ick, and was commissioned
to fight against the Austrians. Volunteers from all parts of Italy
flocked to his standard,--some four thousand disorderly troops, but
devoted to him and to the cause of Italian independence. He held a
regular commission in the allied armies of France and Sardinia, but was
so hampered by jealous generals that Victor Emmanuel--dictator as well
as king--gave him permission to quit the regular army, go where he
liked, and fight as he pleased. With his volunteers Garibaldi performed
many acts of bravery which won for him great _eclat_; but he made many
military mistakes. Once he came near being captured with all his men;
but fortune favored, and he almost miraculously escaped from the hands
of the Austrians. The scene of his exploits was in the mountainous
country around Lake Como.

Meanwhile the allied armies had defeated the Austrians at Magenta and
Solferino, and Louis Napoleon had effected the celebrated treaty with
Austria at Villa-Franca, arranging for a confederation of all the
Italian States under the Papal Protectorate, and the cession of Lombardy
to Sardinia. This inconclusive result greatly disgusted all the Italian
patriots. Cavour resigned at once, but soon after was induced to resume
his post at the head of affairs. Venice and Verona were still in
Austrian hands. As the Prussians showed signs of uneasiness, it is
probable that Louis Napoleon did not feel justified in continuing the
war, in which he had nothing further to gain; at all events, he now
withdrew. Garibaldi was exceedingly indignant at the desertion of
France, and opposed bitterly the cession of Nice and Savoy,--by which he
was brought in conflict with Cavour, who felt that Italy could well
afford to part with a single town and a barren strip of mountain
territory for the substantial advantages it had already gained by the
defeat of the Austrian armies.

The people of the Italian States, however, repudiated the French
emperor's arrangements for them, and one by one Modena, Tuscany, Parma,
and the Romagna,--the upper tier of the Papal States,--formally voted
for annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia; and the king, nothing loath,
received them into his fold in March, 1860. This result was in great
measure due to the Baron Ricasoli of Tuscany, an independent
country-gentleman and wine-grower, who had taken active interest in
politics, and had been made Dictator of Tuscany when her grand duke fled
at the outbreak of the war.