d passed 'Il Dittatore dorme,' it was enough to
clear the streets as if by magic near the palace (a private one) where
in a sixth floor room the idol of the hour slept. The National Guard,
who were the sole guardians of order, behaved admirably.
For a few days such of the townsfolk as had not completely lost their
heads, underwent acute anxiety as they gazed at the frowning pile of
Sant' Elmo; but finally the officers in command of the garrison
decided to capitulate, contrary, in this instance, to the wishes of
the soldiery. The royal troops marched out of the city towards Capua
on the 11th of September.
Garibaldi's first act had been to hand over the Neapolitan fleet in
the bay to Admiral Persano, a solemn reassertion of his loyalty to
Victor Emmanuel, whom, in his every utterance, he held up to the
people as the best of kings and the father of his country. He
instructed his Neapolitan officer, Cosenz, to form a ministry, and
wrote to the Marquis Pallavicini, the prisoner of Spielberg, inviting
him to become Pro-Dictator. Had a man of authority like Pallavicini,
who also entirely possessed the Dictator's confidence, at once assumed
that office, much of the friction which followed might have been
spared. But he did not enter into his functions till October, and in
the meanwhile the 'dualism' of Sicily broke out in an exaggerated
form, each side sincerely believing the other to be on the verge of
ruining the country to which they were both sincerely attached. The
appointment of Dr Bertani as Secretary of the Dictatorship gave rise
to controversies which even now, when the grave has closed over the
actors, are hardly at rest. It is time that they should be. Apart from
the war about persons, some of them not very wise persons, and apart
from the fears entertained at Turin, that the freeing of the Two
Sicilies would drift into a republican movement: fears which were
invincible, though, as far as they regarded Garibaldi, they were
neither just nor generous, the question resolved itself, as was the
case in Sicily, into whether the unification of Italy was to go on or
whether it was to halt? Garibaldi refused to give up Sicily to the
King's government because he intended making it the base for the
liberation of Naples. Events had justified him. He now refused to hand
over Naples because he intended making it the base for the liberation
of Rome. It has been seen that he and he alone prevented an attempt at
a landing in the
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