the
blow, and struck down his assailant, while Missori shot the three
nearest dragoons with his revolver. Hearing the noise, other
Garibaldians hurried up, and the chief was saved. For a long time the
issue of the battle remained uncertain, and it was only after hours of
severe fighting that Del Bosco was compelled to recognise his defeat,
and to take refuge on the projecting strip of land as Garibaldi had
meant that he should do.

A few days later, four transports arrived in the bay of Milazzo to
carry Del Bosco and his men to Naples. The ministry had prevailed, and
the complete abandonment of the island was decreed. General Clary,
commandant of Messina, informed Garibaldi that he had orders to
evacuate the town and its outlying forts; the citadel would be also
handed over if the Dictator would engage not to cross to the mainland,
but this conditional offer was declined. The citadel of Messina
therefore remained in the power of the royalists, but on agreement
that it should not resume hostilities unless attacked. It only
capitulated in March 1861. Garibaldi reigned over the rest of the
island. The convention was signed on the 28th of July by Marshal
Tommaso de Clary for the King of Naples, and Major-General Giacomo
Medici for the Dictator.

Before following Garibaldi across the Straits, some allusion is called
for to the general political situation both in Sicily and in Italy.
And first as regards Sicily. When a government is pulled down another
must be set up, and the last task is often not the easiest. Garibaldi
appointed a ministry in which the ruling spirit was Francesco Crispi.
A Sicilian patriot from his youth, and one of the Thousand, he has
been judged the man best fitted to direct the helm of United Italy in
days of unexampled difficulty. This is enough to prove that he was not
the first-come ignoramus or madman that some people then liked to
think him. But Crispi had the art of making enemies, nor has he lost
it. Though volumes have been written on the civil administration under
the dictatorship, the writers' judgments are so warped by their
political leanings that it is not easy to get at the truth. It would
have been strange had no confusion existed, had no false steps been
made; yet some of the old English residents in Sicily say that the
island made more real progress during the few months of Garibaldi's
reign than in all the years that have followed. Towards the end of
June, Garibaldi appointed Agosti