On the 17th of August he landed at Taormina with a part of his army, and marched on Reggio, a strong castle, which he took by assault.  This success gave him a basis of operations on the main land.  The residue of his troops were brought over from Messina, and his triumphal march to Naples immediately followed, not a hand being raised against him.  The young king Francis II. fled as the conqueror approached,—­or rather I should say, deliverer; for Garibaldi had no hard battles to fight when once he had landed on the shores of Italy.  His popularity was so great, and the enthusiasm of the people was so unbounded, that armies melted away or retired as he approached with his Calabrian sugar-loaf hat; and, instead of fighting, he was obliged to go through the ordeal of kissing all the children and being hugged by all the women.

Naples was now without a government, and Garibaldi had no talent for organization.  The consequence was that the city was torn by factions, and yet Garibaldi refused to adopt vigorous measures.  “I am grieved,” he said, “at the waywardness of my children,” yet he took no means to repress disorders.  He even reaped nothing but ingratitude from those he came to deliver.  Not a single Garibaldian was received into a private house, while three thousand of his men were lying sick and wounded on the stones of the Jesuit College.  How was it to be expected that anything else could happen among a people so degraded as the Neapolitans, one hundred years behind the people of North Italy in civilization, in intelligence, in wealth, and in morals,—­in everything that qualifies a people for liberty or self-government?

In the midst of the embarrassments which perplexed and surrounded the dictator, Mazzini made his appearance at Naples.  Garibaldi, however, would have nothing to do with the zealous republican, and held his lot with the royalists, as he was now the acknowledged representative of the Sardinian government.  Mazzini was even requested to leave Italy, which he refused to do.  Whether it was from jealousy that Garibaldi held aloof from Mazzini,—­vastly his intellectual superior,—­or from the conviction that his republican ideas were utterly impracticable, cannot be known.  We only know that he sought to unite the north and the south of Italy under one government, as a preparation for the conquest of central Italy, which he was impatient to undertake at all hazards.

At last the King of Naples prepared to make one decisive struggle for his throne.  From his retreat at Gaeta he rallied his forces, which were equal to those of Garibaldi,—­about forty thousand men.  On the 1st of October was fought the battle of Volturno, as to which Garibaldi, after fierce fighting, was enabled to send his exultant dispatch, “Complete victory along the whole line!” Francis II. retired to his strong fortress of Gaeta to await events.