, with an unconditional
demand for the continuance of the armistice. A convention was drawn up,
which conceded the fullest liberty to the royalists to supply their
material wants, succour the wounded, and, if they desired, embark
them on board ships with their families for Naples. Garibaldi, always
humane, had a special tenderness for the victims of that civil strife
which his soul abhorred, and he never forgot that the enemy was his
fellow-countryman. His influence sufficed to secure to the royal
troops an immunity from reprisals which was the more creditable
because some horrid crimes had been done by miscreants in their ranks
when they found that they were getting the worst of it in the
street-fighting. Unfortunately the same mercy was not extended to some
of the secret agents of Maniscalco, head of the Sicilian police, who,
discovered in hiding-places by the mob, were murdered before any
protection could be given them. At the time the act of barbarity was
judged, even by English observers, with more leniency than it deserved
(because cruelty can have _no_ excuse), so great was the disgust
excited by the most odious system of espionage ever put in practice.

The convention bore the signatures of 'Ferdinando Lanza,
General-in-Chief,' and of 'Francesco Crispi, Secretary of State to the
Provisional Government of Sicily.' One article provided for the
consignment of the Royal Mint to the victors; a large sum was stored
in its coffers, and Garibaldi found himself in the novel position of
being able to pay his men and the Sicilian _squadre_, and to send
large orders for arms and ammunition to the Continent.

General Letizia made two journeys to Naples, and on his return from
the second he came invested with full powers to treat with Garibaldi
for the evacuation of the city. On the 7th of June, 15,000 royal
troops marched down to the Marina to the ships that were to take them
away. At the entrance of the Toledo, the great main street of Palermo,
Menotti Garibaldi was on guard, on a prancing black charger, with a
few other Red-shirts of his own age around him, and before this group
of boys defiled the might and pomp of the disciplined army to which
King Bomba had given the thoughtful care of a life-time.

The closing formalities which wound up these events at Palermo formed a
fitting ending to the dramatic scenes which have been briefly narrated.
On the 19th, General Lanza went on board the _Hannibal_ to take leave of
the