Page 66 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

64 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

I state it again, between him and his deeds there is the agonizing doubt felt by
all those who aim, for whatever purpose, at a direct hold on mankind and that
feel they have been abandoned by mankind: a dangerous disheartenment, that
just a few could overcome because they had received by Providence an
indomitable spirit able to defeat the dismay of the moment and launch itself
towards a greater destiny. Garibaldi was among these few.
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On the morning of the 7 , at San Fermo, he addressed his soldiers,
reduced to less than 1,500 men, and stated that it would be a cowardly act to
lay down their arms before the enemy. He announced his firm resolution to
continue the war, invited them to follow him but did not hide from them
that they would face dangers, pain, privation, even death, without obtaining
any reward. Then he continued his march, and via Varese and Sesto Calende,
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entered Castelletto Ticino, on Piedmont soil, on the 10 . An Austrian cav-
alry squad followed him closely, and their commander requested a cease-fire.
Garibaldi for the moment made his people honour the cease-fire, but he had
no intention of consenting to it.
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In fact, on August 11 , when he received the news of the Salasco armistice
and its terms and conditions, his indignation broke out in full «for the degrading
conditions of the agreement… It sealed the subjection of the poor Lombardy, and
we that had come to defend it, acclaimed as champions of that wretched people,
did not even unsheathed our sabres for them! There was enough to die of
shame!». He therefore launched that famous proclamation to the Italians that the
Piedmont government believed had been written by Mazzini, for the virulence of
its language and the injustice with which he railed against Carlo Alberto.
It was, on the contrary, the genuine expression of his feelings. The setbacks
of the Sardinian army had surprised him and for them he had grieved, but he
hadn’t become discouraged; on the contrary, they seemed to have infused hope
in his heart, a more absolute certainty, that of a ready and overwhelming
revenge. Now that the armistice had been signed, Garibaldi did not and could
not understand its real political and military causes, and in the bitterness and
indignation of that sudden disappointment, he naturally believed the rumours
of treachery usually used by the crowds to explain and attribute blame for the
unexpected and detrimental setbacks and transformed them into his own
thoughts, and, carried away by his temperament, he publicly, and without
considering what he was saying, hurled his accusations against the King.
But, through these mistakes – contingent mistakes – in evaluating men
and things, his proclamation revealed the fundamental strengths of his