foreigners, and was allowed four-and-twenty
hours to give his answer. But the party did not wait so long. The
_ultimatum_, of a piece with their other proceedings, was a mockery. On
10th September, before the reply of the Pope could have been known, even
before Delia Minerva had reached Rome, Generals Cialdini and Fanti,
without any previous declaration of war, passed the Pontifical frontier.
It was the barbarians once more at the gates of Rome. The orders of the
day, which the Piedmontese commanders addressed to their troops, were
inexpressibly savage. Pitiless history fails not to record them.
"Soldiers," said Cialdini, "I lead you against a band of adventurers, whom
the thirst for gold and pillage has brought to our country. Fight,
disperse without mercy, these wretched cut-throats. Let them feel, by the
weight of our arm, the power and the anger of a people who strive to be
independent soldiers. Perugia seeks vengeance. And, although late, it
shall have it." The language of King Victor Emmanuel, although somewhat
more politely diplomatic, was not less false and savage. His proclamation
is a master-piece of Count de Cavour's hypocritical style. "Soldiers, you
are entering the Marches and Umbria, in order to restore civil order in
the desolated cities and to secure to the inhabitants the liberty to
express their wishes. You have not to meet powerful armies, but only to
deliver the unfortunate Italian provinces from companies of foreign
adventurers. You are not going to avenge the injuries done to Italy or to
me, but to hinder the popular hatred from wreaking vengeance on the
oppressor. You will teach by your example pardon of offences and Christian
toleration to those who compare Italian patriotism to Islamism. At peace
with all the Great Powers, and without provocation, I mean to banish from
Central Italy a constant cause of trouble and discord. I wish to respect
the seat of the Chief of the Church, &c." Whatever this king may have
wished to do, he was compelled to obey the will of the revolution, and to
justify by his acts the comparison of the party which he patronized with
Islamism,--a comparison disparaging only to the followers of the prophet.
The ferocious sentiments to which Cialdini gave utterance were not mere
bravado. When Colonel Zappi, of the Pontifical service, dared to hold out
with 800 men at Pesaro, and check for two-and-twenty hours the whole
Piedmontese army before this village, Cialdini, instead of a