es of opinion, and it is
credible that orders which must necessarily have been secret, were
given to afford a refuge on board English ships to the flying patriots
in the anticipated catastrophe. More than this is not credible, but
the energy shown by Captain Marryat in safeguarding the interests of
the British residents at Marsala caused the Neapolitan ships to delay
opening fire till the very last Red-shirt was out of harm's way on dry
land. Then and then only did they direct their guns on the _Piemonte_
and _Lombardo_, and fire a few shots into the city, which caused no
other damage than the destruction of two casks of wine.

On the 12th, Garibaldi left Marsala for Salemi, a mountain city
approached by a steep, winding ascent, where he was sure of a warm
reception, as it had already taken arms against the Bourbon king.
Hence he promulgated the decree by which he assumed the dictatorship
of Sicily in the name of Victor Emmanuel.

The Neapolitan army numbered from 120,000 to 130,000 men; of these
30,000 were actually in Sicily at the time the Thousand landed at
Marsala, 18,000 being in and about Palermo, and the rest distributed
over the island. At Salemi, Garibaldi reviewed his united forces: he
had been joined by 200 fresh volunteers, and by a fluctuating mass of
Sicilian irregulars, which might be estimated to consist of 2,000 men,
but it increased or decreased along the road, because it was formed of
peasants of the districts traversed, who did not go far from their
homes. These undisciplined bands were not useless, as they gave the
Bourbon generals the idea that Garibaldi had more men than he could
ever really count upon, and also the peasants knew the country well.
When they came under fire they behaved better than anyone would have
expected. The first batch joined the Thousand half-way between Marsala
and Salemi. There might have been fifty of them, dressed in
goat-skins, and armed with the old flint muskets and rusty pistols
dear to the Sicilian heart, which he would not for the world leave
behind were he going no farther than to buy a lamb at the fair. The
feudal lord marched at the head of his uncouth retainers--a company
of bandits in an opera--yet, to Garibaldi, they seemed the blessed
assurance that this people whom he was come to save was ready and
willing to be saved. He received the poor little band with as much
rapture as if it had been a powerful army, and, in their turn, the
impressionable islanders