uropean nationalities belonging to that
Roman Catholic party which was determined to maintain intact the
temporal rule of the Pope as against the wishes of the vast majority of
Italians, themselves Roman Catholics, who desired to substitute for that
rule the constitutional sovereignty of King Victor Emmanuel. The
Italians were willing enough to remain under the spiritual headship of
the Roman Pontiff, but they would not have a temporal power upheld by
foreign soldiers. The moment was, like many others, a very critical one
in the history of Italy. Garibaldi was victorious in Naples. The Papal
forces, composed chiefly of Germans and French, under Lamoriciere, were
holding the inhabitants of Umbria and the Marches who were longing to
join the national movement. Indeed, some of the most influential men of
those provinces, among others Marquis Filippo Gualterio of Orvieto, had
already come to Turin to obtain the intervention of its Government and
protection from the Papal troops, whose foreign extraction rendered them
odious to the people.

On September 7th Count Delia Minerva was sent to Rome to demand, on the
part of Victor Emmanuel, the disbandment of the foreign troops which the
Papal Government had got together under the command of General
Lamoriciere. The demand was refused. This refusal the Papal Government
was quite competent to give, but whether its policy in upholding its
temporal power by the aid of foreign mercenaries was wise or not was
another matter. It was hardly to be expected that Italians, any more
than Frenchmen, Germans, or English, would endure such a state of things
if they could prevent it. The Government of Turin now ordered its troops
to enter the Papal Provinces of Umbria and the Marches. On September **nth
General Fanti crossed the frontier, easily took possession of Perugia
with the aid of the inhabitants, and obliged Colonel Schmidt, the Papal
commander, to capitulate. The General advanced with equal success
against Spoleto, and in a few days was master of all the upper valley of
the Tiber. At the same time General Cialdini, operating on the eastern
side of the Apennines, marched rapidly to meet General Lamoriciere's
forces, which he encountered and defeated completely at Castelfidardo,
compelling the French General to fly to Ancona, which he entered in
company with only a few horsemen who had escaped with him from the rout
of the Papal army. The Italian fleet was off Ancona, before which
Genera