Page 102 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

100 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

to penetrate inside the city without unnecessarily wasting other human lives.
In the meantime, he sent a new invitation to surrender to General Roselli, to
which the Triumvirate replied with its usual pride: «We will never betray our
promises. We declared, in compliance with the orders of the Assembly and
the Roman population, that we would defend the banner of the Republic, the
pride of the Country, the holiness of the Capital of the Christian world, and
we will keep our promise».
Such an admirable boldness and resoluteness, and even more so if you
think that the defence was in more and more desperate conditions and dis-
agreement was growing daily among the population. In fact, while all the dis-
trict of Trastevere remained in agreement with the government and sent many
of its generous children under the lead of the famous Ciceruacchio to help and
die at the firing line, the same did not happen in other districts of the city;
perhaps due to their deep-rooted attachment to the Pontiff, or because they
were tired of the siege and afraid of more serious dangers close at hand.
Exasperated by the contemptuous refusal of the Triumvirate, the French
commander intensified the works of fortification and the action of his artillery.
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From the 5 , a real hail of cannon balls started bombarding the facades of the
Vascello and Giacometti house, inexorably smashing their walls little by little
and destroying their fragile defences, whereas the French lines, crowded with
shooters, advanced more and more between the St. Pancras’ monastery and
Monte Verde, sweeping away all opposition with their gunshots. Day after day,
the ranks of the defenders grew thinner and their hopes faded away.
Then Garibaldi thought that it was perhaps better to go out from that
grim enclosure of death and try a sally on the enemy’s flank. A fight in the
open; his dream, and at the same time a healthy rule of war that he had in
vain and repeatedly tried to make happen.
There were also new discussions, this time, with the command in chief,
about the implementation of this project and the forces to be deployed. At
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the end, on the evening of June 10 , after gathering about 8000 men on St.
Peter’s square, Garibaldi left from Porta Cavalleggeri with the Polish legion as
vanguard and the lancers as rearguard; the main body was formed by the
Italian legion, the Lombard Bersaglieri and four battalions from other corps.
The idea was to attack on the flank the French positions at Villa Pamphili; if
the surprise had succeeded, other troops would advance frontally from Porta
San Pancrazio.