heights of Castelfidardo. His men
passed the day of the 17th in religious exercises, and in going to
confession; the vicinity of the Holy House of Loreto, brought hither
by angels from Bethlehem, filled the young Breton soldiers with
transports of religious fervour. Lamoriciere had taken from the Santa
Casa some of the flags of the victors of Lepanto to wave over his
columns. In the battle of the next day the French fought with the
gallantry of the Vendeans whose descendants they were, and the Irish
behaved as Irishmen generally behave under fire, but the Swiss and
Romans mostly fought ill or not at all. Lamoriciere excused the
conduct of the latter on the ground that they were young troops; it is
likely that they had but little eagerness to fire on their
fellow-countrymen. Being Italians, and above all being Romans, they
assuredly were not sustained by one scrap of the mystical enthusiasm
of the French: such a state of mind would have been incomprehensible
to them. They knew that so far as dogmas went Victor Emmanuel was as
good a Catholic as the Pope. It is surprising that with part of his
force demoralised Lamoriciere was still able to hold his own for three
or four hours. General Pimodan and many of the French officers were
killed; Lamoriciere could say truly: 'All the best names of France are
left on the battlefield.'

After the victory of Castelfidardo, the Sardinian attack was
concentrated on Ancona. Admiral Persano brought the squadron from
Naples to co-operate with Fanti's land forces, and the fortress
capitulated on the 29th of September. The campaign had lasted eighteen
days. The Piedmontese held Umbria and the Marches, and a road was thus
opened for the army of Victor Emmanuel to march to Naples. During the
progress of these events Garibaldi was preparing for the final
struggle on the Volturno. He had not yet given up the hope of carrying
his victorious arms to the Capitol, and from the Capitol to the Square
of St Mark. The whole republican party, and Mazzini himself, who had
arrived in Naples, ardently adhered to this programme. Their argument
was not without force, risk or no risk, when would there be another
opportunity as good as the present? It was very well for Cavour to
look forward, as he did to the day of his death, to a pacific solution
of the Roman question; Mazzini saw--in which he was far more
clear-sighted than Cavour--that such a solution would never take
place. His arrival at Naples caused