e from any 'beat
to quarters,' or any sudden summons to prepare for boarders, as though
she had been a floating chapel.

"Garibaldi came alongside me one day to say that he had learned the
Sardinian had several tons of powder on board, with an ample supply
of grape, shell, and canister, not to speak of twelve hundred stand of
admirable arms. 'I want them all,' said he; 'my people are fighting with
staves and knives, and we are totally out of ammunition. I want them,
and he won't let me have them.'

"'He could scarcely do so,' said I, 'seeing that they belong to his
Government, and are not in _his_ hands to bestow.'

"'For that reason I must go and take them,' said Garibaldi. 'I mean to
board him this very night, and you'll see if we do not replenish our
powder-flasks.'

"'In that case,' said I, 'I shall have to fire on you. It will be
Piracy; nothing else.'

"'You'll not do so;' said he, smiling.

"'Yes, I promise you that I will. We are at peace and on good terms with
Sardinia, and I cannot behave other than as a friend to her ships of
war.'

"'There's no help for it, then,' said Garibaldi, 'if you see the thing
in that light:' and good-humouredly quitted the subject, and soon after
took his leave."

"And were you," asked I of my informant, Captain S.----"were you
perfectly easy after that conversation? I mean, were you fully satisfied
that he would not attempt the matter in some other way?"

"Never more at ease in my life. I knew my man; and that, having left
me under the conviction he had abandoned the exploit, nothing on earth
would have tempted him to renew it in any shape."

It might be a matter of great doubt whether any greater intellectual
ability would not have rather detracted from than increased Garibaldi's
power as a popular leader. I myself feel assured that the simplicity,
the trustfulness, the implicit reliance on the goodness of a cause as a
reason for its success, are qualities which no mere mental superiority
could replace in popular estimation. It is actually Love that is
the sentiment the Italians have for him; and I have seen them,
hard-featured, ay, and hard-natured men, moved to tears as the litter
on which Garibaldi lay wounded was carried down to the place of
embarkation.

Garibaldi has always been a thoughtful, silent, reflective man, not
communicative to others, or in any way expansive; and from these
qualities have come alike his successes and his failures. Of the
conversatio