fall of the dynasty, the usual result of similar inspirations of the eleventh hour.  Had all this been done on the day of the King’s accession it might have imperilled Italian unity—­not now.  But the fatal words, ‘Too late,’ would have fallen with ill grace from Victor Emmanuel’s lips.  Garibaldi answered his royal correspondent that when he had made him King of Italy he would be only too happy to obey him for the rest of his life.

The King’s letter, though delivered after the battle of Milazzo, was written before it.  That event convinced Cavour, and doubtless the King with him, that it was utterly impossible to arrest the tide at Cape Faro.  It convinced him of a great deal more.  He saw that if Piedmont continued much longer a passive spectator of the march of events, she would lose the lead forever And he prepared to act.

Meanwhile counsels reached Garibaldi from quite a different quarter not to abandon Naples, but to go there from Rome instead of by Calabria.  This daring scheme was favoured by Mazzini, Nicotera, Bertani; indeed, by all the republicans.  A corps of about 8000 volunteers was ready to start for a descent on the coast of the Papal States.  At present it was in the island of Sardinia, awaiting the arrival of Garibaldi to assume the command.  And now occurred Garibaldi’s mysterious disappearance from Cape Faro, which at the time excited endless curiosity.  The truth was, that he actually went to Sardinia, but instead of taking command of the volunteers bound for Rome, he induced them to alter their plans and to join his Sicilian army in the arduous undertaking before it of overthrowing the Bourbons in the Neapolitan kingdom.  Thus he gained a reinforcement of which he knew the enormous need, for though he was willing to face difficulties, he was not blind to them, as were many men of the extreme party.  He also prevented what would have been a step of exceeding danger to the national cause, as it would have obliged the Sardinian Government to break off all relations with Garibaldi and to use force against the patriots in suppressing a movement which, if successful, would have brought a hostile French army into Italy.

CHAPTER XV

THE MEETING OF THE WATERS

1860

Garibaldi’s March on Naples—­The Piedmontese in Umbria and the
Marches—­The Volturno—­Victor Emmanuel enters Naples.

The Italian kingdom is the fruit of the alliance between the strong monarchical principles of Piedmont and the dissolvent forces of revolution.  Whenever either one side or the other, yielding to the influence of its individual sympathies or prejudices, failed to recognise that thus only, by the essential logic of events, could the unity of the country be achieved, the entire edifice was placed in danger of falling to the ground before it was completed.