s, and had
visited, with a strange mixture of enthusiasm and practical
observation, all its environs. In the course of his wanderings he had
fallen in with a party of his countrymen, all of whom were kindred
spirits, and who hailed his advent among them with universal
appreciation. Without in any way neglecting Zillah, he joined himself
to these new friends, and accompanied them in many an excursion into
the country about Naples--to Capua, to Cumae, to Paestum, and to many
other places. To some of these places it was dangerous to go in these
unsettled times; but this party laughed at dangers. They had acquired
a good-natured contempt for Italians and Italian courage; and as each
man, in spite of the Neapolitan laws, carried his revolver, they were
accustomed to venture any where with the most careless ease, and the
most profound indifference to any possible danger. In fact, any
approach to danger they would have hailed with joy, and to their
adventurous temper the appearance of a gang of bandits would have
been the greatest blessing which this land could afford.

The whole country was in a most disturbed condition. The Lombard war
had diffused a deep excitement among all classes. Every day new
rumors arose, and throughout the Neapolitan dominions the population
were filled with strange vague desires. The government itself was
demoralized--one day exerting its utmost power in the most repressive
measures, and on the next recalling its own acts, and retreating in
fear from the position which it had taken up. The troops were as
agitated as the people. It was felt that in case of an attempt at
revolution they could not be relied upon. In the midst of all other
fears one was predominant, and was all comprised in one magic
word--the name of that one man who alone, in our age, has shown
himself able to draw nations after him, and by the spell of his
presence to paralyze the efforts of kings. That one word was
"Garibaldi."

What he was, or what he was to do, were things which were but little
known to these ignorant Neapolitans. They simply accepted the name as
the symbol of some great change by which all were to be benefited. He
was, in their thoughts, half hero, half Messiah, before whom all
opposing armies should melt away, and by whom all wrongs should be
redressed. Through the heart of this agitated mass there penetrated
the innumerable ramifications of secret societies, whose agents
guided, directed, and intensified the