Page 181 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1860 CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 179

ing now went quiet and became extremely silent”. During the night he sent
for La Masa, and had a long discussion with him.
Meanwhile, the royal troops had resumed their march and on the 25 th
they comfortably reached Piana. A difference of opinion emerged: Colonna
and Bosco wanted to go back to Palermo, thinking that Garibaldi was going
there; Mechel, on the contrary, wanted to pursue the fugitives towards
Corleone, since he desired to seize Orsini’s cannons. He did not care whether
Garibaldi was marching on Palermo, since he would anyway be wiped out by
the troops garrisoning the city. In vain Bosco remarked that Palermo would
rise in arms at Garibaldi’s arrival. Mechel stood by his opinion and replied:
“I will take everything on my shoulders”. In conclusion, Colonna went back
to Palermo, Mechel and Bosco continued their march on Corleone with 4
th
battalions, 1 squad and 4 pieces on the 26 .
Once arrived at the S. Cristina crossroad, Mechel stopped his march,
undecided, noticing signs of retreat going in all directions; then he followed
the pathway taken by Orsini. In the former feud of S. Agata, in a place where
it is crossed by the carriageway going from Piana to Corleone, the royal
troops saw a farmer, Gioachino Giardina, who was hoeing his field and asked
him whether he had seen Garibaldi’s troops and where they were heading.
The farmer did not reply, since, being deaf, he did not hear anything. He
paid for his innocent silence with his life. On this event, Garibaldi wrote:
“We must say, to the honour of the brave Sicilian population, that this could
be done only in Sicily. Indeed, only two days after our arrival in Palermo, the
leaders of the enemy army knew that they had been deceived and that we had
reached the capital, whereas they believed that we were in Corleone”. And
not only that, rumours had spread that he now wanted to reach the sea, and
to embark his troops probably in Sciacca, abandoning the insurgents. The
official bulletin had already published Garibaldi’s defeat and General Lanza
had ordered the troops outside Palermo to go back to the city.
Garibaldi had gone to Misilmeri, upon the suggestion of La Masa’s who
had already gathered 3000 men in Gibilrossa, recruited from the municipal-
ities in the province of Palermo. There also brought flour, wheat, money,
ammunitions, lint and bandages donated by many municipalities and many
private citizens.
That place was really picturesque: during the day there was a continuous
roar of drums and trumpets and flying standards and at night, a long line of
lighted fires. Gibilrossa had been turned into a sort of political Etna and La