expressed their
astonishment that he was not made at once commander-in-chief of the
Roman forces, and have blamed the Triumvirate for having failed to
recognize in the hero of Montevideo the good genius of Rome. Such
critics must be simply ignorant of the actual condition of Rome and her
Government. There existed, in the first place, the regular Roman army,
which would have served under none save regular generals; then there was
the Lombard battalion under Manara, whose members, after fifteen months
of regular campaigning, were thoroughly drilled and disciplined, who
insisted on retaining the cross of Savoy on their belts, and, until
their prowess made them the idols of the Romans, were nicknamed the
"corps of aristocrats."

Little did they imagine, when they kept aloof from the legion, that
before three months were over their young hero chief would resign his
command of them to assume the delicate post of head of Garibaldi's
staff. Carlo Pisacane--educated in the military college of the
Nunziatella, who had served as captain in the foreign legion in Algiers,
destined later to become the pioneer of Garibaldi and his "Thousand" and
to lose his life in the attempt--while recognizing Garibaldi's prowess
and talents as a guerilla chief, in his military history of 1849,
severely criticises his tactics, and blames his sending up "a handful of
boys against masses of the enemy" and censures, unhesitatingly, "his
indiscipline at Velletri." One of the Deputies of the Roman Constituent
wrote to the Triumvirate begging them to "Send Garibaldi with his motley
crew to a terrible spot, called For del Diavolo, between Civita Vecchia
and Rome; on no account to allow them to enter the city, as they are
quite too disorderly."

Now, they had committed no "disorders" save that of carrying off the
mules and horses of the convents; but when we think of the wild, free,
peril-scorning life led in the backwoods of America, of how they
recognized no law save their commander's orders, how little used he had
been to receive command from any, it will be easily understood how this
wild, tanned, quaintly dressed band filled the inhabitants of the towns
through which they passed with terror and dismay. Garibaldi's violent
tirades against priests and priestcraft; the liberation of a gang of
miscreants arrested by order of the Roman Government, had not
prepossessed men of order and of discipline in his favor; and although
personal contact dispelled all