may be true that his
demand was not one that could be satisfied in its full extent. The
volunteers were not inferior to the ordinary soldier; about half of
them were decidedly his superior, but they were a political body
improvised for a special purpose, and it is easy to see how many were
the reasons against their forming a division of a conventional army
like that of Piedmont. Nevertheless, the means ought to have been
found of convincing them that their King and country were proud of
them, that their great, their incalculable services were appreciated.
That such means were not found was supposed to be the fault of Cavour.
It was only in 1885, on the publication of the fourth volume of the
Count's letters, that it became known how strenuously he had fought
for justice. Military prejudice was what was really to blame; General
Fanti, the Minister of War, even provoked Cavour into telling him
'that they were not in Spain, and that in Italy the army obeyed.' 'A
cry of reprobation would be raised,' he wrote, 'if, while the Bourbon
officers who ran away disgracefully were confirmed in their rank, the
Garibaldians who beat them were coolly sent about their business.
Rather than bear the responsibility of such an act of black
ingratitude, I would go and bury myself at Leri. I despise the
ungrateful to the point of not feeling angered by them, and I forgive
their abuse. But, by Heaven, I could not bear the merited blot of
having failed to recognise services such as the conquest of a kingdom
of 9,000,000 inhabitants.'

Cavour, in fact, did obtain something; much more than the army
authorities wished to give, but much less than Garibaldi asked or than
the Count would doubtless have given had not his hands been tied. And,
doubtless, he would have given it with more grace.

As it was, the volunteers were deeply offended and sent their griefs
by every post to Caprera. Garibaldi, who refused every favour and
honour for himself, was worked up into a state of fury by what he
deemed the wrongs of his faithful followers, and in April he arrived
unexpectedly at Turin to plead their cause before the Chamber of
Deputies. Perhaps by a wise presentiment he had refused to stand for
any constituency; but when Naples elected him her representative,
almost without opposition, he submitted to the popular will. At Turin
he fell ill with rheumatic fever, but on the day of the debate on the
Southern Army he rose from his bed to take his seat in th