In Sicily, the rival factions were bringing about a state approaching anarchy, but a flying visit from Garibaldi in the middle of September averted the storm.  At this time, Garibaldi’s headquarters were at Caserta, in the vast palace where Ferdinand II. breathed his last.  The Garibaldian and the Royal armies lay face to face with one another, and each was engaged in completing its preparations.  It might have been expected, and for a moment it seems that Garibaldi did expect, that after the solemn collapse of the Neapolitan army south of Naples, the comedy was now only awaiting its final act and the fall of the curtain.  But it soon became apparent that, instead of the last act of a comedy, the next might be the first of a tragedy.  The troops concentrated on the right bank of the Volturno amounted to 35,000, with 6000 garrisoning Capua.  About 15,000 more formed the reserves and the garrison of Gaeta.  The position on the Volturno was favourable to the Royalists; the fortress of Capua on the left bank gave them a free passage to and fro, while the Volturno, which is rather wide and very deep, formed a grave impediment to the advance of their opponents.  But the chief reason why there was a serious possibility of the fortunes of war being reversed, lay in the fact that the moral of these troops was good.  All the picked regiments of the army were here, including 2500 cavalry.  The men were ashamed of the stampede from the south, and were sincerely anxious to take their revenge.  Thus the Neapolitan plan of a pitched battle and a victorious march on Naples was by no means foredoomed, on the face of things, to failure.

In Garibaldi’s short absence at Palermo, the Southern Army (as he now called his forces) was left under the command of the Hungarian General Tuerr, as brave an officer as ever lived, and a fast friend to Italy, but his merits do not undo the fact that as soon as the Dictator’s back was turned, everything got into a muddle.  Pontoon bridges had been thrown across the river at four points; availing himself of one of these, Tuerr crossed the Volturno with a view to taking up a position on the right bank at a place called Caiazzo, a step which, if attempted at all, ought to have been supported by a very strong force.  On the 19th of September, Caiazzo was actually taken, but on the 21st the Royalists came out of Capua with 3000 men and defeated with great loss the thousand or fewer Garibaldians charged with its defence, only a small number of whom were able to recross the bridges and join their companions.  The saddest part of this adventure was the slaughter of nearly the whole of the boys’ company—­lads under fifteen, who had run away from home or school to fight with Garibaldi.  Fight they did for five mortal hours, with the heroism of veterans or of children.  Only about twenty were left.

When Garibaldi returned from Sicily, this was the first news he heard, and it was not cheering.  The Royalists, who thought they had won another Waterloo, were in the wildest spirits, and the march on Naples was talked of in their camp as being as good as accomplished.