gust, near Scilla, in the neighbourhood of which General Briganti
had massed his Neapolitans, 7000 strong. On the 23rd, Briganti found
himself attacked on the south and north--from Scilla by Cosenz, and
from Reggio by Garibaldi. His position was critical but not desperate
had he been able to depend upon his men, who were more numerous than
their combined opponents; but he saw at once that fighting was the
last thing they meant to do, and he had no choice but to surrender at
discretion, almost without firing a shot. Unfortunately, Garibaldi had
no power to keep prisoners of war, even if he wished to do so. Who was
to feed and guard them? Now, as subsequently, he bade the disbanded
troops go where they listed, undertaking to send to Naples by sea as
many as desired to go there. About a thousand accepted; the rest
dispersed, forming the first nucleus of the semi-political and wholly
dastardly brigandage which was later to become the scourge of Southern
Italy. Their earliest exploit was the savage murder of General
Briganti, whom they called a traitor, after the fashion of cowards.
This happened at Mileto on the 25th of August, when Briganti was on
his way to join General Ghio, who had concentrated 12,000 men on the
town of Monteleone. Garibaldi, whose sound principle it was to dispose
of his enemies one by one as they cropped up, prepared to attack Ghio
with his whole available forces, but he was spared the trouble. He
came, he saw, and he had no need of conquering, for the soldiers of
that bad thing that had been Bourbon despotism in the Italian south
vanished before his path more quickly than the mists of the morning
before the sun. No grounds that will bear scrutiny have ever been
adduced for the reactionary explanation of the marvel: to wit, that
the Neapolitan generals were bribed. By Cavour? The game would have
been too risky. By 'English bank-notes,' that useful factor in
European politics that has every pleasing quality except reality? It
is not apparent how the corruptibility of the generals gives a better
complexion to the matter, but the writers on the subject who are
favourable to Francis II. seem to think that it does. Panic-stricken
these helpless Neapolitan officers may deserve to be called, but they
were not bought. And they had cause for panic with troops of whose
untrustworthiness they held the clearest proofs, and with the country
up in arms against them; for a few days after the taking of Reggio
this was