he had left four hundred dead upon the field; five
hundred thirty wounded, and two hundred sixty prisoners. He had,
besides, the glory of depriving the Roman Republic of two hundred
fourteen killed and wounded, twenty-five officers among them, and of
carrying off one prisoner, Ugo Bassi, the chaplain, who had remained
behind to assist a dying man, his only weapon being the cross, of which
the French were the knightly protectors.

Garibaldi's first thought was naturally to pursue the fugitives to
Castel di Guido, to Pali, and Civita Vecchia; "To drive them," in his
own forcible language, "back to their ships or into the sea." For this
he demanded strong reenforcements of fresh troops. But the Government of
Rome--believing that it sufficed for Republican France to know that
Republican Rome did not desire the return of the Pope; that it was not
governed by a faction--was resolved unanimously to resist all invasion;
decided against pursuit; sent back the French prisoners to the French
camp; accorded Oudinot's demand for an armistice, and entered into
negotiations with the French plenipotentiary, Ferdinand de Lesseps, for
the evacuation of the Roman territory.

The refusal was never forgotten, never forgiven by Garibaldi, and has
always been a "burning question" between the exclusive partisans of
Mazzini and Garibaldi, in whose eyes to scotch and not to kill the snake
was the essence of unwisdom. It is also maintained by many Garibaldians
that an out-and-out victory could not have been concealed from the
French Assembly as the President and his accomplices did manage to
conceal the affair of April 30th, and that had the people and the army
in France known what a humiliation had been inflicted on their comrades
they would have insisted on the recall of Oudinot, and that thus the
President's own position would have been endangered. On the other hand,
Mazzini's partisans say, granting--what remains unproven--that Garibaldi
could have succeeded in driving every Frenchman back to his ships or
into the sea, there can be no doubt that Louis Napoleon, bent on
restoring the Pope and thus gaining the clergy to his side, would have
sent reenforcements upon reenforcements, until Rome should be
vanquished.

The disputants must agree to differ on this point, though all surely
must allow that it was necessary that the small forces at the disposal
of the Republic should be husbanded for the repulse of others besides
France, who claimed