clock, A.M. by a tremendous
cannonade. It was the moment when the breach was finally made by which
the French entered. They rushed in, and I grieve to say, that, by the
only instance of defection known in the course of the siege, those
companies of the regiment Union which had in charge a position on
that point yielded to panic and abandoned it. The French immediately
entered and intrenched themselves. That was the fatal hour for the
city. Every day afterward, though obstinately resisted, the enemy
gained, till at last, their cannon being well placed, the city was
entirely commanded from the Janiculum, and all thought of further
resistance was idle.

It was true policy to avoid a street-fight, in which the Italian,
an unpractised soldier, but full of feeling and sustained from the
houses, would have been a match even for their disciplined troops.
After the 22d of June, the slaughter of the Romans became every day
more fearful. Their defences were knocked down by the heavy cannon
of the French, and, entirely exposed in their valorous onsets,
great numbers perished on the spot. Those who were brought into the
hospitals were generally grievously wounded, very commonly subjects
for amputation. My heart bled daily more and more at these sights, and
I could not feel much for myself, though now the balls and bombs began
to fall round me also. The night of the 28th the effect was truly
fearful, as they whizzed and burst near me. As many as thirty fell
upon or near the Hotel de Russie, where Mr. Cass has his temporary
abode. The roof of the studio in the pavilion, tenanted by Mr.
Stermer, well known to the visitors of Rome for his highly-finished
cabinet pictures, was torn to pieces. I sat alone in my much exposed
apartment, thinking, "If one strikes me, I only hope it will kill
me at once, and that God will transport my soul to some sphere where
virtue and love are not tyrannized over by egotism and brute force,
as in this." However, that night passed; the next, we had reason to
expect a still more fiery salute toward the Pincian, as here alone
remained three or four pieces of cannon which could be used. But on
the morning of the 30th, in a contest at the foot of the Janiculum,
the line, old Papal troops, naturally not in earnest like the free
corps, refused to fight against odds so terrible. The heroic Marina
fell, with hundreds of his devoted Lombards. Garibaldi saw his best
officers perish, and himself went in the afternoon