. Battles of the nineteenth century . elhad stormed the fortress of Gaeta, and the twocrowns of the Sicilies had been placed upon thehead of the Piedmontese King. But the na-tional unity was still far from complete. Aboveall things, Venice still remained under the yokeof the Austrians, while Rome was equally in the 302 BATTLES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. power of the French, who remained there tochampion with their bayonets the pretensions ofthe Pope. They had been there ever since 1849, whenthe Romans rose against the Pope, declared aRepubHc, and were supported by Garibaldi andhis Red Shirts.
. Battles of the nineteenth century . elhad stormed the fortress of Gaeta, and the twocrowns of the Sicilies had been placed upon thehead of the Piedmontese King. But the na-tional unity was still far from complete. Aboveall things, Venice still remained under the yokeof the Austrians, while Rome was equally in the 302 BATTLES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. power of the French, who remained there tochampion with their bayonets the pretensions ofthe Pope. They had been there ever since 1849, whenthe Romans rose against the Pope, declared aRepubHc, and were supported by Garibaldi andhis Red Shirts. But then the French rushedto the assistance of the Pope, and after a threemonths siege—during which the Garibaldiansbehaved with splendid bravery—at last stormedthe city, restored the authority of the Pope,and compelled the Hero of Caprera to retireto the mountains. Soldiers ! he had said, on leading his menawav from the Eternal City, that which I haveto offer you is this : hunger, thirst, cold, heat ; GARIBALDIS MOVEMENT of 1862. no pay, no barracks, no rations ; but frequentalarms, forced marches, charges at the pointof the bayonet ; and 4,000 men had readilyanswered to this appeal. The memory of this defeat rankled ever afterin Garibaldis mind, and he determined to seizethe first opportunity of retrieving it. This op-portunity, he deemed, had at last come in theyear 1862, soon after the death of the greatstatesman Cavour, who had been the Bis-marck, so to speak, of Italian unity, as VictorEmmanuel had been its King William. Butwhile Garibaldi had been their greatest support,he had also been the source ot their greatestweakness. For he was not a regularly appointedservant of the Government, but the self-consti-tuted soldier and champion of his country. Hechose his own time for fighting, irrespective ofwhat the King and his ministers wished, andthus often placed them in the greatest difficulty. So little, indeed, did Garibaldi consider his timesand seasons for action, that
Size: 1951px × 1281px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1901
