Page 252 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

250 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

Della Rocca on horseback, on the left of the Sovereign, with his two vice-dic-
tators in front of him. That was the last time that the people saw the com-
mander in the streets of Naples.
th
In the throne room, on the 8 , he delivered in the hands of the King his
dictatorial powers and the outcome of the plebiscite of the Two Sicilies, and,
having symbolically achieved his work also by this formal act of loyalty and
devotion, the morning after, at daybreak, he slipped off almost in secrecy and
boarded with a few loyal followers the Washington and, releasing with his
hands the hawser that kept the ship ashore, he put out to sea.
However, before leaving the kingdom he had conquered, he gracefully
refused any official reward that was offered to him: the Collare dell’Annunziata,
the title of prince of Calatafimi, the rank of lieutenant general, a rich dowry for
his daughter, the position of aide-de-camp of the King for his second son.
Nevertheless, he did not leave empty-handed. “Basso, his secretary, had
hidden in his luggage some hundreds liras and he himself had embarked on
the Washington, as rich booty of the conquest, a sack of legumes, another
sack with seeds and a roll of dried cod”.
After the concise account of the feats that brought the red shirts from
Punta del faro to the Volturno, to conquer the Kingdom of Naples and con-
fined Francis II and his army between the fortresses of Capua and Gaeta, we
conclude with a short analysis of the figure of the commander who prepared,
led and went through with that undertaking.
In times of spite and lack of understanding, someone, unfair because
partial denied that Garibaldi possessed the necessary qualities of a command-
er, perhaps because he did not study strategy and tactics and he was not an
expert, a professional, but simply a theorist of the art of war.
Now, apart from the considerations that such a summary criticism inspires,
and that we leave out, since their analysis would take us too far off the subject,
it is however necessary to acknowledge that in the people’s opinion, and not
only in ours, Garibaldi was always the typical cloak-and-dagger hero and that
no one could ever escape the fascination of his legendary stature.
It is well known that in Italy his due has long been recognised, rendering
unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, but those who could still doubt of it could
read the valuable monograph produced by the Historical Office “La cam-
pagna di Garibaldi nell’Italia meridionale” (Garibaldi’s Campaign in
Southern Italy) written by Cesare Cesari with the shrewdness of an histori-
an and the fervour of a soldier.