Page 64 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

62 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

when, the evening of that same day, he received from the defence committee
the order to rush to Milan and participate in the battle that was supposed to
take place around the city. In fact he wrote to his mother on the morning of
October 4: «Today I will go with 2500 men to Milan, where I believe the King
is with his army. I think that the Germans will not move on and perhaps
Providence has sent them so ahead so that we could get rid of them. God will
protect us and lead us to victory…the people must not be dismayed, they
must not listen to the voice of traitors and cowards. The holy cause of the
Italian people cannot perish». And to his men, with Spartan brevity, he said:
«Legionaries, hear the thunder of the gun; the place in which we find ourselves
is dangerous, we could be cut out, and then the next day holds the promise of
a battlefield worthy of your value. Therefore I ask from you another night of
sacrifice: let us march on. Viva the Italian independence!».
But when, at 10 am, he arrived in Monza, he received the news of the
Piedmontese defeat and capitulation, and pain brought a lump to his throat,
so strong, because so long had he indulged in vain illusions. «I had seen the
Piedmontese army not long before on the Mincio River and my soul had quiv-
ered with pride seeing those beautiful youth anxious to meet their enemy…
Today I have heard that the army had been put to rout without having been
defeated, that they are starving in the rich Lombardy, with Piedmont and
Liguria at their back and with no ammunitions left, with Turin and Milan and
Genoa untouched and a whole nation willing and ready to make all necessary
sacrifices. Yet Italy defeated and in pieces, was falling again into a wilderness!
And there was no one competent to gather them and motivate them as a unit-
ed force against the enemies and the traitors! If kept together and well led, they
would have been sufficient to face all traitors and enemies».
In Garibaldi’s mind, in his simple way of thinking free from the obstacle
of political prejudices, the centralization of authority in the hands of a single
man who, regardless of party divisions, could lead with courage and ability,
was indispensable when the enemy was at the door and internal dangers over-
whelmed them. Hence – whether right or wrong and the thinking did not
change - eleven years later, in the autumn of 1859, he would advocate Victor
Emmanuel’s dictatorship, and tell him that in order to achieve its unity Italy
didn’t need constitutional freedoms but battles.
From Monza he did not march on Milan, to meet the same fate as the
defeated, on the contrary, with a sudden resolution, he headed for Como,
«with the intention of remaining in that alpine town and waiting for events