ght's
supper. One corps of citizens--not to say filibusters--animated by love
of their country, can therefore gain a victory unaided by all this
needless splendor.

The first important result was the enemy's retreat from Calatafimi,
which town we occupied on the following morning, May 16, 1860. The
second result, and one abundantly noteworthy, was the attack made by the
population of Partinicio, Borgetto, Montelepre, and other places, on the
retreating army. In every place volunteer companies were formed which
speedily joined us, and the enthusiasm in the surrounding villages
reached its height. The disbanded troops of the enemy did not stop till
they reached Palermo, where they brought terror to the Bourbon party and
confidence to the patriots. Our wounded, and those of the enemy, were
brought in to Vita and Calatafimi. Among ours were some men who could
ill be spared.

Montanari, my comrade at Rome and in Lombardy, was dangerously wounded
and died a few days after. He was one of those whom doctrinaires call
demagogues, because they are impatient of servitude, love their country,
and refuse to bow the knee to the caprices and vices of the great.
Montanari was a Modenese. Schiaffino, a young Ligurian from Camogli, who
had also served in the Cacciatori delle Alpi and in the Guides, was
among the first to fall on the field, bereaving Italy of one of her
bravest soldiers. He worked hard on the night of our start from Genoa,
and greatly assisted Bixio in that delicate undertaking. De Amici, also
of the Cacciatori and Guides, was another who fell at the beginning of
the battle. Not a few of the chosen band of the Thousand fell at
Calatafimi as our Roman forefathers fell--rushing on the enemy with cold
steel, cut down in front without a complaint, without a cry, except that
of _"Viva L'Italia!"_ I may have seen battles more desperate and more
obstinately contested, but in none have I seen finer soldiers than my
citizen filibusters of Calatafimi.

The victory of Calatafimi was indisputably the decisive battle in the
brilliant campaign of 1860. It was absolutely necessary to begin the
expedition with some striking engagement such as this, which so
demoralized the enemy that their fervent southern imaginations even
exaggerated the valor of the Thousand. There were some among them who
declared they had seen the bullets of their carbines rebound from the
breasts of the soldiers of liberty as if from a plate of bronze. Far
more