Collar of the Annunziata, which confers the rank of cousin to the
King, besides riches to support these honours. He refused everything,
and returned to Caprera poorer than when he left it.

CHAPTER XVI

BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN KINGDOM

1860-1861

Beginnings of the Italian Kingdom--The Fall of Gaeta--Political
Brigandage--The Proclamation of the Italian Kingdom--Cavour's Death.

The Neapolitan army retreated, as has been already stated, beyond the
Garigliano. Capua, isolated and surrounded, could render no material
service to the royal cause; it capitulated on the 2nd of November,
though not until the town had been bombarded for forty-eight hours.
The siege was witnessed by Victor Emmanuel, who said to General Delia
Rocca: 'It breaks my heart to think that we are sending death and
destruction into an Italian town.' Two days after the surrender of
Capua, Cialdini threw a bridge over the Garigliano near its mouth, an
operation covered by the guns of Admiral Persano's squadron. His first
attempt on the 29th of October had met with a decided repulse, another
proof that this last remnant of the Neapolitan army was not an enemy
to be despised. The second attempt, however, was successful; part of
the Neapolitans fell back upon Gaeta, and the other part fled over the
Papal frontier.

Gaeta, the refuge of the Pope and the fugitive Princes in 1848, now
became the ultimate rock of defence of the Bourbon dynasty. The
position of the fortress is extremely strong and not unlike Gibraltar
in its main features. A headland running out into the sea and rising
to a height of three or four hundred feet, it is divided by a strip of
sand from the shore-line. The principal defences were then composed of
a triple semi-circle of ditches and ramparts one higher than the
other. Had the country been flat the difficulties of the siege would
have been much increased; its hilly character allowed Cialdini to fix
his batteries on heights which commanded the top of the Gaeta hill.
But to profit by this, the Piedmontese were obliged to make fourteen
miles of roads by which to bring up their artillery. For a month,
10,000 out of the 20,000 besiegers were at work with the spade. The
defending force amounted to 11,000 men, and was commanded by General
Ritucci. From the first, it was certain that the obstinate stand made
at Gaeta could only result in what Lord John Russell called a useless
effusion of blood; nevertheless it seems to have