Page 24 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

22 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

poetry that since the beginning had been part of his handsome figure of a sol-
dier, exile and outlaw, free fighter for an ideal of justice and humanity,
acquired now a more vivid light due to the presence at his side of an heroine
deserving of the noble heart of this man who, in an impetus of passion, chose
her as his life companion.
This mention of the faithful Anita is just and proper even in these pages
that strictly aim at exalting the fine qualities of Garibaldi as commander; this
because in reality, his prestige, as such, received a new and vigorous impulse
from the extraordinary valour of that woman who was able to be at the same
time an incomparable spouse and mother and admirable motivator in the hard
trials in which she found herself involved together with her beloved spouse.
The spell exercised on him by this woman, was however a new powerful incen-
tive to a more complete expression of the fine warrior qualities of the Hero,
that were maturing and refining in that strange war, dynamic and adventur-
ous. Later on, when writing his memoirs, the Hero, at the point of narrating
the events in which he took part such as the retreat from Laguna, came out in
this nostalgic memory, that revealed his entire romantic warrior temperament
and the bond of tender admiration with the heroic companion of his battles:
«Among the not few vicissitudes of my stormy life, I was never short of
pleasant times; and this, although it seems that it should have been the con-
trary, was that at the head of a few men residue of many battles and who
rightly deserved the title of braves, I rode next to the woman of my heart,
deserving of universal admiration, rushing into a career that, even more that
that on the sea, attracted me immensely. And what did I care that I had no
other clothes than the ones I was wearing, and was in the service of a poor
Republic that could not pay anyone?

«I had a sabre and a rifle that I carried across the front of my saddle. My
Anita was my treasure, not less fervent than me about the sacrosanct cause of
the people and an adventurous life. She encountered battle as if a plaything
and the discomfort of camp life as if a hobby; therefore, however it went, the
future smiled with good luck, and the greater and wilder the American
deserts were, the more pleasant and beautiful they appeared to us. It then
seemed to me that I had done my duty in the many and dangerous war feats
in which I found myself and to have merited the esteem of the bellicose sons
of the continent». Thus began a beautiful story of love and heroism between