h admiral was to save the chiefs own life in what seemed
the likely case of its being placed in peril.

Admiral Mundy begged the authorities to stop the bombardment before
the city was destroyed, but Lanza appeared to have no intention of
yielding to his counsels, and it is still uncertain what at last
induced him on the 30th of May to sue the Filibuster, hastily
transformed into his Excellency, for an armistice of twenty-four
hours. 'God knows,' writes Garibaldi, 'if we had want of it!' The
royalists had lost nearly the whole city except the palace and its
surroundings, and, cut off from the sea, they began to feel a scarcity
of food, but not to a severe extent. It seems most probable that with
his men panic-stricken and constantly driven back in spite of the
bombardment, Lanza looked upon the game as lost, when had he known the
straits to which the Garibaldians were reduced for ammunition, he
might have considered it as won.

An unforeseen incident now occurred; the royalist column, recalled
from Corleone, which was largely composed of Bavarians, reached Porta
Termini and opened a furious fire on the weak Garibaldian detachment
stationed there. Was it ignorance or bad faith? Lieutenant Wilmot, who
happened to be passing by, energetically waved his handkerchief and
shouted that a truce was concluded; the assailants continued the
attack till an officer of the Neapolitan staff who was in conference
with Garibaldi at the time hurried to the spot, at his indignant
request, and ordered them to desist. A few minutes later, Garibaldi
himself rode up in a wrathful mood, and while he was renewing his
protests, a shell fell close by him, thrown from a ship which
re-opened the bombardment on its own account. Lieutenant Wilmot, who
witnessed the whole affair, was convinced that there was a deliberate
plan to surprise and capture the Italian chief after he had granted
the armistice.

At a quarter past two on this eventful day, the 30th of May 1860,
Garibaldi and the Neapolitan generals, Letizia and Chretien, stepped
on board the flag-ship _Hannibal_ which Admiral Mundy offered as
neutral ground for their meeting. Curiously enough, both parties,
reaching the mole simultaneously, were rowed out in the same ship's
boat, which was waiting in readiness. The Neapolitans insisted that
Garibaldi should go on board first, either from courtesy or, as the
admiral suspected, out of desire to find out whether he would be
received with milit