l, an enthusiastic letter worth recording here:

"BROTHER MAZZINI: I feel that I must write you one line with my own
hand. May Providence sustain you in your brilliant but arduous career
[Mazzini had just been elected, with Armellini and Saffi, Triumvir of
Rome], and may you be enabled to carry out all the noble designs in your
mind for the welfare of our country. Remember that Rieti is full of your
brethren in the faith, and that immutably yours is

"JOSEPH GARIBALDI."

At the same time he sent a plan, proposing to march along the Via
Emilia, to collect arms and volunteers, proclaim the levy in mass, and
with a division stationed in the Bolognese territory, operate in the
duchies, unite Tuscan, Ligurian, and Piedmontese forces, and once more
assail the Austrians. But the news of Piedmont defeated, Genoa bombarded
and vanquished, convinced him that it would be difficult to re-arouse
the disheartened population of Northern Italy. Hence he next proposed to
cross the Neapolitan frontier, fling himself upon the royal troops, and
seize the Abruzzi. A sensible project this, to take the offensive
against the Pope's defenders. But before the Triumvirate could come to a
definite decision, it was known that the French troops, by a disgraceful
stratagem, had landed and taken possession of Civita Vecchia, General
Oudinot entwining the French flag with the Roman tricolor and assuring
the Romans that they only came to secure perfect freedom for the people
to effect a reconciliation with Pius IX.

But the people had no desire for such reconciliation; the Assembly
decreed that Rome should have no garrison but the National Roman Guard:
that if the Republic were invaded by force, the invaders by force should
be repelled. A commission of barricades established, the people flocked
to erect and remained to man them. The National Guard summoned by
Mazzini all answered, "Present," and served enthusiastically throughout
the siege; all the troops dispersed in the Provinces were summoned to
the capital, and Garibaldi and his volunteers marched into the city amid
the acclamations of the populace, too thankful to welcome them to demur
at the strange appearance they presented.

Now that Garibaldi's military and naval genius is fully recognized, and
the extraordinary fascination he exercised over officers and men, the
enthusiasm with which he filled whole populations whom others failed to
stir, are undisputed, many historians and critics have