Page 68 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

66 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

indignation aroused by the armistice would cause the people of Piedmont to
rise up in arms again? Or that Austria could consider his rash deed as a provo-
cation and immediately reopen hostilities? In these cases, his warlike action
would be a precious help for the regular army. Or, finally, was he really pushed
by «the long cherished hope to lead his fellow-citizens to that war of armed
bands that, even if they were not an organised army, could nevertheless prelude
the emancipation of the country and promote the arming of the Nation, if the
latter were really resolved and deeply desirous of freeing itself?».
Perhaps all these ideas, all these hopes seethed in his mind, but the pre-
vailing one was the religiously conceived idea of a mass war fought by all
Italians as long as the enemy camped on their soil.
What is sure is that he started a dangerous contest where his very life was
at stake, because if the Austrians had caught him, they wouldn’t have forgiv-
en him and would have hanged him or put him in front of a firing squad. It
was therefore natural, being in this desperate state of mind, that he disobeyed
the King’s government that, on August 16, through the duke of Genoa,
ordered him to obey the armistice and return to Piedmont. He replied that
«he and his comrades could not consent to the peace with the enemy of their
country and that they were willing to continue the war against their common
enemy in Lombardy and wherever it would be more opportune». In fact he
began his war that would end at Morazzone on the evening of August 26.
It is impossible to write a detailed chronicle of that war; Garibaldi himself
remembered those days as confused and turbulent; indeed, his memories
were so indefinite that those days appeared even more confused and turbu-
lent than they really were.
Let us immediately say that from Switzerland the aid promised by Mazzini
did not come, or was very poor; but the desertions started at Como contin-
ued, «encouraged by those very ones that from Lugano had promised us aid
and means! From there I hoped that the young emigrants would rush to join
us and that means would be provided by those who could; not only did no
one come to swell the ranks of our small number, but from there we received
rumours of other undertakings prepared in Mazzini’s headquarters that
caused the desertion among our soldiers...».
The only real precious aid sent by Mazzini was Daverio, who reached
Garibaldi at Castelletto; and he spoke of him in admiration and gratitude.
«In those moments that certainly required a vast knowledge of the country,
our Daverio was of immense value, as if he were another Anziani; native of