Roman campaign. Still, while
Garibaldi felt within himself his own superiority to those around,
Mazzini, who also felt it, might as well have proposed an Indian chief
to command the Roman Army as this man, whom, in later years, no soldier
in Europe but would have been proud to call _dux_.

Again, it must not be forgotten that the grounds on which France
explained her interference was the imposition by "foreigners" of a
republic on the Roman people, desirous only to receive the Pope with
open arms; that Austria, Piedmont, and the Ultramontane faction in
England represented the Roman States as handed over to the demagogues,
to the riffraff of European revolutionists. Hence the absolute necessity
that presented itself to the minds of the Triumvirs for filling the
civil and military offices as far as possible with citizens of Rome or
the Roman States. Unfortunately, no capable Roman commander-in-chief
existed. Rosselli was chosen as the least incapable; but throughout,
Garibaldi was regarded as the soul, the genius of the defence.

A very short time had sufficed for Mazzini and the Romans to come to so
perfect an understanding that no exercise of authority, no police force,
was necessary to keep order in the city, as the French, English, and
American residents, and as the respective consuls repeatedly affirmed in
public and in private letters. Oudinot too had warning from his own
consul, from his own friends within the city, of all the preparations,
of the resolute determination of the inhabitants, of the known valor of
many of the combatants in past campaigns; yet to all such remonstrances
he answered with French impertinence, "_Les Italiens ne se battent
pas_," and clearly he had imbued his officers with this belief. At dawn
on April 30th, starting from Castel di Guido, leaving their knapsacks at
Magnianella, the officers in white gloves and sheathed swords advanced
on Rome, taking the road to Porta Cavallaggieri, sending sharpshooters
through the woodlands on the right, the Chasseurs de Vincennes on the
heights to the left. Avezzana, war minister, from the top of the cupola
of San Pietro in Montori, on seeing the first sentinel advance, gave the
signal for the ringing of the tocsin, which brought the entire populace
to the walls, the Roman matrons clustering there to encourage their
husbands, sons, and brothers to the fight.

When the army arrived within a hundred seventy yards from the wall, the
artillerymen from the