed, gave way altogether and fell backsome distance from the battle-field, but the centre and right, whereGaribaldi himself, with Medici and many of his best officers werefighting, still persevered.
At one o'clock Garibaldi sent off several of his officers to endeavourto rally and bring up some of the scattered detachments of the leftwing. After a lot of hard work they returned with a considerable force.Garibaldi, at the head of sixty picked men, made his way along theshore, until, unobserved, they reached a point on the flank of theenemy's left wing; then, pouring in a heavy volley, they dashed forward,captured a gun, and drove the Neapolitans from their line of defence.Suddenly, however, a squadron of the enemy's cavalry fell upon theGaribaldians and drove them back in disorder. Garibaldi himself wasforced off the road into a ditch; four troopers attacked him, but hedefended himself with his sword, until Missori, one of hisaides-de-camp, rode up and shot three of the dragoons.
The other troops, who had been following at a distance, now came up; andtogether they advanced, driving before them the defenders of the enemy'sentrenchments, until these, losing heart, broke into flight towards thetown. The panic spread, and at all points the Garibaldians burst throughthe defences, in spite of the fire of the guns of the fortress, andpursued the flying enemy into the town. Here a sanguinary contest wasmaintained for some hours, but at last the Neapolitan troops were alldriven into the fortress, which, now that the town had been evacuated bytheir own men, opened fire upon it. The gunners were, however, muchharassed by the deadly fire maintained by Peard and his companions, allof whom were armed with rifles of the best pattern, while the guns ofthe Garibaldian frigate played upon the sea face of the fortress. Theposition was, in fact, untenable. General Bosco knew that no assistancecould reach him, for the greater portion of the Neapolitan troops hadalready withdrawn from the island. The little fortress was crowded withtroops, and he had but a small supply of provisions.
Three days later, he hoisted the white flag, and sent one of hisofficers into the town to negotiate terms of surrender. These werespeedily concluded. All artillery, ammunition, and the mules used by theartillery and transport, were left behind, and the troops were to beallowed to march, with their firearms, down to the wharf; there to beconveyed on board the ships in the harbour, and landed on the mainland.
Frank had not taken part in the battle of Milazzo, which had cost theGaribaldians over a thousand in killed and wounded; for he had beendespatched by Garibaldi, when the latter went on board ship at Palermo,to General Bixio, who was in the centre of the island, to inform him ofthe general's advance, and to state that probably he would be in Messinain a week. He said that some little time must elapse before thearrangements for the passage across to the mainland could be effected;and that Bixio was to continue to stamp out the communistic movement,that had burst out in several of the towns there, and to scatter thebands of brigands; and was, a fortnight after Frank's arrival, to marchwith his force to Messina.
Frank would have much preferred to accompany the general, but the lattersaid: "No doubt, Percival, you would have liked to go with me, but someone must be sent, and my choice has fallen upon you. I have chosen youbecause, in the first place, you are your father's son. You have alreadydistinguished yourself greatly, and have fought as fearlessly and assteadily as the best of my old followers. Surely it would be impossiblefor me to give you higher praise than that. In the next place, you arenot yet fit for the hard work of the campaign. Mantoni tells me that itwill be some weeks before your arm will be strong again; though the bonehas healed better than he had expected, after the serious injury youreceived in your gallant defence of that house, when Bosco entered thetown.
"But even had it not been for that, I think that you have done more thanyour share. There are many ardent spirits who have arrived from themainland, who have not yet had a chance of striking a blow for theircountry; and it is but fair that they should have their opportunity.Moreover, your mother sent you out on a special mission, first to handto me her noble gift, and secondly to search the prisons in the towns wemight occupy, for her father, and possibly her husband. She knew that,going with me, you must share in the perils and honours of the campaign.You have done so gloriously, but in that way you have done enough.Grievous indeed would it be to me had I to write to your good mother tosay that the son she had sent me had been killed. Her father has been avictim for Italian liberty. Her husband has, if our suspicions are wellfounded, sacrificed himself by the fearlessness with which he exposedthe iniquities of the tyrants' prison-houses. It would be too cruel thatshe should be deprived of her son also.
"I regard it as certain that you will not find those you seek in theprisons of this island. As you saw when we opened the doors here, therewere no prisoners from the mainland among those confined there. You willbe with me when we cross the straits: it is there that your mission willreally begin, and it is best that you should reserve yourself for that.The battle I go to fight now will be the last that will be needed, tosecure at least the independence of Sicily. And I doubt much whether,when we have once crossed, we shall have to fight as hard as we havedone. Here we landed a handful; we shall land on the mainland overtwenty thousand strong; the enemy despised us then--they will fear usnow."
"Thank you, general; I should not have thought of questioning yourorders, whatever they might have been, but I felt for a moment a littledisappointment that I was not to take part in the next battle. I willstart at once to join General Bixio. Will it be necessary for me to staywith him till he marches to Messina, or can I ride for that city when Ihave delivered your orders?"
"In that you can consult your own wishes, but be assured that I shallnot attempt to cross the straits until Bixio joins me; and I should saythat you would find it more interesting with him than doing routine workat Messina; moreover, you must remember that the population there arenot all united in our favour, as they are here. They are doubtless gladto be free, but the agents of the revolutionists have been at work amongthem, and, as you know, with such success that I have been obliged tosend Bixio with a division to suppress the disorders that have arisen. Ihave not freed Sicily to hand it over to Mazzini's agents, but that itshall form a part of United Italy under Victor Emmanuel. Still there isenough excitement existing there to render it somewhat hazardous for oneof my officers to ride alone through the country, and I think that itwould be much better for you therefore to remain with Bixio."